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EMILY PATRICK
JULIA MARLOWE. PROFESSIONAL ORGANIZER
Julia Marlowe thought she would always be a professor in
UGA's consumer economics department, but when her grand
children were born, she realized she wanted a more flexible
schedule so that she could visit them. Through research and
planning, she carved out a career for herself as one of Athens'
two professional organizers. Not only does she arrange fur
niture and design storage options, she also helps with her
clients' finances and records and resolves conflicts between
spouses with different organizational styles.
When Julia isn't working, she might be playing tennis,
scrapbooking, publishing organizing tips on her website
or traveling the world. She has lived in Texas, New Mexico,
Tennessee, Virginia and Lesotho in Africa, and she recently
traveled to Churchill, Manitoba, to see polar bears and to
England to visit friends and family. Julia is also a member of
the Athens-Clarke County Community Tree Council.
undergraduate degree was in home economics education, and
my specialty within that was home management, so it's really
like going back to my home management roots to be a profes
sional organizer, and I do feel like my formal training has given
me a lot of skills that I use in my current profession.
FP: What was your experience with the home economics
major like? That's kind of a controversial degree. I don't suppose
it's still offered?
JM: That's true. They don't. They do still offer family and
consumer sciences education, and it's run through the col
lege of education here at Georgia, and the students take some
classes in the various areas of family and consumer sciences,
but there's not a huge demand for that in the public schools
like there used to be. However, some of the specialties are still
offered. You know, it's not cooking and sewing and cleaning
anymore.
Flagpole: How did you become a professional organizer?
Julia Marlowe: Well, I was a professor at the university,
and I loved my job, and I had thought that I would probably
work at the university until I was 70. And then my husband
FP: What else do you like to do besides organizing?
JM: Well, I do scrapbooks. That's my inside hobby, and so,
today being a rainy day, I did a little of that riiis morning, and
that's fun to do. I started doing those when I was in
second grade... It's pretty, you know, basic—not very
good. I have one I did in high school. I have one I did
my first year in college, and then I just did some photo
albums. But I did—my husband had a Fulbright to go to
Lesotho in southern Africa one year, and our two young
est sons were with us that year. The three older ones
were in college. So, the two younger ones went with us,
and they went to school in Africa, and I did a scrapbook '
that year. And then, it wasn't until '97 that I started
doing them pretty intensely.
FP: So, you lived in Africa for a year?
JM: Just a year. My husband was teaching at a uni
versity over there.
retired, and we have grandchildren, and I was envious that
I couldn't go see the grandchildren or take cate of them and
was tied to a schedule. So, I started thinking, "All right, I like
this job, but what else could I do that would give me a flex
ible schedule?" And somebody from out of town said, "Oh,
I just had to hire a professional organizer..." And everyone
had always told me that I'm really organized ever since I was
really little, you know, and I loved organizing. So, I started
doing some research, and I found the National Organization
of Professional Organizers, and I saw that they had a Georgia
chapter... I started researching it, and I worked on a website,
and I did things so that when I retired, I would be ready to go.
And I retired January of '07, so I've been retired for four full
years, almost five.
FP: So, what had you been teaching?
JM: I was teaching consumer economics and family resource
management.
FP: That’s not too much of a jump, then.
JM: No, it's actually not a jump at all, because a lot of peo
ple hire me to work on their home offices and financial records,
and "What should I keep?" and that sort of thing in respect
to their paperwork, so that's real closely associated. And my
FP: Did living in Africa change your perspective on liv
ing in America?
JM: I'm sure it must have changed me a little b , just
the idea of living abroad. It actually has given me some
insights that help me as an organizer, because when we
lived in Lesotho, we hired a housekeeper. Any ex-patriot
working there is kind of expected to hire a housekeeper,
because it creates a job... The interesting thing about
that is that these housekeepers would ride the little taxi to
work, because nobody had cars—at least, very few people had
cars. And they would dress up like they're going to a corpora
tion to work. And when they got to the place, they would take
their clothes off and put on a white housecoat... and when
they got ready to leave, they'd put their nice clothes on to go
home. And they were so proud that they had a job. And it's
considered a good job. For one thing, you had to speak good
English to work for an English-speaking ex-patriot, and I'll tell
you, the one we hired was just excellent. She was fabulous. So
anyway, the way it helps with organizing today is that I have
clients who are afraid to get rid of things or they're sentimen
tally attached to them... They'll say, "Well, these suits cost a
lot. I don't want to just give them away and have them wind
up with just anybody." One person even said to me, "The things
that don't sell down at the Salvation Army, they just ship them
to Africa," like that was a bad thing, like they didn't want
their clothes to end up in Africa. And I said, "You have no idea
how much pleasure and prestige it may bring to somebody in
Africa who could buy this suit." So, I've seen that happen. I've
seen people who actually appreciate things that someone here
wouldn't think they would. So, that's helped a little.
Emily Patrick
FP: Was that your first time living out of the country?
JM: Yes.
FP: What was that experience like?
JM: It was very good. Very, very positive. Lesotho's
a nice place. It looks a lot like New Mexico, so it's very
dry, and it's very high elevation. The people were all very
nice. It's all one tribe, so they don't have any ethnic
disagreements.
I www.georgiatheatre.com I
215 North Lumpkin St. * Athens, GA
18 & over / ID reqd. Tickets available online and at Georgia Theatre Box Office
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 14
40 WATT AND GEORGIA THEATRE PRESENT
ROBERT RANDOLPH
AND THE FAMILY BAND
with PON DEROSA
DOORS 8:00 • SHOW 9:00
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 15 |
COREY SMITH
with AMERICAN AQUARIUM
DOORS 8:00 • SHOW 9:00
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 16 ^
BUCKETHEAD
with LYNX V,£
DOORS 8:00 • SHOW 9:00 I
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 17
MATT KEARNEY
with LEAGUES
DOORS 8:00-SHOW 9:00
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22
Z006MA AND ARCHNEMISIS
with WICK-IT
DOORS 8:00 • SHOW 9:00
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 23
PIGS ON THE WING-"PINK FLOYD TRIBUTE"
DOORS 8:00 • SHOW 9:00
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 24
ZED'S DEAD with LIVING EXPERIENCE, D:RC, TROGDOR DC
DOORS 8:00 • SHOW 9:00
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SEPTEMBER 14,2011 • FLAGPOLE.COM 31
