Conversations with the Inspiring Grace McClain

Today we’d like to introduce you to Grace McClain.

So, before we jump into specific questions about what you do, why don’t you give us some details about you and your story.
A few years ago, I made the somewhat reluctant connection that my Fast Fashion shopping addiction was having a negative impact on my wallet, cluttering my space and wasn’t supporting a future that I truly believed in.
This all came together around the time of the inaugural Women’s March. While I did participate in the march and had a great time doing so, I had this looming feeling that marching alone wasn’t enough. Additionally, I was burning myself out, and those that still followed me on social media, with all of my thoughts, theories and reposts. So, I decided to switch from looking outward at others and the state of the world to an inward focus on my individual actions. I started to ask myself where I could take back some control in my life. I began to look at my personal impact on a microscopic level. What are the consequences and implications of my actions? What is the true cost of the clothes that I buy and wear?

Through some research into the eco-ethical fashion revolution, I figured out that I could invest in the type of future and change that I really believed in by only buying from brands whose missions were greater than selling for profit. I first made a pact to only purchase clothing from brands who I could trust, who took their environmental outputs into account and who employed fairly treated and paid workers.

Now, that I was quite literally psycho-analyzing every purchasing decision before making it, I realized two things. This takes work AND perhaps I didn’t need so much!?!

From here, I began to explore minimal living and employing a capsule wardrobe, which I now lovingly refer to as the gateway drug, because it quickly escalated into my husband’s and my ongoing attempt at zero-waste living. Read: we are in no way close to a mason jar of trash but we did cancel our trash hauling service because we produce less than a chip bag’s worth of trash each week and prefer to sort and take our recycling to the Timberline Recycling Center every other month or so.

My mom, Jenny, who has a background in business process optimization & organizational design and who was simultaneously making her own sustainable habit shifts, pointed out that in order to effectively implement a climate-minded lifestyle you need a bit of organization to get started. This was the spark for hygge | HABIT. A mother-daughter duo combining our learnings around what it takes to lead a sustainable lifestyle, experience in organizational design and a passion for the coziness found in decluttered, minimal spaces. Today we run a business to help people get organized by consciously looking at their routines and decluttering the unessential so that they can adopt more peaceful habits for their home and our shared environment.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc. – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
It’s never happened as I would have planned or expected but it always, somehow, works out. Even the things that go differently than hoped for, most always happen for the better and I end up grateful that my initial ideas didn’t pan out.

For me, the biggest struggle has been patience. I am someone who wants it all and I want it all now. When you are building a unique business there isn’t a map to follow and the reality is you end up lost or down distracting rabbit holes. I am a few years out from where I wanted to be at this point but I am learning to be content in the process and not solely focused on the destination.

My biggest piece of advice is NOT to listen to others! Starting anything, but especially a mission-driven business is an incredibly vulnerable thing to do. You are so passionate and you just want everyone to be as excited as you are, but the reality is that they won’t all be. Find a few key people who you trust, and be ok keeping somethings close to you so that harsh (and sometimes false) criticism of it doesn’t knock you off course. It’s a lot easier for people to shoot down something they haven’t seen yet, so don’t give them the opportunity. Trust your intuition, your gut, that quiet little voice. The world wants (and needs) to hear & see you bring that vision to life, even though they don’t always act like it.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into hygge | HABIT story. Tell us more about it.
There isn’t a category of business for what we do… yet. The closest thing that comes up is either ‘Home Organizing’ or the ever so vague, ‘Consulting.’ While we offer a little of both, we are so much more.

At hygge | HABIT, we help people declutter & redesign their space & their stuff so that they can shift to a more minimal, or even, zero-waste lifestyle.

For us, clutter is personal and to be taken seriously. Excess stuff has compounding negative effects on one’s self-esteem, decision-making abilities, productivity and creativity. And the process of amassing that much, in the first place, has a harrowing effect on our warming climate.

We’re all connected and our consumption habits matter. By clearing the clutter, adding whitespace and restructuring flow, we motivate people to bring positive change to the places they live, work and play. This is our answer to climate change. Rather than burying our heads in the sand and hoping that politicians will fix this for us, we are proud to be helping create meaningful change on an individual level.

Together via our consultative approach, we will get to the bottom of where our clients’ biggest outputs are, be it takeout boxes or impulse amazon orders and work to strategically reengineer processes for a lighter footprint. They come away with tangible steps that they can take to minimize their impact, our services include:
– Declutter & Redesign Consulting
– Circular Purchasing & Down-cycling; everything from food at local grocery stores to clothing & home goods via online marketplaces & more
– Lifecycle Extension & Laundry Hacks
– Conscious Clothing & Gear Options
– Single-use plastic alternatives in your kitchen or bathroom
– Sphere of Social Influence
– Travel Lighter and Carbon Offsetting
– Bespoke Strategy – leverage our network & archives for a custom plan
We offer our services in a variety of price & timing packages to ensure that we are accessible to everyone who wants to make a difference in a way that is comfortable for them.

For good reason, society often focuses more on the problems rather than the opportunities that exist, because the problems need to be solved. However, we’d probably also benefit from looking for and recognizing the opportunities that women are better positioned to capitalize on. Have you discovered such opportunities?
Oh my goodness, what aren’t women well positioned for?!? First of all, I know that as a collective, we women have so much power and potential that is yet to be unleashed. And I am personally so excited to live in a time where women are disrupting so many traditional societal norms and structures.

As far as particular industry sectors, we are clearly very keen on sustainability and climate change. There are so many business models that we have yet to see take-off to address our current challenges in this realm. The truth is there are alternative + renewable solutions for everything that petroleum/ plastic offers us today. They just aren’t fully baked and/or mainstream yet. The green movement is here, it’s ready to boom, it’s ready to make big money for those who dare to challenge the norm.

Green business is good business, we know this by seeing countless testimonials from founders and CEOs of mission-driven businesses, such as Patagonia, who are more profitable because they are choosing to do the right thing. And for the first time ever, consumers are demanding that brands stand for more than shareholder profits AND they are willing to pay more for it.

Every sector is ready to be disrupted by a more sustainable approach which will take creativity and gumption. Some of the early things we are seeing include governmental models of circular economies being tried and tweaked in Europe that are waiting to be expanded to more cities, states, and nations. Impact investment is blossoming, regenerative organic farming for textiles is here, bio-regionally adapted agriculture is growing to offer more local food options and so much more. It’s truly the only way of the future and who better to lead mother earth minded businesses, than women?

Pricing:

• We offer a FREE 30 minute consultation before we get started to confirm we are are a good fit for one another. You can schedule right from our website for a time that works for you.
• Looking for a mix of micro & macro habit shifts that you can start making today, we recommend our Lighter Footprint Consult ($145)
• If you are ready to spend the better part of a day getting to the bottom of the clutter in a particular space in your home, be it your closet, kitchen, etc- we would love to get started with our Declutter & Redesign Package ($450)
• For those of you entrepreneurs with an office that needs some more organization, flow and/or a sustainability plan, we offer our Workspace Rework Package ($800)
• And stay tuned for The Wardrobe Workshop which is coming soon to local venues in Fort Collins and Denver! More details on our website.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.hyggehabit.com
• Email: Grace@hyggehabit.com
• Instagram: @hyggeHABIT

Image Credit:
Penny Malsch

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