Nationally renowned professional organizer and custom-closet designer Amanda LeBlanc has worn many hats over the years — from entrepreneur to TV star — and now she finally is hanging up these hats in her new and improved custom closet and organizing store. Her company, The Amandas, is making its home in the heart of Homewood at 2822 18th St. S., this month and the organizing team couldn’t be happier with the new showroom.
The Amandas have worked out of a retail space in the past but this new space is designed specifically with both current and future clients in mind. The space will offer a custom design center specializing in design and installation of one-of-a-kind organizational pieces, as well as in overall home planning. As a member of the National Association of Professional Organizers with 13 years of experience under her belt, Amanda plans to offer additional organization programming where people can come to be educated about the organizational process. “This space is the next step in my plans for this business,” Amanda says. “I knew that, at some point, I wanted a design center like this for clients to get a full-service experience in every step of organizing their lives.”
While much of The Amandas’ clientele resides in Birmingham, Amanda and her phenomenal team have organized their way through Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Tennessee and Florida — in just this year alone — not to mention her projects from Saudi Arabia and South Africa to New York and Los Angeles. But she always will have a soft spot for her home base in the Magic City.
“Birmingham is such a great geographical place for businesses to grow because of its close proximity to so many great cities,” Amanda says. “But Birmingham itself has some of the best clients. The people of Birmingham have been so encouraging and supportive of us. I can’t imagine being anywhere else.”
Amanda’s passion for organizing began as a child and has flourished into a way of life, as she has spent more than a decade customizing closets, working with architects to create functional homes and consulting with businesses to help them become more organized and efficient. But Amanda’s professional journey to become Birmingham’s preeminent professional organizer and custom closet designer wasn’t always as streamlined as her perfectly organized closets.
Amanda and her family moved to Birmingham from a New Orleans suburb after losing their home to Hurricane Katrina. Once Amanda got back on her feet and got her business back up and running, she wasted no time in giving back to the community that embraced her and her family. She donates her expertise and countless hours to Habitat for Humanity, as well as other local organizations.
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Aside from her charitable outreach, Amanda works tirelessly to build her business, contributing to various local media outlets, such as B-Metro magazine and Fox’s “Good Day Alabama.” The Amandas also have a presence in the reality television arena with their Style Network show, “The Amandas.” While it only ran for one season, national media outlets — from “The Today Show” to Better Homes and Gardens — continue to feature Amanda for her one-of-a-kind expertise. And although Amanda has worked on hundreds of projects over the years, she definitely has her favorites.
“In the home, I love a pantry,” Amanda said. “I get so excited to set up a pantry with all of its canisters and bins. The food is colorful and it always looks so pretty! Outside of that, working with businesses and helping with time management is my favorite.”
But if you ask Amanda her favorite project, she looks back on all of them fondly for different reasons. From beach homes in Florida to farmhouses in Tennessee and everything in between, Amanda finds joy and purpose in making her clients’ homes a haven.
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“What we do is intimate and personal and the relationships we build are so special to me,” Amanda shares. “There are many of these clients who have changed my life forever and for the better. I have clients that I have been working with since I first started in 2003. I am so blessed that as different things come up in their lives, they come back to us and ask us to be a part of it.”
The Amandas have created quite a name for themselves and Amanda’s wish is to keep organizing and consulting for as long as she can.
“Each day, I pray that I get to do this one more day and then I give thanks at the end of the day that God has allowed me to do it,” Amanda says. “No matter what happens in the future, I will forever be grateful for this business and the many blessings it has brought to my and my family’s lives. We laugh, we cry and we get to change people’s lives. It doesn’t get much better than that.”
The Amandas‘ showroom is located in Homewood at 2822 18th St. S., Birmingham, AL 35209. Hours are Monday through Friday, 10 a.m to 5 p.m.; Saturdays, by appointment only. For more information, call (205) 970-1087 or visit theamandas.com.
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