About Us

We (Donna and Rhonda) met in 1997 at Living Water Fellowship in New Hamburg.

In November 2003, we started meeting together in a mentoring relationship. With me 10 years younger than Donna, it seemed like a natural way to extend our friendship as we met and shared what was happening in our lives and encouraged each other. 

Soon after starting to meet on a regular basis, we decided to work through the book “The Purpose Driven Life” by Rick Warren. This book is intended to be a 40 Day Journey towards learning about God’s purpose for our life.

Shortly after we started meeting together, we had the opportunity to hear a Professional Organizer speak at a group we both belonged to. We were very excited to hear more about the profession. I was SO excited that I couldn’t sleep the night before and was the first one to arrive at the meeting. After hearing Professional Organizer Dawn Elliott speak at that meeting, both of us realized that she was just an ordinary woman like us… if she could do this and make a living at it, why couldn’t we? Just as God had blessed Dawn with the gift of organization, we realized that day that we too had been blessed with the same gift.

This whole ‘hatching’ process happened over a very short period of time… keep in mind that we were still working our way through the ‘Purpose Driven Life’.  By the time we had finished that book we knew what our purpose in life was… and our mission statement for our new business became easy to formulate.

           Heart of the Matter strives to equip and mentor individuals to get their space in order, so that they have the time and energy to fulfill their purpose in life.

Our tagline followed along at some point thereafter…

          In order….. to live a life of purpose.

Donna and I started meeting together in January 2004. In April 2004, we officially decided we would start this business together. Heart of the Matter’s first paying client came in June 2004. On July 2, 2004, we registered our business partnership under the name Heart of the Matter, Creative Organizing Solutions.

One of the things we did early in the process of starting this business was get together a wonderful group of four women known as our Prayer Support Team. We want to be faithful as we build Heart of the Matter, and prayer has been foundational!

Something we have committed to do is share our gifts with those who aren’t able to afford our services. We do this on a regular basis with several hours given here and there, but we also organize ‘Clean Sweep’ events. For a Clean Sweep, we get together a team of volunteers (often including a handyman) and go into a home and do an organizing “extreme makeover” at no charge to the client. We pray and ask God to bring to us the situations where He wants to use us to make a difference.

In May of 2010, we were approached by the owner of Senior’s Move and were asked if we were interested in purchasing this established business. After prayer and consideration, we sensed that this was a positive direction for us to take.  Effective September 1, 2010, we hired 4 more employees and as a team took on the challenge of finding our way in this new business.

We ran Heart of the Matter and Senior’s Move businesses side by side for 11 wonderful years. Our team worked as organizers for both businesses and we met a lot of incredible clients through those years.  

In 2021, during our Covid lockdown, Donna and her husband Murray decided that they wanted to move closer to their daughter and son-in-law who live in Ottawa.

Donna decided that she was ready to retire and enjoy a new season in her life.

Through a lot of prayer and contemplation, we decided to sell Senior’s Move and I decided to continue running Heart of the Matter on my own. We sold Senior’s Move to a wonderful Christian couple who continue the business with our same philosophy and care for our clients. A lot of our staff shifted with this business and continue to serve with this thriving business.

As of April 2022, I have continued on with Heart of the Matter as a sole proprietor. I miss my business buddy and friend, but she continues to be a cheerleader from afar. I continue to have a wonderful team of ladies who enjoy caring for and serving others like I do!

As we go about our daily work we are humbled by the lives that we are able to touch.  Every client is a treasure and we truly enjoy our work days!

Heart of the Matter is truly God’s ‘Work in Progress’