We last checked in with Jenny Bentley and Jennifer Dewis more than a year ago.
The women share more than first names. They moved to Westport on the same day in 2008. They met while dropping off their 3rd graders at Greens Farms Elementary School.
Both were good at helping friends’ parents downsize their homes. Inevitably, they joined forces. Their business — 2Jens Organizing — thrives. Empty nesters themselves, they fill a great niche: taking the stress out of moving from a large house to a smaller one.
Now they’ve taken on volunteer work, at Homes with Hope’s food pantry and A Better Chance of Westport’s Glendarcy House.
The Jens lend their expertise by helping organize the food — no easy task, with constant donations and an ever-growing line of residents seeking produce, meats, household products and more.
The 2 Jens (center and right), in the well-organized Homes with Hope food pantry.
The ABC home — where students from underserved communities live, eat and study, while attending Staples — also benefits from the women’s talents. Last summer, they helped make a home away from home for the teenagers.
High schoolers and food-insecure people offer a break from other clients.
Those include older residents. The 2 Jens have developed an expertise helping seniors downsize.
When they began, the women did not realize there was such a need for that service.
But as they worked with seniors who are downsizing or moving into assisted living, they discovered how daunting and emotionally loaded the task is.
Packing and organizing boxes can be physically — and emotionally — difficult.
Because health issues often trigger a downsize, some clients are physically not up to the task.
Often too family members are not available, because of time or distance constraints.
Well-meaning adult children who are around cannot always help, either. They can even hurt the process. They’re too close to the situation.
But the organizers work closely with family — remotely, if necessary — and are sensitive to the emotional roller coaster of going through the contents of a home with a lifetime of memorabilia.
Jenny Bentley (left) and Jennifer Dewis.
Their goal is to make what can be a fraught and overwhelming process as smooth as possible.
The 2 Jens help sort through a home’s contents, providing objectives eyes. And years of experience helping folks make plans, then carrying them out. (The plans, not the clients.)
They work together to decide what to keep, sell or donate. They bring small items to Goodwill, and call auction houses.
They organize the movers, including unpacking and setting up the new home — even hanging art on the walls.
“A lot of this is intuitive. We’re very good listeners,” Jenny says. “We consult. We advise. But we’re very respectful of people’s wishes.”
A new room.
The women know it can be hard to part with memorabilia. Gently, they help sort through it. if there are 75 pieces of artwork from elementary school, perhaps 10 are enough to keep?
Much of that memorabilia is all over the place: refrigerators, mantels, basements, attics. The Jens are geniuses at sorting it, putting it in bins, and labeling it.
Moving can be a fraught experience. Clients invite Jenny and Jennifer into their personal space. But they don’t want to feel criticized or judged.
“Whatever works for them is fine,” Jenny says. She leaves out the second part: Even if we don’t like it ourselves.
What they do is largely “problem-solving,” she adds. “We have independent eyes, we come up with a game plan, we communicate it with them, and then we work on the timing of everything.”
Once a client has moved into a new home, the Jens are there. They organize, say, a kitchen. They bring their expertise, but stop often to ask: Does this work for you?
Garage, before and after the 2 Jens went to work.
They also continue to work with clients needing more typical help. This time of year — when it’s cold outside, and the excitement of the holidays has worn off — is a good time to purge closets or tackle messy rooms, they say.
The women’s expertise comes from their own lives. Both have moved often. They’ve set up their own homes, and helped their 6 children (combined) move into new bedrooms, dorm rooms and apartments.
The women charge by the hour. Clients can stop the clock any time, and not feel locked into a contract.
However, Jenny notes, “jobs tend to get bigger as we go. Once we get started, people realize they need more things done.”
De-cluttering is never easy. There’s a lot of stuff in those closets, basements and attics.
The 2 Jens help make sense — and well-organized, clearly labeled bins — of it.
Just ask Homes with Hope, and A Better Chance of Westport.
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