About Beth &
The Story of 'Brambly Thicket'
I grew up in a beautiful old farmhouse in northern Michigan, surrounded by fruit trees—cherries, pears, apples, plums, and a hillside covered in concord grapes and wild roses. There was an old barn on the property that housed a horse drawn carriage and a beautiful black one-horse open sleigh. My childhood winters were spent sailing through the deep snow on this amazing sleigh pulled by our gray mare with jingle bells on her harness.
In the summers, we cultivated a large vegetable garden, which yielded a plethora of fresh fruits and vegetables.
I spent hours walking through the orchards and woods in the spring, mushrooming and collecting wild leeks amid smells of clean, damp earth. Summers were spent berry picking (and baking pies!) and swimming in Lake Michigan. Winters were also enchanting, with pristine fields covered in deep snow reflecting amazing orange and purple sunsets. There were traces of former farms and pioneer life everywhere and many times I would come across old fencing and piles of stones that were once part of a family farm.
After college I headed to the big city with a country heart. My husband and I raised four children in a northern suburb of Detroit. I shared my love of the country with my children through picture books, family dinners, baking, and building gardens created for bare feet with magical pathways for my children to roam. My home was always warm and welcoming. With four kids it may not have been uncluttered all the time, but it was always clean and pretty. Living in the suburbs was not the same as living in the country but I created a home that felt like the home I grew up in. Not because it looked like a farmhouse, but because it was filled with all the things that make a home special.
After a successful marketing career, I formed my home organization consulting company, Brambly Thicket and wrote my first book, Clean Home in 7 Days (ebook coming soon).
As a young girl, I would spend hours filling pails with boysenberries and baking them into pies. The hill was a massive “brambly thicket” of berries and thorny canes. I thought—a messy house can be like that too—so covered in clutter and dirt and yet underneath it all is a beautiful, fresh, earthy, grounding place you can feel and smell.
BRAMBLY THICKET
How I came up with the name
What makes my cleaning and organizing
METHODS DIFFERENT?
Brambly Thicket's Clean House in Seven Days is not just about cleaning. It’s about living. Home is the heart of the family and should be a place where one feels grounded, not surrounded.
My Brambly Thicket cleaning methods will show you HOW to clean—quickly and efficiently and can be customized to fit your home and lifestyle. You will have more time in your day to do all the other things you want to do AND your house will SMELL and FEEL clean too!
Throughout my website, you’ll also find creative decorating ideas, home organization tips, solutions and seasonal ideas that celebrate every month of the year and make a house a home.
After you’ve completed the Brambly Thicket Clean Home in 7 Days method, enjoy your clean home! Bake muffins in your warm airy kitchen. Take off your shoes and walk on your lawn with bare feet. Plant a small garden. Make a maze in the snow and watch your kids run through it. Have a cup of tea or coffee in a special room or on the porch and watch the sun rise. Enjoy the clean smells both indoors and out. It’s the Brambly Thicket way of life. That’s what clean living is.