An Influencer’s Essex County Home Gets Organized for Work and Play

Practicality — not perfection — is the order of the day.

Working from home has its advantages, but working from home when that residence is on full display to an audience of over 1 million people can present some challenges. When Rachel Mansfield and her family moved into their new home, she wanted to be sure the spaces met her aesthetic and organizational needs, both personally and professionally. Mansfield is a digital creator and Today Show regular whose account, @rachlmansfield, inspires followers to create delicious meals for their families. Because she often films in her home, tidiness, order and efficiency were very important.

Content creator Rachel Mansfield in her pantry. Organizing pro Ashley La Fond says, “Rachel had a clear vision of how she wanted things to look from an aesthetic perspective. She did the styling while we focused on the functionality, where things should go inside drawers and how to make best use of the space.”

Mansfield turned to Ashley La Fond (@ofspaceandmind), founder of Chatham-based home organization firm Of Space & Mind, to create organizational systems that would facilitate and enhance her career and her family life. “This was a different type of project,” La Fond says. “Rachel built this home and anticipated a lot of her own needs. We helped set up new systems and worked with the family to determine the best places for items.”

Kitchen Considerations

Mansfield’s kitchen is casual and cozy — and outfitted with lots of storage to accommodate the many tools of her trade. “I consider myself to be a minimalist but things can get over the top.” La Fond says, “When it comes to organizational products, we take cues from the aesthetic of the rest of the space as far as colors, materials, shape, size.”

Given her profession, the kitchen was a priority for Mansfield, and maximizing storage was top of mind. “I have more kitchen equipment than most people because I am always trying new things for my job,” she explains. Much of that equipment is kept in the pantry, which La Fond organized to work specifically for this family of five. “We optimized a few things: one was grab-and-go snacks, which put in the lower drawers to be accessible for the kids.”

“Food is Rachel’s world,” La Fond says. “She cooks and creates recipes for a living. This is not just a normal family fridge. She works with a lot of brands that send her product at volume. Our goal was to use every inch of space in a way that keeps everything visible.”

For the grownups, La Fond created a system that’s both supremely workable and aesthetically appealing. “Rachel does a lot of baking, so the baking zone is a large section. We decanted all of the flours, sugar, nuts — the things she’s reaching for on a regular basis.” Mansfield is pleased with the look. “I love decanting all my baking and cooking ingredients into glass jars. It makes it easier to see what I have and makes the space less cluttered.”

The backstock closet stores the pantry overflow. “We find that when people move to the suburbs from a city apartment, as Rachel did, they begin stocking things at much more volume than they used to,” La Fond says.

Mansfield is less fond of using ID tags on jars or bins. “I don’t like labels,” she says, indicating they limit flexibility. “I could label a bin ‘chips,’ and then I might want to replace that with pretzels. I wanted the system to be adaptable.”

Glass jars allow for easy identification of contents, as do wood bins that hold packaged foods. And both are visually appealing against the deep blue pantry shelving. La Fond says, “We used glass-and wood-based organizers on the display shelves to tie in with the aesthetic that Rachel had built.”

That aesthetic is warm, casual and clean, yet family friendly. As a mom, Mansfield understands that organization is one thing; perfectionism, quite another. That’s evidenced in how she describes a less-than-orderly drawer refrigerator in the pantry that’s used for overflow from the main fridge. “I am not opening that drawer,” she says laughing. “Everything has a place, but it’s not meticulous. Lived-in is important.”

Playroom Pointers

“The cube system can be super durable,” La Fond says of the cubbies in the basement playroom. “We often add clear bins for heavier toys. They work because you can see what’s in them, which is great for young kids. If storage needs change, bins can be removed. It’s a great solution for rotating toys.”

One of the more lived-in spaces is the basement, which was transformed into a playroom for Mansfield’s boys. “When we design a space for kids, we think about durability, accessibility and making it look and feel fun without making it too precious,” La Fond says.

It’s also important that the space accommodate children as they age, La Fond says. “Because we know that kids change, we don’t want to feel too locked into a specific theme. We think longer term — fun but not too elementary.” To create a system uniquely suited to this family, La Fond worked with the kids’ favorite pursuits. “We look at the inventory and interests. In this case, one child loves playing with LEGOS. We made a custom LEGO^® table. He can use that as a dedicated space that’s off the floor and perhaps a little more protected from his brothers.”

“We wanted to bring some color into the playroom space. We wanted it to feel playful,” La Fond says. “We decided to use the ceiling as an opportunity. And that left the walls for us to feature the kids’ artwork. It was a fun, inexpensive way to bring in more color and has the dual effect of showcasing the children’s work.”

Cubbies along one wall keep larger toys visible. A row of bins along another wall wrangles multipiece toys like action figures or blocks. “They can be used to store anything. They’re very flexible,” La Fond notes. They can also facilitate kids’ cleanup. Mansfield says, “Everything is easy for the kids to understand, which I think is the most important. When I ask my kids to clean, they do it. In fact, if I put a Hot Wheels car in the wrong bin, they’ll tell me. They know where it’s supposed to go. And the shelves and cubbies can be used for other things. Ashley arranged it so the system will evolve with us.”

La Fond credits Mansfield’s expertise and preparation for allowing the project to run as smoothly as it did. “She was a unique client because this was her world, so she was more involved than other clients might be.”

La Fond recommends taking games and puzzles out of their boxes. “Packaging can be bulky. Mesh bags are a good way to contain pieces and to store more in a basket or bin or on a shelf. They take up less space. Kids can take the whole bag and play and then it gets tucked away.”

Mansfield hopes her home will inspire her followers to create organized spaces that work for them. “I’m a mom of three. I run three businesses. This home is organized, but it is lived in. I want my community to take the things that Ashley did and relate them to their lives.”