Melissa White has been a fighter through everything she’s faced, and yet she walks away at the end of the day with a smile and a barrel laugh.

Now that many of the battles that piled on her shoulders have been fought, she’s making it her mission to attack the piles of things that have cluttered her home.

“When you’re in the fight or flight mode, you take care of what you can,” White said. “I tend to take care of everyone else first. I said, ‘I have to get my life organized. I had to get out from under this blanket of stuff.”

White is de-cluttering her life, from the knic-knacs that stocked her shelves to a mattress that stood in her dining room, but it’s really about changing her lifestyle.

These things that she is donating to charities and recycling are just things. According to her coach, Jane Carroo, a certified professional organizer of Clutter Coach Company, White is clearing her mind.

“I just knew this was the lady who needed to have the path cleared for her life,” Carroo said.

Over the spring, White cared for her beloved 96-year-old grandmother who suffered with dementia until her death. White inherited many of her grandmother’s things.

Throughout all of her battles, running from school to school teaching the hearing impaired, volunteering her time and helping others, White’s home became a place to drop her things and sleep.

The things piled up, the kitchen counter disappeared beneath piles of dishes and papers, clothes were never given away and an inherited bedroom set took over a dining room.

Justin, now 19-years-old, was too embarrassed to have friends visit the house.

White mentioned how a goal of hers was to de-clutter her life at a Healing Hearts support group meeting, and a participant recommended her to call the Clutter Coach Company.

After talking with Carroo, in the style of many home makeover shows, the coach showed up to White’s home with a team of professional organizers. They worked with White on what to keep, donate and throw away.

Carroo said houses like White’s are common of people who wear many hats.

“People who have many interests tend to have clutter,” Carroo said. “We all need help. We all get a flat tire every now and then.”

Three days, four vans and four SUVS full of items to donate, and 45 bags of trash and recycle, White’s home began to surface. Reusable items went to WINGS resale shops, which benefit the non-profit that works to end domestic violence and homelessness. Books and recyclables went to School and Community Assistance for Recycling and Composting Education of DuPage County.

Today, the Schaumburg home is an inviting townhouse donning Americana décor and antique furniture, utilizing White’s favorite keepsakes, but it was a long road to get there.

When White called Carroo about assistance in organizing her life, Carroo, took on the job pro-bono because White’s story deeply touched her.

White was born in Texas, but moved around with her family through her father’s job transfers to Champagne, Georgia and back to Illinois, where she graduated high school at Wheaton North.
After she graduated from college at Southern Illinois University to become a teacher for the hearing impaired, White’s life took some hard turns.

She was married and had a son, Justin. Her husband left her just before Justin was two years old.

Three years later, White remarried, but two months into her marriage, she realized she was in a sexually abusive relationship. She left her home, her job as a teacher, and spent a year with her son being homeless, trying to find stable ground. She floated between friends and family until she found a job with the Low Incidence Cooperative Agreement in Mt. Prospect, where she’s been for 13 years.

She and Justin moved to an apartment in Palatine. They entered counseling and White joined a support group at Healing Hearts at Willow Creek to gain strength from dealing with abuse. She later became a support group facilitator at Healing Hearts, helping women in all stages of sexual abuse.

She spends her days in the school year driving between six school districts in the northwest suburbs, teaching 21 hearing impaired students.

Lunch is always on the road and conference calls with parents and teachers take up her commutes.

“Just knowing that you’re not alone means so much because you feel so damaged,” White said. “To be a good leader, you have to be willing to share from your experiences . . . I was abused. I was beaten. I was depressed. Now I’m able to help people going through some of the same things I went through.”

But life’s hardships struck White again—this time with health problems. She was diagnosed with fibromialga in 2001 and breast cancer in 2004.

Because of the high costs of her medical bills, White was late on a mortgage payment by one month.

She recouped the costs almost immediately, but her Countrywide Financial started the foreclosure process.

Once again, White stood up, fought and was able to keep her home and beat breast cancer. She joined up with Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan last year and became a spokesperson for Madigan’s campaign in suing Countrywide Financial over lending practices.

“I don’t play the victim. I won’t play the victim,” White said. “There’s a time to get your big girl pants on and pick yourself up by your bootstraps.”

Now that White climbed all of her physical and mental mountains of late, Carroo’s clutter coaching turned White’s home into a place where she can enjoy her life and relax.

White hosted her parents for a weekend for the first time in five years and Justin has had three friends visit.

“It’s helped me to have a place I can let down and relax and allow me to have a sense of completing something for myself,” White said.

—Story and photo Amy Alderman, Triblocal.com reporter

For before and after photos, click here.