Kat Duncan Campbell discovered her entrepreneurial calling the old-fashioned way. She took a personality test.
No-nonsense, yet caring. She is introspective and has sky-high standards. She’s also aware of her flaws but doesn’t allow them to overshadow her work.
After all that data were crunched, the results recommended careers in home organization or in-home services. The fit sounded great.
“I’ve always been organized,” says Campbell AB ’14. “I always was the one rearranging my room growing up. Everything had a place. My three-ring binder had the dividers. That’s just who I am.
“But I had no clue that was something you could get paid to do.”
That’s the origin story of UpTown Concierge, the home organization and house management company Campbell founded 10 years ago. She runs the business out of her home in Newnan, but her staff spend most of their time in the homes of others, transforming them from labyrinths of chaos into oases of peace.
“When you walk into your house and there is just stuff everywhere, your brain struggles to focus on one thing,” Campbell says. “There are real benefits to having a tidy, organized space. Yes, we want rooms to look pretty, but the most important thing is to create functional spaces where you can thrive.”
Campbell’s vocation is a far cry from where she started, but there is a chartable path. A classically trained singer, Campbell majored in vocal performance at UGA. She moved to New York right after graduation to explore musical theater but realized quickly that a career on the boards wasn’t what she wanted.
However, the confidence, poise, and personal presentation skills that she acquired on stage served her well when she returned to Georgia to launch what became UpTown Concierge.
There are real benefits to having a tidy, organized space. Yes, we want rooms to look pretty, but the most important thing is to create functional spaces where you can thrive.” — Kat Duncan Campbell, founder of UpTown Concierge
To get started, she joined several neighborhood Facebook groups, ranging geographically from Buckhead into Atlanta’s suburbs. Interest spiked immediately, though the work was rather broad. Campbell planned kids’ birthday parties, unpacked recently moved families, helped with laundry, and reorganized homes.
Very soon, she was logging 80-hour work weeks. She hired her first employee 10 months in. Her company now employs a dozen. Within a year, she’d focused her work on home organization and house management.
Home organization is a highly personal thing—we don’t open our sock drawers to just anyone. Campbell understands that and brings the feeling of respect to her work.
“We tailor our approach to the client,” she says. “We see everything that’s in a home. You, the client, have to feel a level of connection with us in your space. We are really fortunate that we’re able to mold our team into wonderful organizers, but they also have what I call the ‘servant’s heart.’ They really want to help.”
When working in clients’ homes, Kat Duncan Campbell and her 12-person staff make sure everything is in its place (Photo by Aiva Genys)
