“I was my own first client,” Kim McBrayer, CEO of Space Cadets, said, as she sought out a long-term solution to her own clutter problems. “I refined the organizing processes with everyday application in my own life,” McBrayer said. “Taking that experience and applying it to clients gives me insights to how organizing can help other people.” McBrayer has always had a knack for rearranging furniture and setting up spaces. This natural gift, paired with her passion for helping others, grew into a business dedicated to helping declutter peoples’ lives.
Space Cadets, located in Brook Highland Plaza, is a one-stop shop for all your organizing needs. It is a closet and organizing company that McBrayer started in 2001 to help people bring peace and order to their chaotic clutter. While Space Cadets first and foremost provides organizing services, it also offers retail products and closet design and installation services to broaden the package. The company has merged both the closet and organizing sides of the business to make the process as fluid and cohesive as possible for clients. Space Cadets offers a wide array of organization techniques and products for every budget and every need to solve clutter issues. Space Cadets has continued to grow with services offered in the Gulf Shores/Fairhope and Auburn/Lake Martin areas and plans to expand to Huntsville as well.
“If you love what you do, you’ll never work a day in your life,” McBrayer said. “I count it one of my greatest joys that I get to work in this business that I am deeply passionate about.” She recognizes the value that organization has given her in her personal life as a recovering messy person. After researching ways to manage clutter and studying the concept of organizing to help herself, she created Space Cadets to share her new skill set with others. “My passion for curing clutter led me to share that with others who need help,” McBrayer said. “We get to change peoples’ lives by making a difference in how we process the things in their homes and find simplicity in the systems we use.”
McBrayer said that knowing they have a role to play in the transformation process, and how it's going to help someone on the backend, is so rewarding. She recognizes the value that organization can play in your life especially during difficult times. McBrayer walked through a medical journey with her son and husband and lost them both to cancer and a traumatic brain injury. “I needed order and peace in my home — it helped me maintain the roles and responsibilities I had to take care of,” McBrayer said. “Between hospital stays, running a business and raising my daughter, time was constrained, but having organized spaces helped me navigate that time immensely.”
Focusing on closet installation, Space Cadets works primarily in construction — a field that women are not frequently featured in. “I love carving new paths for women and finding new places for us to belong,” McBrayer said. She grew up loving power tools and playing in her Papa’s workshop. “The fact I get to do this every day in a male-dominated industry speaks to the reality of what we can do now and the ceilings that have been broken for women,” McBrayer said.
“Considering the traditional female roles in running a household, the women on my team bring a unique viewpoint,” McBrayer said. “When they assess rooms such as the kitchen or laundry room, they bring a valuable perspective of how women take care of a home and they personally understand how women use their spaces and storage, which works to everyone’s advantage.”
As the CEO of Space Cadets, McBrayer makes it her priority to empower the women who work for her. When she first hires someone, she looks at their potential strengths and matches them to a position that will best utilize and enhance those gifts. The dynamic team of men and women at Space Cadets embodies compassionate care and a thorough work ethic in every encounter with clients, and the women at Space Cadets are irreplaceable assets to the team.
As General Manager, Marissa Wilkins wears many hats overseeing the entire business and running the retail shop. Pulling from her experience as an elementary school teacher, she knows how to keep all the pieces and people together. With a background in nursing, Ashley Burchfield and Jennifer Jahraus are skilled at managing lots of details. Burchfield and Jahraus started out as project organizers with Space Cadets, but are now handling in-house organization — keeping the organizing company organized. Client Manager Carla Henley visits clients in their homes to gather information and then oversees each project to completion, ensuring plans are entirely executed.
Piloted by Lead Organizer Christie Rierson, Jennifer Williams, Kayla Ott, Sarah Varner and Kristyn Edwards make up the team of organizers behind the business. They transform clients’ messes into the likeness of Pinterestboards — taking chaos and turning it into order. “They are very empathetic, compassionate and patient, carefully considering the sensitive feelings that are often involved when sorting through peoples’ personal items and memories,” McBrayer said.
“We couldn’t do what we do without the men in our business, too,” McBrayer said. “Each person on this team is invaluable.” McBrayer’s business partner, Butch Dill started it all with her 22 years ago and continues to manage all operations. Designer Brian Lindsey is the visionary and genius behind every design curating each closet to best fit the client’s needs. Production Manager Darren Thomas leads a team of installers — Randy Kendrick, Jeff Austin, Chris Rigdon and Chris Stephens (Gulf Shores) — as they make the magic happen in bringing those designs to life.
Clients have told the Space Cadets team time and time again that working with them is a life-changing experience. From preventing overspending due to lack of knowledge about what is actually in a space to making items quick and easy to locate, Space Cadets is on a mission to help decrease stress in peoples’ lives so they can enjoy life more. “Yes, it’s about the stuff — but it’s about so much more,” McBrayer said. “Everything we touch touches the rest of our lives.”
