Heather Swain

“Everyone hears that moving is one of the life’s most stressful events. After a divorce and selling my house, I was nearly paralyzed with what lay ahead. Heather came in with the perfect combination of ideas, execution and support. A tireless worker, she miraculously packed 20 boxes in the first five hours. But what really makes her work a tremendous value is her creativity, organizational skills and “bedside manner.” It felt great to know she had my back throughout the whole process.

I hired Heather to facilitate my move to Oregon, where she also helped me make some crucial design decisions during construction (again huge value add!). Make your move stress-free – call her!”

–Nancy Griffin, principal
CEO of Glowing Older & Host of Glowing Older Podcast | Founder at SeniorTrade | Industry Scholar, Cornell University School of Healthy Futures | Master of Management in Hospitality (MMH) #ExposeAgeism
nancy@glowingolder.com

Heather Swain offers her wealth of experience, foresight and resources to help you move  to your next chapter. Whether it’s expanding or downsizing, she will help you through the process in the most economical way possible.

Drawing on her expertise in the arts, design, and hospitality fields, she has expertly packed up entire homes, or simply reconfigured furnishings in dwellings for the ultimate in use and comfort. She understands what it means for people to be in transition, she sees your situation as unique, and focuses, in a non-judgmental way, on moving you forward.

In addition to providing professional lifestyle consultation and home improvement for over a decade, Heather holds a BA in Interdisciplinary Field Studies from UC Berkeley.

She is also a writer, painter, potter, baker and photographer.

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“There are few people we’ve ever worked with who bring together the intellect, work ethic and ability to get things done as does Heather Swain.

Heather has worked as an Executive Assistant to our communications company for some years now and helped us engineer a move to home studios as well as helping out with day to day living.

She’s negotiatied on our behalf with the city of Los Angeles regarding reimbursment on damages caused by faulty city equipment and there’s literally no situation too complex or too overwhelming for her to handle.

She has assisted and run lead on big projects (often with urgency) as well as smaller issues: Heather diagnosed and solved major drainage/flood issues at our home (including finding the most reason- able strategy and contractor bid to formally address the problem and even mitigating it as it happened). She also reorganized and moved garages and storage lockers full of household and office items to set up another workspace. Heather has been a ninja in setting up the home office.

Heather brings an almost magical ability to tackle the most intimidating situations when it comes to moving and organizing on a day to day basis and there is no wasted time.

I enthusiastically recommend Heather. She’d be an asset to anyone or any organization.”

– Mark Thompson
American Newscaster, Host of Youtube, The Mark Thompson Show

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“I was referred to Heather to assist with clearing out a large property after the owner passed away. This home had been untouched for months, and was packed virtually floor to ceiling with everything from furniture, clothing, personal effects, garbage, family heirlooms, and even some very valuable art earmarked for museums. It was an overwhelming job, but within days Heather and her team had whipped everything into shape, sorted all the items, organized an estate sale, and smartly disposed of everything else as appropriate – to art storage, to family members, to donations, and to the dump. As I prepared the house for market, she continued to assist in supervising yard and house cleanup. It was truly a herculean task, and Heather approached every aspect with great resourcefulness and good cheer. Within a few weeks I was able to bring the clean and empty house to market where we received multiple offers. We never could have done it without Heather!“

–Alisa Knobbe Wynd, JD
Broker Associate
Golden Gate Sotheby’s International Realty
500 Drakes Landing Road | Greenbrae CA 94904
415.298.4037 | a.wynd@ggsir.com| alisawynd.com

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“This year I was confronted with a multi-part organization/packing/moving problem. I had to move my elderly father into assisted living and then make his neglected home of thirty years habitable for myself and my daughter. Heather helped me clean, organize and rehab the entire house —a truly challenging job as my father was a heavy smoker as well as being incontinent and the house needed to be scoured from top to bottom. Heather helped with every aspect of that dirty job: cleaning, reimagining and reorganizing the space,working with contractors, sourcing and installing fixtures, and helping me make a myriad of aesthetic and practical choices–all within a limited budget. After the house was finished she then helped me pack and move, then got the house I had been living in staged and ready for sale. The sale on that house is pending, and I know I wouldn’t have gotten my full asking price had Heather not made it look so beautiful.

Heather is a tireless and energetic worker. Her vast range of knowledge and hands-on expertise made her invaluable to me in every phase of this complex project. Her upbeat, calm and positive nature kept me focused and optimistic in a very difficult and sometimes overwhelming time. I truly don’t know how I would have survived it all had Heather not been by my side, offering her expertise and support every step of the way. She is charming, capable, creative, compassionate and completely wonderful. I cannot recommend her highly enough!”
– Erika Schickel, Los Angeles

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“Heather Swain is a life saver. She came into our home on the day after moving in. All was in chaos and she could see we needed help. She took charge immediately, and moved things around so we had some breathing room without boxes around us. She then set us on the right track of opening boxes and sorting and putting away. It would have taken us days to get organized enough to start without Heather. She was prompt, efficient, and hardworking – non stop for four hours. Very easy going and pleasant to work with.”
– Carol M., Tiburon 

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“Heather Swain saved me. I recently purchased a home with a difficult and unique floor plan. I was unable to envision what I might incorporate from my previous home and what I needed to acquire. Heather arrived a calm, pleasant, bundle of positive motion. Decisions were made, action was taken, I went from frozen to a comprehensible plan within hours. She enthusiastically digs in and begins working with an attitude of action that’s infectious. During the next week we donated unnecessary items in fulfilling ways.
She helped me acquire furnishings at a tremendous value while utilizing my current possessions in ways not imagined. Heather’s a Marin native with many local relationships to assist in all aspects of creating “home”. My child had a very difficult room to make warm, at the end of the week it was the favorite room in the house, my child was ecstatic.
Her rates are an incredible value, I highly recommend.”
– Dean B., San Anselmo 

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“Heather planned and executed my multi-stage, complex move with poise, calm, and good humor that radiated to the whole team. She envisioned the task, broke it down, and made it run logically and smoothly. Call her and place your trust in her — you’ll be glad that you did!.”
– Dr. Heidi K, San Francisco 

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“Heather Swain’s guidance, insights, practicality and logical approach were invaluable when I needed to sift through, winnow down, organize and store an apartment’s worth of audio, video and media archives in a relatively short time. She was quick, efficient, and genial – and non-judgmental about the breadth and clutter of the material at hand.
I highly recommend utilizing her services.”
– Michael Snyder, writer and broadcast journalist, San Francisco

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“Attempting to tackle a project that feels a little beyond you given your other time commitments? Heather Swain can help!
We’ve all been there. While you’re still dithering about the enormity of the task, Heather gets right down to work and cuts to the chase. Be overwhelmed no more. Call Heather Swain.”
– David B., Art Dealer, Satisfied Client, Berkeley 

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