Today we’d like to introduce you to Ashlynn Cartwright.
Hi Ashlynn, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Grace & Order Home Co. really grew out of my own life experiences and my desire to build something that meant more than just earning an income.
I’m a single mom of four, and I know firsthand how quickly life can become overwhelming. Before starting my business, I worked in the live production and entertainment industry doing everything from production technology to rigging. It was demanding work, and while I’m incredibly grateful for everything it taught me, I eventually realized I wanted to build something of my own,something that gave me more freedom for my children while also allowing me to genuinely help people.
That’s how Grace & Order Home Co. began.
When I started cleaning professionally, I realized very quickly that cleaning someone’s home is rarely just about cleaning. Sometimes you’re walking into the home of an exhausted mom who is barely keeping her head above water. Sometimes it’s someone battling cancer, someone who has experienced domestic violence, an elderly person who can’t physically keep up anymore, or simply someone who is embarrassed because life got away from them.
I wanted to create a business where none of those people ever felt ashamed for asking for help. That’s where my motto, “We clean, and we don’t judge,” comes from.
I’ve worked hard to build Grace & Order differently. I’m licensed and insured, I’ve invested in professional education and surface-safety training, and I focus heavily on the small details that make a home actually feel cared for. But the part I’m most proud of is the community side of the business. I provide free cleanings for domestic violence survivors and overwhelmed families, and as the business grows, I hope to expand the number of families I’m able to help.
The response from Middle Tennessee has honestly been incredible. I’ve built relationships with homeowners, moms, real estate professionals and other local businesses, and many of my clients have become people I genuinely care about.
Recently, my own family has also been reminded just how quickly life can change. My 14-year-old daughter, Abigail, was diagnosed with Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension (IIH), a rare neurological condition, and underwent brain surgery.
Abigail’s diagnosis has also inspired a new mission within Grace & Order: The Pressure’s Off Campaign, created to raise awareness and support research for IIH. During September, which is IIH Awareness Month, I’m donating $15 from every cleaning to IIH research. I’m also permanently offering a 10% service discount to families who have a family member living with IIH. This condition is something I knew very little about until it changed my daughter’s life, and now I want to use whatever platform my business gives me to help more people understand it. If sharing Abigail’s story, cleaning someone’s home, or donating part of my work can help another family feel seen or help move research forward, then that is something I want Grace & Order to stand behind.
Grace & Order started as a way for me to provide for my children, but it has grown into something much bigger. I want to build a company known not only for exceptional work, but for treating people with dignity, meeting them where they are, and leaving their lives a little lighter than I found them.
I’m still building, and there are much bigger things I hope to do with Grace & Order in the future. But looking at how far it has already come, I’m incredibly grateful that I took the chance and started.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
Honestly, I’ve been incredibly blessed with how smoothly Grace & Order has grown. The response from the community has been more than I could have hoped for, and I’ve been fortunate to build a strong client base and some really meaningful relationships in a relatively short amount of time.
That doesn’t mean there haven’t been challenges, though. Like any business owner, I’ve had to learn as I go. Pricing my services appropriately, learning the business side of things, managing a growing schedule, knowing when to say no, and finding the balance between having a huge heart for people and making sure my business remains sustainable have all been learning experiences.
Being a solo business owner also means wearing every hat. I handle the cleaning, organizing, scheduling, client communication, marketing, supplies, bookkeeping, and everything behind the scenes,all while being a mom of four. There are definitely days when the balancing act gets interesting!
So overall, yes, I would actually say the road has been surprisingly smooth. There have certainly been bumps and plenty of lessons along the way, but Grace & Order has grown faster and been embraced more warmly than I ever expected. I’m incredibly grateful for that, and I’m excited to see where it goes from here.
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
Grace & Order Home Co. is a residential cleaning and professional organizing company serving Middle Tennessee, but I’ve always wanted it to feel like much more than a cleaning service.
At the heart of my business is a very simple promise: “We clean, and we don’t judge.”
I specialize in detailed residential cleaning, deep cleaning, recurring maintenance cleaning, move-in/move-out services, professional organization, and those projects people have been putting off because they simply don’t know where to begin. I’m also completely comfortable walking into homes that have fallen behind. There is no embarrassment necessary and no explanation owed to me. Whether someone is overwhelmed, working constantly, raising children, dealing with illness, caring for a family member, or simply hates cleaning,I’m there to help, not judge.
One thing I’ve become known for is the level of detail I bring into a home. I notice the things that are often overlooked. I’m the person cleaning the shampoo bottles, sanitizing the toilet brush holder, washing out the trash can, detailing the grout, cleaning pet bowls, hand-cleaning floors, or tackling the little task someone has stared at for six months thinking, “I really need to do that.”
I’m also very serious about caring for the homes people trust me with. I’m licensed and insured, surface-safety trained, and I carry Safety Data Sheets for the products I use. Different materials require different care, and I believe professional cleaning should mean knowing not only how to get something clean, but how to do it without damaging the surfaces in someone’s home.
Professional organizing is another major part of Grace & Order. I love taking a space that feels completely overwhelming and turning it into something functional and manageable. I want to create systems that make everyday life easier for the people who live there.
What sets Grace & Order apart most, though, is the heart behind it.
Giving back isn’t something I wanted to wait to do until I became a huge company. It has been part of the business from the beginning. I provide free cleanings for domestic violence survivors and overwhelmed families, and I want that program to continue growing alongside the business.
After my daughter Abigail was diagnosed with Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension, that mission expanded again through The Pressure’s Off Campaign, which raises awareness and supports IIH research. During September, I donate $15 from every cleaning to IIH research, and I permanently offer a 10% service discount to families with a family member living with IIH.
Brand-wise, that is probably what I’m proudest of. Grace & Order has a recognizable look and a growing reputation, but I don’t want people to remember me because of a logo or a color palette. I want them to remember how they felt after I left their home.
I want someone to walk into a space that was stressing them out and finally feel like they can breathe again. I want the overwhelmed mom to know she doesn’t need to apologize for the laundry pile. I want the person going through chemotherapy to have one less thing on their plate. I want the domestic violence survivor rebuilding their life to walk into a clean space and feel like they have a fresh start.
Yes, I clean houses. But what I’m really trying to give people is a little more grace and a little more order during whatever season of life they’re in.
That’s what I want this brand to always stand for.
How do you think about luck?
I don’t know that I would call it luck as much as I would call it a combination of faith, timing, hard work, and being willing to walk through doors when they open.
I feel incredibly blessed by how quickly Grace & Order has grown. There have been moments where the right client found me at exactly the right time, one person recommended me to another, or an opportunity came along that I never could have planned for. Even being given the opportunity to share my story through NashvilleVoyager is one of those moments.
At the same time, I’ve learned that an opportunity can open a door, but you still have to do the work once you walk through it. I’ve worked extremely hard to earn my clients’ trust, provide a level of service that people want to recommend, continue educating myself, and build a reputation that reflects what I want Grace & Order to represent.
There has certainly been “bad luck” in life, too. Things happen that we have absolutely no control over. My daughter Abigail’s recent diagnosis with IIH, and everything our family has gone through surrounding her surgeries is probably the clearest example of that. I never would have chosen this for her or our family.
But even through something incredibly difficult, I’ve watched good come from it. It inspired me to create The Pressure’s Off Campaign, advocate for IIH awareness, raise money for research, and hopefully use the platform I’m building to help other families affected by this rare condition.
I’m a person of faith, so ultimately I believe there is a lot more at work in my life than luck. Some of the hardest experiences in my life have eventually led me somewhere I never expected to go, and some of my greatest opportunities have appeared when I least expected them.
I can’t control every door that opens or closes, but I can control what I do with the opportunity in front of me. So far, I feel incredibly blessed by where those opportunities have taken Grace & Order.
Contact Info:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/share/1JRQPZaoA8/
- Other: Graceandorderhomeco@gmail.com
