This mom of two and founder of a professional organizing company shares her journey moving from Brooklyn to the New Jersey suburbs.
To continue our Moms We ♥️ Love series, we’re highlighting Ashley La Fond. This Chatham-based mom of two wanted to be closer to family and have more space for her kids to grow up, so she made the jump to the suburbs – and she, her crew, and her business are thriving.
Ashley La Fond, mom of two and founder of the professional organization company Of Space & Mind, never planned to leave New York City.
Originally from Toronto, Ashley moved to New York in 2010 while working for a tech startup. She met her husband in Brooklyn and the couple moved into a two-floor apartment with a backyard. They loved their apartment but, after welcoming her son in May 2020, Ashley knew it was time to move to the suburbs.
“Even in our comparably large apartment with outdoor space, we just felt so trapped,” Ashley shares. “We sort of accelerated our suburban timeline.”
Ashley’s husband’s family moved to Chatham when he was in high school and he always wanted to move back. “We started looking at a bunch of New Jersey towns, there’s actually a few that we liked,” she says. “We would drop our kid off at my in-laws here in Chatham. And as we started to drive between those towns, looking at different houses, we realized that it didn’t make much sense for us to move to the suburbs and still be 20 or 30 minutes away from grandparents.”
They narrowed in on Chatham to be close to family but they fell in love with the school system and welcoming community.
“We love Chatham because we made a lot of great friends here who have similar-age kids,” she explains. “The people that we’ve connected with are like us – they moved from the city and we’re all just trying to land here and build a new community.”
Moving during the pandemic, raising two kids, and running a professional organizing business is not easy, so relying on her Chatham community has been essential during this phase of life.
“It’s impossible without help, and I am proud and exceptionally grateful for the help that I have through grandparents and full-time care,” she says.
After almost four years in Chatham, Ashley still feels like she made the right decision to move to the suburbs.
“Watching our dog play in the backyard, watching our kids learn to ride their bikes – they’re always outside. We’re going to get our son an outdoor playset for his birthday. Things that we could just never do, I think that’s really special,” she explains.
When did you decide to move to Chatham?
Shortly after their first child was born in May 2020, Ashley and her husband decided to make the move from Brooklyn to Chatham.
“In COVID, a lot of our friends left,” she says. “At the time, there wasn’t much holding us there anymore.”
Why did you decide to move to Chatham?
“My sister-in-law lives here too, with her two kids. The whole purpose of moving was to be near family because it’s really tough to raise kids and not have a community.”
How does living in Chatham inspire you and your work?
“Once you move to the suburbs, it is very nice living. It is clean and you have more space. As somebody who’s in the field that I’m in, I really value that.”
What advice would you give to other moms considering a similar move?
“If you could move somewhere where you have some semblance of community, even just one or two people that you know or family, I think that that will make a big difference.”
Want to find a place you ♥️? Get in touch to schedule your Suburbs Strategy session.
