Emily Lyles '94

Emily Lyles was born in Akron, Ohio, but moved to Albany, GA at the ripe age of seven. She grew up in Albany and attended the University of Georgia majoring in Child & Family Development. While at UGA, she was a College Ambassador for the College of Family & Consumer Sciences and a Legislative Aide for State Representative Louise McBee. She graduated in 1994 with a BSFCS degree and began life in the real world as a Home Economics Agent with the University of Georgia Extension Service in Wilkinson County.

For more experience, she moved to Fairfax, VA and worked for a children's educational retail store, Zany Brainy. Emily was the Events Coordinator for three stores and in less than three months, moved to an Assistant Manager position moving from store to store when a fill-in manager was needed. She missed Athens so much she moved back in 1997 and took a position with the Girl Scouts of Northeast Georgia. Emily worked as a Membership Specialist, covering a six county area and for three years, worked as a Program Specialist for the twenty-five county jurisdiction of the council. She was heavily involved in the Kiwanis Club of Athens from 1998-2005. In August 2005, Hands On Forsyth was created and Emily became the Program Coordinator for the community service organization. In April 2006, Emily's husband, David, received a position with the Paulding County District Attorney's Office and she moved to Paulding County.

Emily wasn't sure what type of job she wanted to look for in Paulding County, but in March 2006, she viewed a segment on the CBS show "Sunday Morning" about professional organizers. With all the prior experience working for non-profits and the messy offices she had to endure, she realized she had been a professional organizer for years, just without the title! In May 2006, Emily started her business, Helping Hands Professional Organizing.

Since May 2006, Emily has worked as a residential and small business organizer, helping people de-clutter, set up organizing systems, save time and money and be more productive. One of her taglines is "I help take care of of people's dirty little secrets."

Emily and her husband, David, live in Dallas, GA and have no children, but do have a cat, named Tiger. Emily loves to travel, bake, read, play tennis, be involved in the community and also dabbles in photography and scrapbooking.