Middletown >> Organic Home Lifestyle is more than just a business selling sustainable goods, it’s a company that strives to teach sustainable practices and foster a strong community. “Businesses really need to think forward because businesses should be in place to support the future of the human race,” said Co-owner and Founder Tara Somers. “Businesses have a big job, I think, in helping people to support a natural life when you’re really preserving resources and preserving elements of this planet for your future.”
The new operation is a family affair, founded by Somers and her mother, Martha Somers-Sekander. They’ve set up shop in downtown Middletown and they are opening their store to the public by hosting an open house and an “Interactive Eco-Home Tour” Saturday, April 18.
Somers has taken the term “Open House” very literally. “So basically we are turning the store into a home and people will be able to go into the home and interact with different parts of the store-slash-home,” she said. Attendees will receive a “passport” before entering the space which will have tasks they can tick off as they tour the home, such as composting an item and counting cloth diapers on a table.
The store will have their products on display as well as recipe cards that people can take home to make their own soap, laundry detergent and other sustainable items. “But the whole point is getting people thinking and interacting with the home that’s completely eco-friendly,” Somers said.
There will also be a donation-based terrarium-building workshop for both kids and adults, in addition to food and music. Proceeds from the workshop will go to the Middletown Art Center and the Clearlake SPCA. The open house is a registered Earth Day event.
One of many motivations for starting Organic Home Lifestyle was the desire to begin an online store. Somers and her mother decided to set up a physical location for business reasons. “The revenue model of warehousing products works really well for us,” Somers explained.
But they picked Middletown because of a personal connection to the area. Somers was raised in Middletown.
Somers hopes to give back by providing sustainable products. “We’re offering organic and natural home goods. We’re doing things like organic bedding, natural bathroom solutions,” she said.
But the goods aren’t what Somers is most looking forward to. They’ll also be selling all of the ingredients for things like soap and lotion along with a recipe card to make the items. People can buy the homemade product from the store or the ingredients to make it themselves. “The thing that we’re most excited about … we’re trying to help people learn how to spend less by using more of what they already have in their home. To make things like laundry detergent, body lotion, face wash, teaching people how to make throw pillows … I’m hoping to inspire people to make things at home and use resources and get creative instead of going to a big box store and buying stuff all the time.”
The store will also be holding classes each month. “We’re going to offer one workshop a month .. and the workshop itself will be geared toward sustainability,” Somers said. “The first workshop will be about going paperless. Teaching kids and adults how to paint on cloth napkins.”
Somers hopes this class will encourage people to reach for a cloth napkin during dinner instead of a paper one. “That’s another huge advantage to having a location, you can do stuff like that,” she said.
Organic Home Lifestyle products are more expensive than many people are likely used to, but Somers said she isn’t worried. “Basically what we’re doing is we’re selling online and we’re also selling in store,” she said. “The store is also important because it gives us an opportunity to work with the community. It’s just an avenue for communicating with our market. I think my main concern is really getting the product out to people all over the U.S. Because our location is in Middletown I’m really excited about getting people in the town jobs. The fact that products are a little pricy-er … I think it’s more important to give locals jobs.”
To facilitate these jobs, Somers and her mother have reached out to people in the community to help make their goods. “We’re doing custom curtains and throw pillows,” said Somers. “We’ve already started working with a couple of local women who are making the curtain panels for us. But these are things that will sell really well online. So it offers us a way to give a job to someone who really needs it in town, in this case two people.”
With a focus on creating jobs, Somers is using the Middletown store to work out any kinks in the business model. “My overall goal is actually to use this business location specifically to refine the brand as much as possible and to make the brand extremely flexible, flexible enough to fit into almost any market. I would love to have another store location in another place,” she said. “I have a dream to see a store like that in the middle of San Francisco. But I would like to use this as our way of refining what we’re doing so we can get to that point.”
With a background in business and a deep interest in sustainability, Somers is well-equipped to grow Organic Home Lifestyle. “I’ve worked in … copy writing and business development for small business,” she said. “I’m really about working for small businesses than natural businesses. I’m very passionate about sustainability. I was raised in a really alternative way, so it’s really just in me. But my background really is more in business.”
When it comes to the actual products, Martha Somers-Sekander plays a large part. “She is doing a lot of the communicating with vendors. She’s done a lot of researching in finding products to put in the store,” said Somers. “When you’re dealing with the kinds of merchants that are making these products – these are small, small companies. Everything is made in the U.S. pretty much. The way that these companies work is it’s really about developing a kind of relationship with them and that in and of itself is a very sustainable kind of thing. She’s been doing a lot of communicating with these people. Reaching out to them and keeping the flow of communication going.”
Aside from growing the business and creating jobs, preserving the environment is obviously one of the biggest thing on Somers’ mind. “Another inspiration for the business is that as a planet we’re kind of running low on natural resources,” she said. “People need to live in a more sustainable way right now … We’re going through a huge drought right now, the air is getting harder to breathe … One of our inspirations is definitely about helping people learn how to preserve our natural resources.”
One of the biggest ways people can practice sustainability is to embrace DIY, or Do it Yourself. Thankfully with the help of social media sites like Pinterest, people are enthusiastic about DIY. “People are making their own dog food, they’re making their own curtains. It’s almost like we’ve gone back to something as a nation,” Somers said. “So that’s what the store is about; it’s about getting back to the basics without all the filler, without all the preservatives.”
Organic Home Lifestyle is located at 21137 Calistoga Rd in Middletown. The open house is Saturday, April 18 from 12 p.m.-6 p.m. For more information, visit www.organichomelifestyle.com.
Jennifer Gruenke can be reached at 900-2019.
