06/01/2026
10 years ago. Every Saturday, I loaded up handmade cleaning products, folding tables, crates, signs, and whatever hope and energy I had left after a long week… and set up at the Hood River Farmers' Market.
At that point, Pure Gorge Cleaning was still very new. It was just me, trying to build something from the ground up with no investors, no blueprint, and honestly no real certainty it would even work.
I made every product myself. I cleaned houses during the week, blended products at night, labeled bottles by hand, and showed up at the market every weekend because I believed deeply in what I was building.
Looking back at these photos hits me hard.
Not because of how the business has grown — though I’m incredibly proud of that — but because I know how much work, stress, sacrifice, and persistence this little booth represented then… and how much it still does today.
Over the years, I’ve had former employees go on to start their own cleaning businesses, and I’ve seen handmade products and ideas I once built from scratch copied along the way. And honestly? That used to sting.
But time gives perspective.
What this really reminds me of is that nobody can copy the years, the setbacks, the resilience, the lessons, the relationships, the reputation, or the heart behind what I’ve built.
The people who’ve known me through this journey know how much of myself I’ve poured into this community and this business over the years. From cleaning homes for cancer patients, to community projects, to giving where I could even when resources were tight — I’ve always tried to build something rooted in care, not just business.
And while the support isn’t always loud or visible, I remind myself that the people who truly know me know the heart behind all of it.
This business wasn’t created in a boardroom. It was built one house, one client, one market, one mistake, one exhausted Saturday, and one leap of faith at a time.
And despite everything life and business have thrown at me over the last 11 years… I’m still here. Still building. Still caring deeply. Still trying to do things the right way.
Pure Gorge Cleaning may be bigger today, but at the core it’s still me — a woman who started with very few options, a stack of cleaning cloths, handmade products, and a willingness to work really hard for a better life.
This little market booth ended up being the catalyst not only for my cleaning company, but for Pure Gorge too. (Pure Gorge may be on pause for now, but I still have big plans for it.)
Crazy what can grow from simply refusing to quit. ❤️
