Exploring Life & Business with Penny Lambright of Patriots and Paws

Today we’d like to introduce you to Penny Lambright.

Alright, so thank you so much for sharing your story and insight with our readers. To kick things off, can you tell us a bit about how you got started?
I’ve always been someone who sees a problem and wants to find a solution. Growing up, my family nicknamed me “Sarge” because I was the take-charge kid. I guess some things never change!

My father was a United States Marine who served during World War II and the Korean War. Growing up in a military family taught me about service, sacrifice, and responsibility. But it also taught me that the people who serve our country often face struggles the rest of us never see.

Long before founding Patriots and Paws, I started a professional organizing business called Clutter Cleaners in 2000. What began as helping people organize their homes and businesses eventually led me into the complicated world of severe clutter and hoarding.
We work with individuals and families whose living environments had become overwhelming, sometimes to the point of threatening their health, safety, or ability to remain in their homes. Our work brought me into contact with social workers, Adult Protective Services, and people experiencing some of life’s most difficult circumstances. I became involved with the Orange County Task Force on Hoarding, teach classes, and have opportunities to share my experiences through television and other media.

I learned something important through that work: people’s relationships with their possessions are rarely just about the possessions themselves. Sometimes it’s fear, grief, trauma, or the need to feel secure. My own grandmother lived through the Great Depression, and I understood how those experiences could shape someone’s relationship with what they owned.

Helping someone reclaim their living space wasn’t simply about cleaning out a house. It was about restoring dignity, independence, and the ability to live comfortably in their own home.

Then, in 2011, my nephew returned from his second military deployment and brought another problem to my attention. Active Duty military members and Veterans were struggling to afford basic household necessities. They might finally have housing, but they didn’t necessarily have a bed, furniture, dishes, or the everyday items needed to make that space a home.

What struck me was that my father had experienced similar challenges decades earlier. Here we were, generations later, and military families were still facing the same basic needs.

And that’s when the two parts of my life came together.

For years, through Clutter Cleaners, we have been helping people who had too much stuff. Now I had an opportunity to help people who didn’t have enough.

That’s how Patriots and Paws was born.

I used $125,000 from an inheritance from my parents to help get the organization started. We began collecting gently used furniture and household goods, initially working out of storage units before eventually moving into a warehouse.

Today, Patriots and Paws has helped more than 22,000 Veterans, Active Duty military members, and Reservists, distributing over $23 million in household goods and furnishings. Our volunteers have contributed more than 169,000 hours, and our programs have grown to include connecting Veterans with companion animals and providing temporary kenneling when circumstances prevent them from caring for their pets.

I don’t see Clutter Cleaners and Patriots and Paws as two unrelated businesses or chapters of my life. To me, they’ve always been connected by the same purpose: helping people create a safe, comfortable place to call home.

Sometimes that means helping someone let go of the things they no longer need. Other times, it means giving someone the things they need to start over.

Either way, it’s never really been about the stuff. It’s about the people.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Oh, we’ve had our share of challenges!

One of the first obstacles we faced was convincing Active Duty military members and Veterans that what we were offering was real.
Imagine telling someone they could come to our warehouse and pick out furniture and household goods without paying a dime. We would hear, “We don’t want to call you a liar, Ma’am, but people don’t do that!”

My response was always, “Try me!”

It took about six months for word to spread. Once people realized we were serious, the calls started coming, donations began arriving, and we haven’t stopped since.

But getting people to believe in the mission was only the beginning.

One of our greatest ongoing challenges has been financial support. We are considered a basic-needs organization, and unfortunately, basic needs aren’t always what people get excited about funding.

I sometimes say our work isn’t particularly “sexy or cute.” A bed, a dresser, or a kitchen table doesn’t necessarily attract the same attention as some other charitable causes.

But let me tell you, when you’re sleeping on the floor, a bed is a pretty big deal!

There are wonderful organizations that help Veterans obtain housing. But too often, that housing comes completely empty. What good is having a kitchen if you have nothing to cook with? Where do your children sleep? Where does your family sit down together for dinner?

We don’t just want to put furniture into a house. We want people to have the dignity of making that house their own home.
That’s why we allow Veterans to choose the furnishings they like. They can select the colors, styles, and household goods that reflect who they are. That sense of ownership matters. It gives people a reason to take pride in their homes and helps them build stability.

Another challenge has been the personal sacrifice involved in building and sustaining the organization. There was a period when I gave up my rental home and lived in our warehouse with my rescued dogs. It wasn’t exactly the life I’d envisioned, but I believed in what we were doing, and I wasn’t about to give up.

Growing an organization also means learning to do more with limited resources. We have an incredible group of volunteers and a small, hardworking staff, but the needs of the Veteran community are enormous. We operate mobile warehouses because not everyone can travel to Anaheim. We bring furnishings and household goods to military installations and Veteran communities throughout Southern California and beyond.

For more than three years, we’ve also worked toward expanding into Southern Nevada. That has required building relationships, securing resources, and finding ways to reach people who might otherwise go without.

And as our work has grown, we’ve continued identifying needs that others may overlook. That’s how our Paws Program evolved and why we recently introduced Operation Paws with a Cause, providing temporary, no-cost kenneling for Veterans’ pets through referrals.

When a Veteran is facing a mental health crisis, entering rehabilitation, or experiencing another difficult circumstance, their beloved pet can become an obstacle to seeking help. We want to remove that barrier.

The challenges never completely disappear. Funding will always be a concern, and there will always be more people needing assistance than we can immediately serve.

But I’ve learned that you don’t have to solve every problem in the world. You just have to be willing to do something about the problems in front of you.

And when someone tells me something can’t be done, well, that just makes me want to try a little harder.

What makes you happy?
First and foremost, my happiness comes from my relationship with Jesus Christ.

I’m not perfect. I make mistakes, I get discouraged, and I certainly don’t have all the answers. But I believe the God of the universe trusts me enough to be His servant, and that is something I don’t take lightly.

I choose joy.

That doesn’t mean every day is easy or that I don’t have moments when I’m frustrated or overwhelmed. Believe me, I do! But I try to approach life with gratitude, speak life into people, and build others up whenever I can. Sometimes I succeed, and sometimes I fall short. Thankfully, God’s grace is bigger than my shortcomings.

My other great source of happiness is serving the people who protect our freedom.

There is something incredibly special about watching a truck arrive at our warehouse empty and leave full of furniture and household goods that will help someone make a home.

I think about the Veteran who will finally have a comfortable bed to sleep in. The single mother who can put her children to bed in their own rooms. The family who will finally have a kitchen table where they can sit together and share a meal.

Those are things many of us take for granted. But for someone who is starting over, they can mean everything.
What makes me especially happy is knowing that the people we serve get to make their own choices. They aren’t simply receiving whatever someone decides to give them. They’re choosing the things that make their house feel like home. That sense of dignity and independence is incredibly important to me.

I also find tremendous joy in our work with animals.

Anyone who knows me knows how much I love animals, especially my dogs! There is something remarkable about the connection between a person and an animal. They offer companionship without judgment, unconditional love, and sometimes a reason to get out of bed when life feels overwhelming.

Seeing a Veteran find that connection with an animal who also needs a loving home is a beautiful thing. And knowing that we can help keep those bonds intact during difficult circumstances makes our Paws Program even more meaningful.

I’m also grateful for the people who make this work possible. Our volunteers, donors, corporate partners, and staff give so much of themselves. Watching people come together to help someone they’ve never met reminds me that there is still an extraordinary amount of kindness in this world.

I love that people can visit our warehouse and see exactly what we’re doing. They can meet our team, watch our volunteers work, and see firsthand how their generosity changes lives.

After more than 25 years of helping people improve their living environments, I can tell you that happiness doesn’t come from how much stuff we own.

It comes from the people we love, the relationships we build, the purpose we find, and the difference we make in someone else’s life.

When I look back at everything we’ve accomplished, I’m grateful. And when I think about how much more there is to do, I’m excited.

Because every time someone walks through our doors, I have another opportunity to make their life a little better.
And to me, that’s a pretty wonderful reason to get up in the morning.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://patriotsandpaws.org
• Instagram: patriotsandpaws
• Facebook: patriotsandpaws
• LinkedIn: patriotsandpaws
• Twitter: patriotsandpaws
• Youtube: patriotsandpaws
• Yelp: patriotsandpaws