The fundamentals of clean web design

If you told me years ago that I’d be building websites while still working full-time in pest control, I probably would’ve laughed and gone back to checking a rat station.

My career didn’t start in design. It started in pest control. I’ve spent years doing the full scope of the job—sales, inspections, treatments, residential, commercial, rodents, insects, wildlife, all of it. It’s real work, and it taught me a lot. It taught me how to talk to people, solve problems on the fly, stay calm under pressure, and show up even when I didn’t feel like it.

But over time, I kept feeling pulled toward something more creative.

That’s what led me into web.

At first, I was just curious. I wanted to learn how websites worked and how people actually built things online. That curiosity turned into late nights, courses, trial and error, and a lot of figuring things out the hard way. I spent time learning design tools, development basics, and eventually found myself getting deeper into Figma, Webflow, layout, structure, and how good websites are supposed to feel.

What hooked me wasn’t just the visual side. It was the idea of building something useful. A website isn’t just there to look nice. When it’s done well, it helps a business explain what they do, build trust, and make it easier for the right people to take action.

That part clicked with me.

Coming from pest control, I already understood service businesses. I know what it’s like to do the actual work, deal with customers, explain a service clearly, and wear ten hats in one day. That perspective changed the way I think about websites. I’m not interested in making something that just looks trendy. I care more about building something that feels clear, solid, and useful.

The transition hasn’t been clean or glamorous. It’s been slow, messy, and very real.

I’ve had to learn while working full-time. I’ve had to build projects when I was tired. I’ve had to keep going even when progress felt slower than I wanted. Some days I felt motivated. Other days I questioned whether I was getting anywhere. That’s just part of it.

But every project taught me something.

Every page I designed, every layout I rebuilt, every mistake I fixed, every decision I overthought and finally solved—it all added up.

That’s really how this journey started. Not from some perfect master plan. Just from deciding I wanted a different path and being stubborn enough to keep moving toward it.

Right now, I’m still building. Still learning. Still sharpening my eye, improving my process, and figuring out how to make the work cleaner and stronger. I’m proud of where I started, and I’m even more focused on where this is going.

Pest control taught me how to work. Web design gave me something to build.

And I’m just getting started.

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