OrganizingLA Blog

Los Angeles Organizing Expo - This Evening!

Save Space and Time - Latest Trends and Products Featured at Los Angeles Organizing Expo

• Monday, October 22, 5:30-8:30pm - West Los Angeles

Organizing Expo will showcase trendy, time-saving products, books and services, sponsored by the National Association of Professional Organizers, Los Angeles Chapter.

Los Angeles, CA (PRWEB) October 18, 2007 -- Looking for a chic china container, a picture perfect pantry, or even a fabulous filing system? The Third Annual Los Angeles Organizing Expo will showcase products, books, and resources geared toward making life more organized.

"Gaining more space is not as important as utilizing the space you have," states John Trosko, President of the National Association of Professional Organizers, Los Angeles (NAPO-LA) Chapter. "The Organizing Expo will showcase local and national organizing products and services to help busy Angelinos better utilize their office and living spaces."

The October 22. 2007 event is sponsored by NAPO-LA and is open to the public. Held from 5:30 pm to 8:30 pm at The Olympic Collection in West Los Angeles, the Expo will introduce the latest industry product trends to both professional organizers and the public. Mingling and complimentary hors d'oeuvres (with purchase of Expo ticket) will continue throughout the evening.

Office products, closet and garage designers, authors, computer innovations and relocation companies are just a few of the vendors participating this year. Also new this year is the "NAPO-LA Theatre" where vendors provide in-depth presentations on time-saving products and services. Participants in this year's Expo will include Conejo Closets (Rota-Bob), Container Store, Digital Footprints, Esselte, FranklinCovey, Steri-Clean, Garage Envy, Inc., Gentle Giant Moving and Storage, Get It Together LA!, Got 2 Get Organized, Movers with Style, My Vital Files, Operation Organization, Inc., Organize.com, OrganizIT! Inc., Stacks and Stacks, The Mold Guy, The Software Magician and 1-800-GOT-JUNK.

To Purchase Organizing Expo Tickets:

Tickets are available to the general public for $20 in advance. $25 at the door ($15/20 for NAPO Members). Advanced purchasing available at http://www.napola.org The event will be held at the Olympic Collection Conference Center, located at 11301 West Olympic Boulevard (at Sawtelle) in West Los Angeles, CA 90064. $5 secured parking.

About NAPO-LA:

NAPO Los Angeles' mission is to develop, lead and promote professional organizers and the organizing industry. The non-profit group, founded in 1985 by five Los Angeles-based professional organizers, has grown to become the third-largest NAPO Chapter in the United States (out of 29 Chapters.) NAPO-LA members include hands-on residential and business organizing consultants, speakers, trainers, authors, retailers and manufacturers of organizing products. The Los Angeles Chapter produces the nationally recognized Los Angeles Organizing Awards, to be held February 1st, at the Luxe Hotel in Bel Air, California.

Contact:

• John Trosko, Chapter President
• NAPO-Los Angeles
• 10573 West Pico Boulevard, # 134
• Los Angeles, CA 90064
• Telephone: 323-512-7039
• Website: http://www.napola.org

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Wayne Gretzky Holds Garage Sale to Benefit Los Angeles School

A "Hollywood Insider" has informed us that not only is Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne having a garage sale, but Wayne Gretzky is, too.

The retired Canadian NHL hockey player and his wife Janet Jones, will be selling limited-edition autographed jerseys, home furnishings, off-road vehicles, signed bottles of recently released Wayne Gretzky Estate Wines and other personal items with a large portion of the proceeds going toward the construction of a baseball stadium at Westlake Village Oaks Christian.  The sale will commence October 27th.

Gretzky's son plays on the Oaks Christian freshman football team and is expected to play baseball this spring.  Gretzky is currently coach of the Phoenix Coyotes.

While the LA Times is calling it an Estate Sale, most everyone else is calling it a Garage Sale.  Some have touted Gretzky's brilliance of having a wine tasting (three days prior to the sale.)  Whatever the sale is called, we think it's terrific and smart to capture some cash for a needy cause.  Family love is a powerful thing!

Many of our clients battle with the need to have a cumbersome and time-consuming Garage Sale (not to mention stranglers trekking all over their finely manicured lawns.)

However, our heart strings get pulled when organizing clients want to have their sale benefit a friend or relative who is sick or is tackling a personal financial issue.  Some sales benefit a cause like Sharon and Ozzy Osbourne.  How can you say no to that?  Of course, some end up donating the whole lot in favor of a tax write-off.

What would you do and why?

• Source:  LA Times Sports Section
• Image courtesy of and USA Today

Mother's Lost Wedding Rings Found in the Dump

A Philadephia-area family recovered their mother's lost wedding rings after searching through nearly a thousand bags of trash at a local landfill.

Susan Myers, 83, of Downingtown, PA, lost the jewelry at Paoli Hospital, where she was taken Sept. 29 after collapsing at her husband's funeral. Her family had removed the rings, a pearl bracelet and a 50th anniversary ring in the emergency room and placed them in a rubber glove tied with a knot.

The glove was later misplaced, then mistakenly thrown away.

Frantic searches the next day eventually led the family to Frank Dabney, the hospital employee who emptied the trash from Myers' room. He told them their only hope was to search the landfill in Honey Brook where the hospital's trash is taken.  They found the ring hours later wearing fisherman waders, gloves and masks.

Have you ever recovered anything thrown out?

• Source:  WPVI (yes-- there's a fun video)

Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne Clear Out Their Rather Upscale Clutter

Facing a new life as "empty nesters" Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne are having a massive $1,000,0000.00 Garage Sale to clear out their rather upscale clutter.  No kidding.

More than 600 lots of memorabilia, jewelry, costumes, paintings, and furniture from their Gothic-style house in Beverly Hills, their Malibu home and their British mansion in Buckinghamshire will be auctioned on November 30 and December 1 here in L.A.

Darren Julien, President and CEO of Julien's Auctions House, says the sale took two years to organize.  Sharon says "It’s time to unload. We just have an overabundance of possessions that we do not need."

What is up for auction?

• A gilded Buddha statue
• a walnut parquetry inlaid games table
• The couple's Louis XVI-style master bedroom
• Ozzy's trademark sunglasses
• Ozzy's all-terrain vehicle he was seriously injured while riding in 2003
• Son Jack's black leather bed
• Gowns worn by Sharon and their daughter, Kelly
• Three backstage passes to Ozzy's concerts
• An "experience" ticket to an on-set visit with Sharon Osbourne while she is judging the TV show America's Got Talent

Sharon is no stranger to garage sales.  She held one last February at her home in West Hollywood.  The sale will raise funds for the Sharon Osbourne Colon Cancer Foundation.

• Julien's Auction House

Source and pictures:  Rueters

• Sharon Osbourne holds a West Hollywood Garage Sale (2/07)

So, readers, we wonder:  how much did your last sale fetch?

Organizing Evangelist Ascends to President - Press Release

As many of our readers know, last spring John Trosko became President of the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) Los Angeles Chapter.

In spectacular on-time fashion, we've just gotten around to doing a press release about this new and exciting leadership position for John.  Read the release on Yahoo! News by clicking here, or we've posted it after the jump.  If you're interested, we've set up an RSS feed for our press releases too.

Why not post a congratulatory message for John?

Wertz Brother Antique Mart - Los Angeles Fall Sale

Wertz Brothers Antique Mart is having their annual fall sale, September 22, October 8th at the Santa Monica location on Lincoln Boulevard.

There's a variety of savings and if you are in the market for investment pieces, now is the time to shop.  The 20,000/sq. foot Mart incorporates 190 antique and collectible dealers occupying 106 booths and 84 showcases.  This may be one of the last great marts in Los Angeles (our beloved Farmer's Market antique shops were shut down when the Grove took over.)

We always find great pieces for clients that don't enjoy mass-marketed furniture.  And Wertz does consign.  Last time we visited we snagged a vintage Louis Vuitton monogram checkbook cover.  Hey you gotta organize your finances in style, right?

American, European and Asian antique furniture. as well as mid-century modern, art deco, Victorian and traditional pieces are featured as well as California pottery, fine porcelain, chandelier and lighting, garden, fine collectibles, vintage fashions, decoratives, art pottery, Bakelite, art and estate and costume jewelry.  Yes, they have plenty of vintage organizing supplies for office and kitchen which fits nicely into the current eco-organizing craze.

If you've visited Wertz Bros. Mart, or their second 50,000/sq. foot location, let us know.  Did you find anything that sent you into organized euphoria?

Stacks and Stacks 'Clutter Control Freak Blog' Debuts

Stacks and Stacks, an online organizing product retailer has rolled out a new blog.

The company first opened their doors in 1984 and now offers over 18,000 items on their website, the 'net and one retail location in Santa Rosa, just outside San Francisco (their name came about because their initial product mix was primarily crates, boxes, bins and cubes piled high to the ceiling.)  We've been to the store for some client shopping early last year.

The Clutter Control Freak Blog boasts numerous notable bloggers, mainly professional organizers Monica Ricci and Jeri Dansky-- two OrganizingLA super-friends from Atlanta and San Francisco, respectively.  We discovered one Los Angeles designer from Bungalow 8 in Manhattan Beach also blogging, can't wait to add her site to our reading list.

Content at Clutter Control' includes "direct promotions" for organizing products, but the writers are allowed to sway from that by dispensing lifestyle advise too.  We love that kind of mix.

The site have a very responsive Editor (BL Ochman) and Management team.  With these sorts of company blogs customers now have a direct link to complain about anything and everything, and they do-- from mailing issues to defects to customer service.

The blog seems to be handling all of this in a spectacular fashion (we've included a picture of their customer service staff from the company so you can see they are well-prepared to handle ordering and service-related issues.  While the customer service team doesn't write for the company blog, their skilled service will only get better and better from the consumer feedback.)

Just for your information, here is a part of a comprehensive review from Viral Garden, an online site that reviews corporate blogs:

"While some posts [in the Clutter Control Freak Blog] are direct promotions for products, such as a recent post that talks about a shelving unit from Stacks and Stacks, many posts offer advice on getting organized and reducing clutter, without ever mentioning or suggesting a product."

Check out:

• Clutter Control Freak Blog
• Stacks and Stacks (homepage)

So readers, surf over to their site and come back here... share with us what you think about corporate blogging, product endorsements, the growing field of professional organizing, or just to say hi.

Los Angeles Organizing Expo - October 22

The Los Angeles Chapter of NAPO (the National Assocation of Professional Organizer) is proudly presenting the 3rd Annual Los Angeles Organizing Expo, October 22.

The Expo is an excellent opportunity for busy Angelinos to see the newest organizing products up close and personal.  The event will showcase products, resources, books, and services geared toward making life more organized in Southern California.

This year, for the first time, many of the exhibitors will give a 15 minute how-to demonstration of their products in the new "Organizing Theatre." It will be an awesome evening to learn something new all while discovering the latest trends and products in the organizing business.

Tickets may be purchased in advance by clicking here.  The event is open to the public.  We are also accepting vendors.  Please e-mail us for more information on purchasing a table and a spot at the Organizing Theater.

Productivity Expert David Allen is Now Blogging for Huffington Post

David Allen joins the list of notable bloggers at the Huffington Post.

Allen (pictured above) is probably one of the most famous experts in the field of personal productivity and work/life balance. What he is most famous for (among many things) is his infamous "brain dump"- the idea of writing everything down on a to-do list to capture the things you desire to tackle.

The list-making is just part of his cultish GTD (Get to Done) Getting Things Done (book and system,) widely used by organized people, primarily very technical people, business folks and the like because it promotes creativity and puts a proactive spin on managing all the little details that promote human connectivity.

Allen shut his company blog down more than a year ago in order to persue other interests.  We think he missed connecting with his peeps.  Welcome back!

Check out:

• Think smarter to capture your ideas by David Allen
• David Allen - bio
• David Allen - official GTD website
• Organize IT and David Allen

Related posts:

• David Allen and a Perfect Mess
• David Allen, nominated for a 2006 Los Angeles Organizing Award

Picture courtesy San Jose Mercury News blogs