Month: November 2006

  • Organizing Work Storage Cabinets – a Short Video

    John_trosko_and_joanna_slettenWe have fun video to share from Get Organized Month.

    Last January, OrganizingLA joined organizing colleagues from all over Los Angeles in a special 8-hour day of community, productivity training and old-fashioned clutter-clearing to one local non-profit.

    The 2006 recipient was The National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), a volunteer organization, inspired by Jewish values, that works to improve the quality of life for women, children, and families and to ensure individual rights and freedoms for all through its network of 90,000 members, supporters, and volunteers nationwide.

    Ncjw_before_1Ncjw_after_1Our partner for the day, Joanna Sletten, and I worked together to streamline some Help Line office cabinets (click on the before/after pictures above.)  The Help Line room is quite unique:  trained counselors offer guidance and resources to women in crisis, new jobs, coping as a single parent, making a career transition or just needing someone to listen.  We knew the staff and volunteers had little time to keep up systems, so we made them as simple as possible.

    Here’s the short video we filmed at the end of the day:

    Comments?

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  • Do TV Show Guests Really Keep Up the Organization After the Crews Depart?

    Clean_house_host_niecy_nash"There’s a whole lot of mess going on in Los Angeles," according to the Albuquerque Tribune and TV columnist Mary-Ann McBride.

    TV makeover shows of late, have been receiving criticism for leaving guests with higher property taxes, systems of organization that weren’t customized and coercing people into getting rid of things they weren’t ready to get rid of in the first place.

    In tonight’s new episode of Style Network’s Clean House, host Niecy Nash (pictured above) reunites with former guests to see if they’ve stuck to their new systems, or if they’re re-stuck to their pack-ratting ways.  There should be lots of surprises….and not.  The show How Clean Is Your House regularly submits video of homes weeks and months after the show clears the clutter– to find some guests return to what’s comfortable– a life with piles of stuff and (sometimes) unlivable living conditions.

    But it all makes for wonderful television— and makes our job even more challenging.  Stay tuned.

    Related Posts:

    • Niecy Nash Helps Dress for Success
    • The Clean House premieres at Lincoln Center
    • Style Network’s Clean House nominated for 2006 Los Angeles Organizing Award

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  • Coinstar – Save Time and (Start to) Organize Your Finances for the New Year

    Constar_kioskCounting coins is such a bore.

     

    We'd rather be sitting around the pool, or getting ready for the holidays.  What about you?

     

    Reading Liz Pulliam Weston's Money Talk column in Sunday's L.A. Times, reminded us to mention a resource that agressively takes-on that boredom:  Coinstar Kiosks:

     

    "Loose change can really add up.  If your bank doesn't offer free coin counting, consider taking your change jar to a Coinstar kiosk.  Found in many grocery stores, [Coinstar] normally charge[s] a 8.9% fee to count your coins and convert them into a more convenient form of cash.  But you can avoid the fee if you exchange your coins for gift certificates or gift cards from vendors including Amazon, Starbucks and Eddie Bauer.  You get full credit for your change and you can give gift cards as presents or use them to buy family members stuff they'd actually want."

     

    Clients generally don't need any more gift certificates around, so most of the time, they pay the minor fee and keep the cash.  You can also donate the coins to a charity.

     

    We particularly love the service because you don't need to pull out foreign coins (the machine automatically spits them out a reject department.)  Coins are very dirty (en mass) so wear rubber gloves.  What's the most our company has ever turned-in for cash?  About $600.00 – and it took about 45 minutes to dump all the coins and collect the cash from our local Ralphs.

     

    You may now cross coin-counting boredom off your to-do list.

     

    Have you used Coinstar?

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  • Wall Street Journal Provides 5 Takes on Space Planning In a Difficult Closet

    SlatwallIt may be November, but Real Estate Journal (The Wall Street Journal’s guide to property) decided to squeeze in an interesting article on closet organizing before the holiday season.

    Journalist Eileen Gunn scribbed a tester’s experiences with a difficult closet configueration– a jam-packed closet 18" deep instead of the traditional 24"— the necessary size so coats don’t pull with the door opening and closing.  They shopped around using a variety of sources.

    A California Closets in-home consultant, a Container Store in-store employee, an interior design student from a local college, a Professional Organizer, and a local carpenter provided expertise and ideas to improve the situation.  They liked everyon’s ideas, but who won the job?  Check out the article and related table for the results.

    What’s our take?  Sounds like the closet was designed exclusively for linens (the average comfortor needs about 18" of space…) so in short, we’d add a combination of straight adjustible shelving and slatwall, if they want to hold clothes and NOT rebuild the closet wall.  We couldn’t find a picture of a closet using slatwall, so here is an example of it’s usefulness in the garage– same theory.

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  • Black Friday – What Treasures Did You Snag?

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    This is John– shortly before joining the crowds on Black Friday– the busiest shopping day of the year in Los Angeles, and the part (traditionally) where merchant’s accounting books turn from red to black.

    We’d love to know what you bought on Friday.  Nothing much for us– gift wrapping tape, cleaning supplies, and a couple dozen suit hangers from the local Burbank IKEA.  This was all on the way to a friend’s nephew’s Birthday party at Chucky Cheese.  As Chucky says, "Remember Kids– the FUN is always free!"

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  • Hide Ugly Wires With This Table

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    Would you buy this table in your quest for organized living?

    The designer, Richard Shed, calls it "cable management with character."  One giant fat leg hides your computer, fax, printer and iPod wires.  Combined with this, do we have a solution?

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“John Trosko offers creative solutions for clearing cluttered spaces while spilling Hollywood habitués’ domestic obsessions.”

– Cristina Tudino, Self Magazine

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