OrganizingLA Blog

Women's World Magazine To Feature Our Closet Organizing Tips This Month

Two weeks before injuring myself in February and our world seemed to be crashing down around us, we participated in an interview for Women's World Magazine.  We've just discovered that the article is going to appear sometime this month, 7 short months after we worked on the piece.

As usual, we're not sure how much of our interview they'll print, but the opportunity was such an honor.  We put together a piece that featured how to organize your closet in 7 short days, spending just 30-minutes a day.  Yes, it can be done.

The piece is a nice compliment to our upcoming contribution to Samantha Ettus' The Experts Guide To Doing Things Faster:  100 Ways To Make Life More Efficient, to debut October 28th by Clarkson Potter Publishers, a division of Random House, Inc.

Women's World Magazine is the number one women's weekly and enjoys a circulation of 1.7 million readers.

It's amazing how popular the magazine is.  We love the everday practical solutions.  Have you ever checked out Women's World?  Let us know your thoughts.

image of the lovely Marilu Henner courtesy Amazon.com

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Bigfoot Sighting - Big Ideas to Organize Your Shoes

Southern California is currently on Bigfoot watch today.

 

Why?  Two Georgia men have reportedly discovered the body of such creature.  Their well-publicized press conference appeared on CNN today, and has been getting coverage all over the Internet, including the Los Angeles Times.  There's even a brand-new heartwarming video up on YouTube today.

All this talk of Bigfoot is making us think about the contribution we're making to a major national magazine for an upcoming issue on organizing women's shoes.  Allow us to share our ideas with you, and if you have any feedback, we'd love to hear it.

Did you know the average person in the US owns 19 pairs of shoes?

Archive Your Wedding Gown Like a Museum

We were in West Hollywood yesterday, picking up dry cleaning and stumbled on some information about archiving textiles.  While this is not the most exciting news, we do run across this issue occasionally-- boxing up wedding gowns and children's clothes for organizing clients.

Designed to last 200-years, my local dry cleaner is now using archival-quality boxes and tissue paper just like museums, overseen by Federal and State governments for the preservation of historical costumes, and by libraries for the preservation of rare books and magazines.  You are familiar with this material already because archival board is used for the backing in framing pictures.

Once your gown has been preserved, it's up to you to incorporate these tasks into your datebook:

• Every 2-3 years open the box and inspect the gown;
• Wash your hands with baking soda mixed with warm water prior to touching the garment;
• Examine each layer, box, tissue, fabric;
• If you see spots or discolorations, contact your cleaner;
• It is not necessary to remove the garment for initial inspections.  Examine top layer of the gown, and in-between a few folds;
• Wash the cotton liner and cover every 10-15 years;
• After initial washing, rewash every 20 years.
• Tissue should be replaced every 25-30 years.

A quick check on Microsoft Outlook does prove that you can make a to-do task in 30 years.  So there's no way you'll miss it.

Image courtesy Cat and Adi at Next Exit Photography.  Christina and Kevin's wedding ceremony at La Venta in Palos Verdes, Calif.

Organize Your Cashmere Bedsheets in this $14,500 Storage Case

We're really getting into cashmere this season.  Warm and lightweight, the wool stands up to the very harsh and volatile Southern California winters.  Blistering cold.  Brrr.

Santa must have considered us naughty this year, because he neglected to bring us these Manrico bedsheets.  At a heart-stopping $5200, these cashmere sheets come lovingly packaged in a leather box.  We bring this up because today's LA Times says the company is sporting a deal:  purchase 10 or more sheet sets from the Manhattan-based company, and they'll throw in this storage case (shown above).  Many of the sheets come custom, and you can color code your bedding to your favorite paint chip.

You can't deny, this is organized luxury.

• Source:   David A. Keeps and the Los Angeles Times.

Young Hollywood Home - Step Into Their Red Carpeted Closet

For the fall of 2007, we're pitching to participate in Hollywood Life Magazine's "Young Hollywood Home."  There are no bites yet....

But take a look at these pictures and you'll know why we want to participate.

Hollywood Life's Young Hollywood Dream Closet (designed by Mary McGee and Creative Closetworks,) which was part of our Young Hollywood Home at the Pacific Design Center last fall, gives you a taste of the names, trends and products currently stocking the shelves of today's most in-the-know fashionistas, so take a look inside and become in-the-know yourself.

"IN TODAY'S PAPARAZZI-INFUSED WORLD, STARS ARE photographed just as much off the red carpet as on it, and Hollywood's newest crop of style icons must be able to update their everyday looks and stay ahead of the trends with the same ease that they turn on the glamour in classic designer gowns. This means that young stars are constantly seeking out the most cutting-edge new looks to add to their personal collections."

The stars are just as interested in the actual closets themselves, as much as the clothes in them.  Check it out.

What would be in your dream closet?  Use the comments section below and join the conversation!

Photo courtesy Randall Michelson and Juan Tallo

Excerpted from the January/February 2007 issue of Hollywood Life.

O-Magazine Offers Organizing Tips and a Sweepstakes

If you're feeling lucky, Los Angeles organizing expert Chris McKenry can help you.

Chris is part of an advertisement in O-Magazine this month for Microsoft's HP Pavilion IQ 770 TouchSmart Computer.  Our colleague offers great tips for organizing your kitchen, home office, wardrobe, mail and time-- many of those tips includes ways you can incorporate technology into your daily life (like we continue to do) by using the TouchSmart.

The HP Pavilion IQ 770 TouchSmart Computer helps plan your family's schedule, manage events and leave personal messages – all at your fingertips, on a touch screen. 

Here's a sample Conquer Your Clutter tip we love:

"Another key to staying organized is keeping items where they are used. You normally don’t leave the milk, fish, and eggs sitting on the dining room table when returning home from the grocery after a difficult day. Think of the mail as perishable and keep those surfaces uncluttered. No matter how tired you are, get in the habit of placing the mail on your desk.

Record events in your TouchSmart calendar and recycle the invitations."

To read more of Chris' Get It Together LA! organizing tricks, check out this month's O magazine on newsstands now.  You can also read the online version and enter to win a variety of prizes (including a TouchSmart and a visit by a professional organizer), by clicking here.