OrganizingLA - Page 5

June 17, 2013

Rihanna Shares A Devotion To Rid Herself of Clutter

Rhianna (pictured left) is pictured here sitting on the couch of Coco Chanel's Paris apartment

As we've mentioned before, using scripture (straight quotes from the bible) is a highly effective way (for some) to develop your goals, and help lead you through the day-to-day activities of life, including clearing clutter and being more effective at home and office. A devotion would include some thoughts to reflect on along with the scripture. For instance, for a religious family, your grandparents may have used to read a daily scripture out loud at breakfast time and then spend a minute or so discussing what the family thought that scripture meant to the group or how they could apply it, making it 'devotion time'.

Singing superstar Rhianna recently shared a Instagram photo from the book Starting Your Day Right: Devotions for Each Morning of the Year by Joyce Meyer referencing a devotion about clearing clutter.

Rhianna shared this photo on her Instagram account. Like her, do you use devotions daily in your clutter clearing?

“You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You.”
—Isaiah 26:3 NKJ

Sometimes we complicate our life by taking on things that God has not told us to do. We add stress, confusion, and clutter with the unnecessary things we take on and hold on to. We need to use our faith to let go of whatever clutters our mind and keeps us from peace.

Ask God to show you ways to simplify your life. Take an inventory today, and start throwing out whatever is filling your life with unproductive distractions. God wants you to enjoy your day, so get rid of whatever He shows you to give up.

OrganizingLA is not drawn to an
particular set of theories or religious views. Whatever works for our professional organization clients is a personal choice. Everyone gets motivated differently, we just like to
have the conversation and the exchange of ideas. How do you feel?

Source: Instagram

Your Turn To Comment:

Do you use devotions or scripture to guide your day? How do you feel about using scripture? Have you ever hired an personal organization expert sourced from Faithful Organizers? Let us know here in the
comment section or you can tweet us
@johntrosko on Twitter. You can also check me out on Instagram.

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June 17, 2013

Celebrity Organization
June 15, 2013

Use the Pareto Principle for Summer Organizing and Decluttering Success
The Pareto Principle could guide you to be more effective with your time and your life.

What if you could use statistics to declutter your home, office and life, and keep it organized forever?

The Pareto Principle, also known as the 80/20 rule was developed in 1906 by Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist and sociologist who observed that 80% of land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. Since then, we’ve learned the idea of the 80/20 rule has relevancy in almost every area of our lives: business, time management and usefulness of everyday objects. As as a hands-on professional organizer, we refer to these principles when working with clients. The principles are relevant whether you're organizing Los Angeles, New York City, or Italy!

Impressive statistics:
- We wear 20% of our clothes 80% of the time;
- We read 20% of our magazine subscriptions 80% of the time;
- Our shelf space holds 80% clutter and junk you’ll never use;
- We spend 80% of our attention reviewing 20% of our mail and paperwork;
- We use 20% of our kitchen gadgets 80% of the time;
- We clean 20% of the house and it takes 80% of our time to clean it;
- We will use 20% of our loose recipes to make 80% of our meals;
The Pareto Principle gives us an excellent opportunity to look at the usefulness of daily clutter in our lives. Just because you have the space to store something, doesn’t mean you necessarily need to keep it. Because according to the 80/20 rule, you may not be using it! You can make the rule work for you by understanding the importance of priorities.

Want to add to this story?

Have you heard of the Pareto Principle? How could you use it to declutter your home and office? Let us know here in the
comment section or you can tweet us
@johntrosko on Twitter. You can also check me out on Instagram.

image above courtesy Time Management HQ.

This
original topic first appeared in an edited version on Perezitos,
Perez Hilton's lifestyle site featuring celebrity families and advice from
pediatricians, parenting, lifestyle experts and professional organizer John Trosko. Click here to check out the original piece.

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to learn smart and practical organizing tips for your home,
office and life? Save time by signing up for free topic
updates and receive them as soon as they're published. Plus, as a
gift receive our exclusive Martha Stewart Living Radio
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June 15, 2013

Perezitos
June 6, 2013

How To Choose (And Use) A Paper Planner Calendar

While they don't necessarily provide a lot of writing space, photographic calendars such as vintage old Hollywood scenes add inspiring images to your daily agenda items. Click here.

This article is second in an "organizing for the actor" spring series of guest contributor
topics by Kristine Oller, a Los Angeles-based change strategist. For information on the series featured here on OrganizingLA click here.

John's note: call them old-school, call them what you want. Paper planners will always be the calendar of choice for many people. While this article talks specifically about the paper version, the rules apply to digital devices too: use the capturing system you want, but be CONSISTENT.

In Los Angeles acting class, your "scene partner" asks if you’ll go to her stand-up gig on Saturday night. Checking the date in your portable planner, you see no notation indicating another commitment, so you promise to go. Later on, you realize that you just gave away your last free Saturday night of the month. Had you known that, you might have thought twice about attending the performance. Then, when you get home, you discover that, according to the calendar on the kitchen wall, you’ve already accepted an invitation to a wedding shower that very same Saturday night. What now?

(more…)

June 6, 2013

Actors & Artists
June 5, 2013

Liberace Loved Decorative Excess and His Happy Nappies

Actor Michael Douglas plays Liberace in the HBO TV movie

It's no doubt the new HBO's Liberace is creating renewed interest in his life and loves. The TV movie “Behind the Candelabra" garnered a record-breaking 2.4 million viewers and has received great reviews in the press.

Born Walter Valentino Liberace, he was celebrated in his time as both exotic and lovable. But he also lived a life of excess with elaborately decorated homes, jewel-encrusted clothing and lavish gifts to friends and family. The world now in 2013, is in a different place and time. Could you imagine such celebrated excesses as wearing $3million dollars worth of stage jewels and a $200,000 mink coat worn being prominently announced from a stage?

Liberace's Moroccan Room in Las Vegas is an example of his do-it-yourself personal taste. Love it or list it?

(more…)

June 5, 2013

Celebrity Organization
May 11, 2013

Can Something Pretty Make You Want To Do Housework?

If there is one thing we've learned running a professional organizing business it's that the right tool can get the job done. And an even better tool is one that you can leave out for display, or hang up in plain sight for easy access so it no only looks good, but functions well too.

This week I fell in love with this bamboo ironing board from Welm Elm on Beverly Boulevard in Los Angeles. If you know me, I pretty much hate ironing anything other than pillow cases, cocktail napkins, tea towels, shams and placemats (anything flat and manageable). But I think this board will want to make me want to iron more and more. And it's a relative bargain at $79.99. If you add a chef's stripe ironing board cover @ $19.00 – you will have a look that adds affordable functional style in traditional homes, Victorian-style, Spanish Renaissance, beach home, Colonial, Craftsman (you get the point).

West Elm continues to stock great organizing and homekeeping products that they inherited when Hold Everything home organization store closed down in 2006. Check out these pictures.

This stylish ironing board features solid bamboo legs and a Fibertech® top made from natural plant fiber waste.

High quality homekeeping products can make chores more fun!

When working with clients we try to incorporate some style in the client's necessary functional activities and storage. And all the better if we can move away from plastic containers into wood (yea, I am obsessed with wood organizing boxes and storage pieces).

Take for instance my own bathroom. I repurposed these 1970's Maxwell House freeze-dried glass coffee jars in the bathroom to hold wooden Q-tips, cotton balls, cotton pads and wood toothbrushes (the last container was empty so I added some sea shells). The canisters sit on the shelf and they're not only maritime chic, they're are functional (and yes, we had to scrub these jars for an hour, they were previously used in a garage in Sierra Madre to hold nuts, bolts and drill bits!)

These re-purposed freeze-dried coffee canister sit on my bathroom shelves. They're not only pretty but functional too…something important to me personally and when working with clients.

So you can see from my Instagram picture post, when you incorporate looks and function, you might get a bonus: a burst of extra energy to tackle life's little details and complete your ironing (or any little chore) faster. And then we can move on to more important things like friends, family and Spring time fun.

Now is your chance to sound off:

What products do you like to have around you? Do stylish products really help you get the job done more efficiently? Let us know here in the comment section or you can tweet us @johntrosko on Twitter. You can also check me out on Instagram.

Don't miss these topics!

Want
to learn smart and practical organizing tips for your home,
office and life? Save time by signing up for free topic
updates and receive them as soon as they're published. Plus, as a
gift receive our exclusive Martha Stewart Living Radio
recorded radio interview and transcript, chock full of
strategies, tips and resources direct from John.

Enter your Email Address

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May 11, 2013

Butler’s Pantry, Closets – Utility, Fabulous Finds, Home & Home Office Tips, Techniques to Tackle
April 26, 2013

How To Set Up And Organize A Portable Car Office

Don't let traffic slow your career down. Actors and just about anyone can benefit from setting up a portable office in their car.

This article is first in an "organizing for the actor" spring series of guest contributor topics by Kristine Oller, a Los Angeles-based change strategist. For more information on the series click here.

Picture this: You are exiting Samuel French (the theater, film and television old school bookshop). Your stomach growls for lunch. Then– your iPhone rings: You have an audition in forty minutes! You, however, are on the opposite side of town and unsure of how to get to the casting office. The role in the audition is a “corporate office drone”… you, however, are wearing jeans and flip-flops. In addition to needing two headshots, they want to check your availability for several dates… you, however, are down to your last headshot picture and your old-school day planner is sitting on your bed.

Samuel French is an old-school film and theater bookshop in Hollywood. It's been in business on Sunset Blvd. over 65 years.

Hanging up from the call, you check the time and think, “Hmmm… what now?”

Times have changed in Hollywood. There is no way less turn-around for auditions, readings, and recordings. Where you used to have days or a week to prepare for an audition, you now only have hours (or less).

The most predictable aspect of an actor’s workday is how unpredictable it can be. When these unexpected opportunities pop up, time and traffic often prohibit even a quick trip home to raid your closet and utilize your office. Being unprepared for such good fortune increases the odds that you will squander your energy scrambling, worrying and “making do” rather than conserving it for the audition.

"The key is having a lean, mean, portable version of your office with you on the road. In Los Angeles, that means having an office in your car; in New York, that means having one slung over your shoulder."

(more…)

April 26, 2013

Actors & Artists