Your home. Organized.™ Your move. Easier.™
Serving the entire San Francisco Bay Area | Gayle Grace, 510-654-7983

Thursday, September 20, 2007

Changing the look of a room




My favorite way to change up a room quickly and inexpensively, is by using table runners. I drape them over my dining table and the ottoman in the living room (as I have in this photo). You can also use them on coffee tables or drape them over the back of chair or the sofa. They add just the pop of seasonal color and they are easy to store, as the take up less room than full table cloths. I get mine at Crate and Barrel, Pottery Barn and Pier One.

Sunday, September 16, 2007

Displaying collections




Ho! Ho! Ho! This village collection of Department 56 "Christmas in the City" is one of our client's favorite things. But she disliked the process of taking it all out of the boxes, clearing off the space on her dining table and setting it up.  Once it got up, she had equal trouble getting it back into the boxes after the holidays.

 Besides the loss of the use of her dining table, storing these pieces took up one very valuable closet. So, we suggested permanently displaying the village on top of her entertainment center. We layered a "snow" blanket over the three sections of the bookcase and then designed our village, complete with cars and people.

 Now she can sit on the sofa and admire her collection all the time. At night when the village is lit it adds an extra something special to her livingroom.

Friday, September 14, 2007

Paper blizzard relief





That's better! We begin this project by freeing this homeowner from the blizzard of paper that had snowed her under. Now she can come home from work and relax. (See the post below "Does This Look Familiar" for the before photos.)

So, where did all the paper go? We've gathered it up and sorted into boxes that we'll go through to separate what needs to be kept and toss the rest. Then we'll set up a paper management system so that she'll know what to do when the next onslaught of mail arrives.

Wednesday, September 12, 2007

Does this look familiar?




Hm...what's going on here? Life, people get busy and stuff happens. Not to worry, we can take care of this and create a paper management system to see that it doesn't happen again. Stay tuned to see how we do it. Oh, and we also have some surprises for this busy lady involving her favorite Dept. 56 "Christmas in the City" collection. Ho, Ho, Ho!

Saturday, September 8, 2007

Which way to the farmer's market?



What I love about living in the Bay Area. You can step out on your balcony with a latte and a croissant and watch the wild turkeys passing by.

A son's struggle

He called me last week, "I need help, my father's landlord wants to get into my father's apartment and we've got to pack up his stuff". Okay, I can do that, I said. "Well, it's not that easy, you see, my father has a problem. He's a real packrat. He collects everything he can get his hands on. I've cleaned out his place a dozen times and everytime I go back, it's the same story. And we fight and argue over throwing away paper bags and empty containers and string and rubber bands and newspapers - he collects garbage. He also has more food than your average grocery store. There's so much stuff you can't use the kitchen or even close the bathroom door. I don't know what to do anymore. But I can't face going in there alone."

Hoarding is a serious disorder and much more common than we ever imagined. After years of working as an organizer I now know that I can walk ANY block in ANY neighborhood in ANY city and find at least one, if not more, hoarders living there. In my own condo complex I know of 6 units that are suffering because of hoarding issues. I also know several people who have homes with over 100 cats - they are hoarding animals.

Fortunately, hoarding is being seriously studied by researchers in several hospitals and universities. Just recently several new books have come out on the subject. (Buried in Treasures and Overcoming Complusive Hoarding) You can find out more about hoarding by going to the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization. NSGCD.org and take the hoarding scale test to see if your friend or family member has a serious problem.

The sad fact is that yes, we cleaned out his father's apartment, but by this time next week the collecting will have begun again.

Wednesday, September 5, 2007

September events

I love the fall season. Fall colors are my colors, as you have probably noticed on my website. I'm from Wisconsin and fall in the midwest is the best by far. Fall means burrowing in, spending more time at home, making soups and doing All Things Home!

What's up with me for fall - workshops and presentations. I will be presenting my workshop on "Organizing Small Spaces" at Aegis in Cardinal Point. On Sept. 13th I will be presenting to the Oakland Association of Realtors "Preparing for the Baby Boomer Retirement Surge" along with my friend, author Ciji Ware. But don't worry, I still have time on my schedule for YOU!

Monday, September 3, 2007

Resisting the urge for more

It even happens to me - there I am standing at the register in the pet food store buying my 2 bags of cat food when the clerk says " you know, if you buy 3 bags you get a 4th bag FREE". What am I suppose to do now? I buy 2 bags at a time because that's exactly what I have space for. Two bags, that sit neatly on the shelf, side by side. Three bags, yes, I could probably find room somewhere for a 3rd bag, but the 4th bag - I'd have to buy a bigger condo and that isn't going to happen. So I buy my two bags, but I can't stop thinking about the FREE bag of cat food I left behind.
Related Posts with Thumbnails