Entries Tagged as 'Organizing'

Relocation Rewind & Repeat

3

29.4.13

Today is my first day off in 29 days, isn’t that crazy! All of the projects that I tackled over the month of April have really caught up with me and I today I am going to turn off my phone and chill out at home. I have a few projects that I have been wanting to work on around my house so the only reason I’ll leave the house is to go to the hardware store and maybe Starbucks, can’t live without it!

Last week was moving day for my client Nancy and I wanted to share a quick recap of the project. I actually moved the same client 2 years ago (click here for that post). To prepare for her move 2 years ago we worked for 3 months to declutter, sort, and pack so she would only be taking what she needed. She moved from a 2,400 square foot home into a 1,300 square foot apartment. We knew the move would be transitional as she really wanted to buy a condo but we didn’t know when she would find the right one.

Last month she contacted me to let me know she found the perfect condo and would be moving at the end of April and she wanted my help managing the move. Because we spent so much time preparing for her last move I knew she would be in pretty good shape organizationally. I stopped by for a consultation and brought my assistant Matt along because I wanted him to be the project manager for all of the prep leading up to the moving day. I thought it would be a good fit considering Matt is Nancy’s son, ha! I met Matt 2 years ago when I helped her move the first time!

Huge Project, Huge Progress

1

25.3.13

I started working on a huge project at the end of February with a fabulous client. If you follow me on Facebook you have seen some of the progress pictures that I am showing you today.

My client lives in a 1,500 square foot mobile home in the area. Shortly after she moved in, life’s stresses started piling up and so did the clutter. She had recently got divorced. Then her father passed away. Then her grandmother and then her mother, and then the dog and cat. She was overwhelmed and began living in a small part of the home due to the clutter and a mouse infestation.

I met her when I was working on her mother’s estate. Shortly after we wrapped up that project she hired Matt and I to help get her back on track. Most people would classify her as a hoarder but people use that term too often in my opinion. I agree that she might have struggled with hoarding tendencies at one point in her life but her current mind-set is NOT the mind-set of a hoarder. My hoarding clients in the past have been nasty to me – they are only willing to work with me because they have to (e.g. they are being evicted or removed from their home). You can read more about my first hoarder Gloria. This client has been the opposite of my past hoarder clients. She has been wonderful to work with, motivated, focused, and goal oriented.

Atherton Garage Transformation

0

15.3.13

I have a small group of professional organizers that I hang with. You might think we get together and compare label makers – funny but not true! We talk about best practices, give organizing advice, and sometimes we refer clients to each other. I call us the Dream Team because we all have a different niche, experience, and successful businesses. My friend Lori from More Time For You originally met with the client from today’s project for a consultation but she passed the project on to me because she thought it would be right up my alley…messy garage+rat problem = kuzak’s closet, ha! During her consultation she took a few photos to pass on to me and then suggested that the client give me a call.

The client lives in a beautiful home in Atherton that has a carriage garage in the back of the house. The garage is very old so it is difficult to prevent pests from getting in, especially mice and rats. California has fruit rats that are very common and difficult to get rid of. I had them at my old house in Mountain View, you might remember be talking about them in this day in the life post. Anyway, the rats made a mess in his garage and he really wanted help getting the space cleaned up and organized.

Home Organization Transformation Part II

0

08.3.13

Yesterday I featured the first part of my two part home organization transformation. I wanted to share all of these before and afters back to back because all of the spaces we organized flow into each other in this open concept space. Our organizing sessions with this particular client were really fun for me because were able to see such big results in a small amount of time. My clients were SO ready to make a change which made the decision making piece of the purging process go very quickly.

Today we are going to take a look at the before and afters from the dining room. It serves as the main craft and homework area for my clients’ two daughters. It was full of finished (and unfinished) school assignments and artwork. As we sorted, I put anything paper related into a pile for my client to look through. There were lots of little treasures in boxes, bins, and bags surrounding the table. Once we had everything sorted into like categories we created a plan for the space.

Home Organization Transformation Part I

1

07.3.13

Last Friday, Matt and I tackled a fun organizing project in a client’s entry way and dining/living room. We started this project with a jump-start during last month’s session with my clients – we had extra time after working in the garage. Last Friday’s session was so fun to see the finished transformation on this space, a complete makeover!

My clients have two young daughters that keep them very busy and I know all of you parents can relate to this before photo. When the kids come home from school everything gets dumped on the console table and the floor…

We sorted through all of the items, lots of school and artwork, books, and miscellaneous stuff that was lost in the shuffle. We were able to empty the tall cabinet and repurpose it in the dining room (I’ll show you that part of the transformation tomorrow). We cleared out the drawers and the console table and hung up a few pieces of artwork. Now the space looks fresh, clean and organized. By moving the tall cabinet out of the space it looks much more open doesn’t it? As my clients live with the new space we can make tweaks to what needs to be kept on the console table so it will be user friendly and easy to maintain.

Master Bathroom Organization

2

26.2.13

Last week I shared a peek inside some of the organized spaces within my home. It is clear from the pictures as well as many of the client before and afters on my blog that I love using small white utility bins in a variety of sizes to curb the clutter in drawers.

Recently I organized a master bathroom for a client and I used them to create a system for all of the supplies that can so turn easily into a mess. My client and her family moved into a new home a few months ago and she asked me to unpack the remaining boxes and set up a system in the master bathroom. She sent me pictures of what the spaces looked like so I could come prepared with products that would make the project more custom to her needs. She really wanted a defined space for all of the little items to live so I brought lots of little mini white bins and clear bins that I buy at my local hardware store.

I pulled all of the items out of the cabinets and sorted them into the mini bins and then created a layout based on similar items. There are 2 sinks in the master bathroom so I put all of her items under the left sink and her husband and kids items under the right sink. I used Velcro to attach the bins to the cabinets so they won’t slide around. Another key was removing little items like dental floss and hair ties from their original packaging and putting them in a mini bin so they are more accessible. I’ll let the before and afters tell the rest of the story…

Organized Spaces in my Home

3

21.2.13

I met with a potential client for a consultation and she said she would LOVE to see a peek inside of the closets and cabinets in my home. I have shared a few projects over the years but not too many simply because I think it would be a bit boring. I’m in the organizing business because I love it and I definitely practice what I preach at home. I spend a little bit of time every day curbing the clutter and I am always conscious of putting things back where they live. My husband isn’t as neat as me but I guess that is a good thing, he gives me piles to pick up from time to time, ha!

We live in a pretty large home for just the two of us, close to 2,500 square feet. It is at least 1,000 square feet larger than any home that we have lived in over the last 6-7 years so it was really important for me to carefully plan a home for all of our items instead of just putting things in cabinets here and there just because we have the space. Today I am going to share some snapshots of the systems that I have put in place over the last 2 years that we have lived here.

This house has a huge kitchen with tons of storage. One of my favorite features are the dish drawers. It is so nice to see my dishes at a glance and they drawers are next to the dishwasher for easy unloading. This is one of the drawers storing my yellow fiestaware. I put blue and white contact paper down to jazz it up a bit and I keep all of the like items together. This drawer as more of the everyday things that we use, i.e. plates and bowls. The bottom drawer has more serving pieces, things I use less frequently. I also have a more formal set of white dishes in a hutch in the living room.

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Entries Tagged as 'Organizing'

Relocation Rewind & Repeat

3

29.4.13

Huge Project, Huge Progress

1

25.3.13

Atherton Garage Transformation

0

15.3.13

Home Organization Transformation Part II

0

08.3.13

Home Organization Transformation Part I

1

07.3.13

Master Bathroom Organization

2

26.2.13

Organized Spaces in my Home

3

21.2.13

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