Testimonials: Columns
“Angela Hoxsey is an organizational Maven. She is fast, efficient and a pleasure to work with. Angela makes getting and staying organized easy with her helpful tips, tricks and knowledge of organizational products. I hired Angela to help me prior to and after a large home remodel. She helped me to declutter, purge and organize multiple rooms in my home. I loved working with Angela, she helped me streamline my home and I enjoy the organizational benefits everyday! ”
Susanne Hudson, Napa, CA
“I’m thrilled with what you helped create. It totally blows my mind how quickly you work and I love your thought process. Fantastic!!”
Dona Bonick, Kopol Bonick Photography, Napa CA
“Angela is always thinking about my organizing issues and often sends suggestions and helpful advice and ideas, even when she is not physically on the job with me. She comes up with unique solutions completely customized to my business, home and personal style—things that I never would have thought of on my own...”
“I can totally trust Angela’s taste and rely on her honesty about what’s working and what’s not with regards to my wardrobe. That said, she is always respectful—if I say I want to keep something, she respects my wishes...”
“I have a lot of “stuff”, and Angela has always been non-judgmental about my collections, while helping me to make smart decisions about how to lose things that I do not need. I value her wisdom, her experience and her perspective. She is a joy to work with, I look forward to our time together and dread to think what my home, closet, garage, life would look like without her expert guidance!”
T. Beller, Verve Napa Valley
“Angela is my dream girl! I was referred to her to help me prepare to move after living in one house for 27 years. She was fantastic in helping me get organized and declutter years of gathering too much of everything...!”
“Angela took me from panic, and an overwhelming moving experience, to an organized new home. She is a pleasure to work with, has lots of energy, while always maintaining a positive attitude. I think she is "THE BEST"!!!”
Sheila Sosnow, Piedmont, CA
“Have you ever accidentally run across someone who just COMPLETELY changed your every day life for the better? And you couldn't imagine your life without them? That's how I feel about Angela. Angela came into my fairly organized but slightly hectic life completely by chance. I wasn't looking for anyone to help me organize or streamline my life because I didn't really think I NEEDED it. And just in the same way that she seemed to just quietly float into my life, she helped me with such kindess, grace and ease.”
Lindsey Wiseman, St. Helena, CA
“Angela has a real gift for seeing what needs to be done and pulling it all together. I have worked with many organizers in the past, but none as efficient and focused as she. From my office to the garage, Angela has helped create a system that works
for the long term!”Karen Schuppert, Napa, CA
“Angela Hoxsey was the best referral that I have ever gotten. Needing to get my house ready to sell and declutter the 20 years worth of accumulation was no easy task. She was fast, efficient and a joy to work with. The best part of working with her was her cheerful yet no nonsense way of getting you to decide 'keep, trash or donate'. . . Love it!”
Cherie Melka, St. Helena, CA
“We spent four hours organizing an enormous amount of paperwork and I feel like I just got a massage!”Joanne Maher, St. Helena, CA
“Whether you are prone to chaos, pretty organized yourself, or a combination of both, Angela Hoxsey can help you bring order to your home. Yes, you could do it yourself, but most of us have so many competing demands on our time that organizing tasks easily fall by the wayside. Angela has brought her professional touch to my home, demonstrating every time
the lasting value of an expert.”Karen Saeger, Ph.D., Berkeley
“You can smell the sanity. Angela is worth her weight in diamonds.”
Masako Takahashi, artist;
San Miguel de Allende/San Francisco
Columns
Outside the Plastic Box
I’ve recently returned from organizing a dressing room/closet in the colonial Mexican town of San Miguel de Allende. Now a UNESCO heritage site, San Miguel is beloved for its narrow cobblestone streets and colonial buildings painted in sun-drenched colors of ochre, red earth, avocado and rose. Behind carved and brightly painted doors are gardens blooming with orange clivia and lavender jacaranda. Not only is it hard to find clear plastic bins in San Miguel (and they are three or four times more expensive than in the States), Rubbermaid and Sterilite seem very out of place there.
In a place such as San Miguel, or for any client who places a higher priority on charm than efficiency, I’m forced to get more creative with furniture, baskets and unusual boxes or custom-made containers. For my San Miguel client, we used a decorative painted bookcase against one wall for shoe storage. Two ornately carved armoires served for hanging and drawer space. A hand-made Mexican ladder was propped against a wall and the client’s colorful collection of rebozos (Mexican shawls) were hung on the rungs. It is not only an attractive display, she can also see what she has at a glance and is likely to wear them more often.
Baskets are plentiful in San Miguel, and although I am not a big fan of baskets for storage, we were able to find some made of tightly woven grass (to keep out dust). They are rectangular and have lids, which make them stackable. You can also line baskets with fabric to keep them from snagging anything delicate you might want to store. We used plain, inexpensive muslin. The baskets, which are about 18 by 30 inches, work very well for sweater, T-shirt and workout clothing storage. We also used a large open basket to hold a bunch of hats.
Think how you might repurpose furniture or containers to better organize your space. I have an artist client in Napa who lucked into purchasing beautiful wood card catalogs from a library that was switching over to computers. Once we labeled the drawers, she was able to organize dozens of small, miscellaneous art supplies. The card catalogs would have been great as a huge jewelry box too; there are so many possibilities for all those little drawers.
Unfortunately, a bank of card catalogs is a rare find. A more common piece of furniture, the nightstand, makes a terrific side table for the home office. A printer or scanner can sit on top and nightstands usually have drawers and niches that can be used for paper storage, manuals, and other supplies. A little paint and new hardware can totally transform a hum-drum piece of furniture for a new purpose.
Here in wine country, cardboard and wooden wine boxes are easy to come by and can be excellent organizing tools. Paint them, paint collages on them or cover them in fabric and they become highly personalized storage containers. The dividers in cardboard wine boxes are awesome for protecting Christmas ornaments and other collectables.
Remember that if you can’t see at a glance what is inside a basket or box it will need a label for you to get that streamlined, “Domestic God” or “Goddess” feeling. There are nice ways to label things that don’t require my constant companion, the Brother P-Touch labeler. Stickers, appliqués, mailing tags and laminated pictures fastened to baskets with key rings are some fun ideas. Hardware and office supply stores can trigger more ideas.
For paper files, I insist on file cabinets 95 percent of the time, and for garages, basements and attics, plastic bins will always be my first choice. For everything else, organizing solutions that add style and beauty, as well as order and sanity, is a key service that I bring to House in Order clients. Look at your furniture with a fresh eye and browse second hand stores, your own garage and the basket aisles at import stores. You, too, can start thinking outside the plastic box.