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
Top Five Clutter Clearing Books
It’s wonderful to be able to watch an expert organize a closet or office and work side by side with them to learn the system, but it is a luxury not many can afford. If a professional organizer is not in your budget, inspiration and guidance can be found in a well-written book on organizing. I’ve read scores of books on the subject, and the following five stand out as books that are motivating and actually give clear direction on various methods to achieve a high degree of order.
“Clear Your Clutter with Feng Shui,” by Karen Kingston
Feng Shui is an ancient Chinese art of balancing the energy (chi) and elements of a space. When it became trendy in the West in the 1990s, I was highly skeptical, but I kept noticing this little book for sale when I stood on line at Jamba Juice waiting for my Protein Berry smoothie and one day I finally bought it. Today it is my all-time favorite organizing book and I am convinced feng shui works.
Kingston spells out why clutter is so draining — it represents “stuck” energy. She gives the reader insight into how and why we get stuck and direction on how to identify and clear clutter and maintain a clutter-free home. She explains basic feng shui principles and why they make sense. This is a wonderful read for those ready to bring consciousness and energy to every corner of the home — including under the kitchen sink. You can’t hide from the chi!
“It’s All Too Much,” by Peter Walsh
Walsh is the psychologist-organizer from the tv show Clean Sweep that ran on TNT a few years ago. He appears on Oprah regularly. In this book, he digs into the psychology of Stuff (capital S) and how to make letting go of clutter less painful. This is for you sentimental types! If nostalgia keeps you from tossing Grandma’s moldy table linens that have been in the attic for 12 years, this is the book for you. Also good for those of us who have stored our “thin” clothes from high school in the garage, hoping to fit back into them some day.
“The Beverly Hills Organizer’s Organizing Bible,” by Linda Koopersmith
Everything from folding your underpants to why color-coded filing systems never end up working, complete with lots of pictures and diagrams. She uses too many cheap plastic organizing gadgets for my taste, but it is a great place to start learning the basics of organizing your space and keeping it tidy.
“Getting Things Done,” by David Allen
This one is mainly for the office and paper management, but it also delves deeply into what causes procrastination and project roadblocks. I took my first seminar with David Allen in 1998 and it was life changing. I continue to take his seminars whenever I can and always learn new tricks to better organization and time management. For more information go to www.davidco.com. But read the book — it’s a new classic on the order of Stephen Covey’s “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” (but for me, Allen’s is more useful.)
Tied for fifth: A book from each end of the organizing spectrum:
“It’s Hard to Make a Difference When You Can’t Find Your Keys,” by Marilyn Paul
Paul’s book is for those who can’t find their way through the clutter to accomplish what they’d like to in life on a material and/or spiritual level. Her focus is on identifying one’s purpose behind getting organized and visualizing success.
“How to Organize Everything,” by Peter Walsh
A sort of encyclopedia of organizing — tips for organizing anything from a date to a wedding, a garden shed to a barn, an exercise regimen to hiking Everest.
Copperfield’s in Napa or Calistoga would be happy to order books for you or try www.amazon.com to find new or used copies.