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| FEATURED ORGANIZER - Joshua Zerkel |
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Joshua Zerkel of Custom Living Solutions
Joshua Zerkel is a San Francisco based professional organizer. We asked him to share a little about himself and Custom Living Solutions, the business he began four years ago.
How did you get started as a professional organizer?
At every job, I was always the guy with the organized desk. People started asking me about how I was able to keep everything so organized, and I would show them my techniques. It felt very natural for me to teach other people how to get organized. After a while, I thought it might be a good idea to start looking at how I could turn this into a career. A short while later, I started Custom Living Solutions, and the rest is history!
What are your specialties?
I really enjoy working with clients in their home offices and business offices. In San Francisco, there are many entrepreneurs who have home offices, but nobody is ever trained how to make the most of their space and how to manage the influx of paper. That's where I come in!
What was your previous career?
Prior to becoming a professional organizer, I worked in various roles in the computer world as an interface, multimedia, and graphic designer. My previous career continues to serve me well, as in both careers I am asked to create systems where none exist, and to keep an eye towards aesthetics. One of the things that sets me apart from other organizers is that as a trained designer, I'm more aware of aesthetics, their importance, and how to incorporate a client's style into their organizing projects.
What are some of your favorite organizing products?
Since I do a lot of work in home offices, I'm constantly dealing with cable clutter. I'm always looking for new ways to hide and/or eliminate cables. I usually use an array of gizmos to help hide and control whatever cables are left - the Cable Safe to lift cables off the floor (http://www.cable-safe.com), the Black Box to hide cables and a Cable Zipper to route cables towards their destinations.
Give us your BEST organizing idea.
I worked with a client who has a scrapbooking business, and in scrapbooking there are lots of little bits of paper, decorations, and other items that need to be stored. The client had purchased some clear plastic boxes to store the little doodads, but visually the end result wasn't that attractive because you could see all the little bits inside the boxes. To make the containers look more appealing, I suggested using some of the extra decorative paper to line the inside of the clear boxes. The client loved the idea - and it made everything look much more uniform and attractive.
Tell us about your most interesting organizing experience.
San Francisco is full of interesting people, and as one of the only male organizers in the area, I've had MANY wacky experiences! But ribald tales aside, one of my most interesting organizing experiences was when I was helping to organize the office and storage areas of a high-end auto detail shop. I didn't even know that such places needed organizing! It was a fun project - I had to think of new ways to store things so that each of the employees had access to supplies and the paperwork for each job, as well as keeping the expensive supplies where only the manager could access them. The business itself was very busy, and it was great to see how organizing was making things easier for the people who worked there.
If you would like to contact Joshua Zerkel:
Phone: 415-830-8297 (San Francisco Bay Area)
Phone: 310-817-6509 (Los Angeles area)
Email: info@customlivingsolutions.com
Custom Living Solutions
http://www.customlivingsolutions.com
PO Box 411564
San Francisco, CA 94141 |
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CURRENT FEATURE ORGANIZER
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Kathi Burns of Add Space to Your Life!
Sunny San Diego, California is the home of professional organizer Kathi Burns. She began her business, Add Space to Your Life!, just over four years ago.
Meet a professional organizer who has some great tips to share.
Read more...
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