No, no, I am not talking about the Joan Crawford tirade “I told you! No wire hangers, ever!” No Wire Hangers is the name of a green home organizing business located in Los Angeles and owned by Julie Naylon.
Julie is a professional organizer who is also passionate about being eco-friendly. A lot of people want to be green, but may stop short because they aren’t exactly sure what to do (and don’t read my blog!). Julie helps them lead a “more ecologically minded lifestyle.”
Julie grew up concerned about the environment, but ended up in the entertainment business after graduating from Columbia College in Chicago with a degree in film. She worked as an assistant for people like Jerry Bruckheimer and Nora Ephron, helping them organize their busy lives. Julie later moved to New York and worked with professional organizer Julie Morgenstern. Between projects, she began working to help individuals organize their home. When she saw how organization changed her client’s lives, she decided to add in her her passion for the environment to make things even better.
Why should we worry so much about being green at home? Julie lists some alarming facts on her web page. Did you know that 80% of what we use in our household is recyclable, yet we only recycle 28% of it? Here’s one that I am so guilty of – “We wear 30% of the clothes we own 80% of the time. The rest hangs there, just in case.” Julie even has a statistic about wire hangers – approximately 3.5 billion are dumped each year in landfills. That is enough to make about 60,000 cars.
Julie consults with her clients to find the problem areas in the household, and then they work together to sort and organize. Like many of the home reality shows, they divide things up into groups: donate, sell, keep, fix, or recycle. Julie also teaches people the best way to dispose of things. She also shows clients how to make small changes to become greener as well as showing them how to conserve and save.
If you don’t live in the LA area, don’t despair. You can gain helpful green hints on Julie’s blog.