Vancouverites, Let Organizing Queen Julie Skillan Set You Free From Clutter

January 18th, 2007

Vancouverites, Let Organizing Queen Julie Skillan Set You Free From Clutter

Julie Skillen is a friend of mine and a super-duper professional organizer. Our apartment has always been, to the casual visitor, sparsely furnished. However, it had concealed pockets of messiness, which Julie promptly beat into submission and order.

Consider, for example, our hall closet. Here’s the before:

And here’s the after:

Her company is called the TAO: The Art of Organizing, and the result is a certain zen (I know that’s Buddhist, but just play along) sense of order. Don’t take my word for it–here are quotes from a bunch of happy customers.

Comments: 7 Responses so far

Andy K
January 19th, 2007
6:10 pm

While I certainly respect your blogging and your friends’ businesses, I have to ask what prompted this article. It seems a little more commercial than most, with no story or message beyond the advertisement.

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Tom Williams
January 19th, 2007
7:24 pm

Darren, I’m a big fan of Julie’s as well. She has helped Jess organize the upstairs office at GiveMeaning.

Andy, why is that even a question? Someone from raving about a friend’s service? Why is Darren talking about Julie any different than your review of a restaurant? He’s disclosed that he is a personal friend, I don’t get why it’s even an issue?

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darren
January 19th, 2007
8:01 pm

Andy: Indeed, Tom said it better than I could. I’m obviously promoting my friend’s services which I’ve used and been happy with. I’ve disclosed my relationship with her–must I articulate my motivations behind every post?

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Andy K
January 22nd, 2007
5:36 pm

I realize I asked an impolite question about personal motivations. It was meant to be rhetorical, not expecting a direct answer.

I guess I’m stuggling to define my relationship to advertising, both on the blogs I read and the one I write. I was hesitant to even put that restaurant review (the only one so far) on my own blog. One way in which it was different is that I made it clear I received no compensation, Darren didn’t say either way. The other difference is that there was a third party question that triggered my post.

I’m really not holding it against Darren (or his friend’s business), I just wanted to point out that this one article of his, more than any other I recall, sounded like paid ad-content.

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darren
January 22nd, 2007
6:36 pm

Andy: Thanks for the clarification. I think I’ve been pretty consistent in disclosing all my connections, and have never published paid ad-content. So it’s unlikely that I would do so without mentioning it, don’t you think?

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