Ciao! We're back from l'Italia. Lots to upcoming organizing tidbits to share, including the exciting Martha Stewart 15th Anniversary 'Good Things' event we attended in New York City last Saturday.
What we did find when we returned on Sunday, was a front-page article in the Sunday Los Angeles Times Real Estate section that featured yours truly, John Trosko and OrganizingLA. There's a new trend in-town: super-sized, 3-car garages. New homebuilders in Southern California are responding to consumer demands for additional storage space for all the toys.
With interviews from National Association of Home Builders, Toll Brothers, Pardee Homes, GarageTek, Gladiator GarageWorks, and Garage Envy, as well as one of our local Los Feliz clients, we're in good company. Only 12% of homeowners actually park their car inside the garage:
"This is not news to Los Angeles-based John Trosko, self-styled organizing expert and founder of OrganizingLA.
Although garages might be evolving, Trosko said, homeowners are not.
"God forbid Southern Californians use the garage for its intended use: parking a car," he said. "They use them as a sort of waystation for life. They aggressively throw stuff in them in order to avoid decisions.""
For a limited time, you can read Michelle Hofmann's article by clicking here (free subscription may be required.) Picture above from Ricardo DeAratanha/LAT.
So OrganizingLA Blog readers-- you've got toys and local homebuilders respond with more storage space. Are you in heaven?
Related Posts:
- Estates West Magazine Interviews John Trosko for article on high-rise organizing
- Garage Shelving Solutions, With Great Links to Lots of Products
- New Home Builders Offering Super Bowl Bashes to Buyers
- The Garage: Birthplace of Hewlett-Packard
- In Beverly Hills, Even the Trash Can Be Pricey
Congratulations, John. Nice that they featured one of your clients as well. That certainly gives you some garage cred.
Posted by: Denise aka The Blog Squad | October 02, 2006 at 05:27 PM
Bonissimo John!
Posted by: Scott | October 02, 2006 at 06:00 PM
Woohoo John! Good job!!
Posted by: Monica Ricci | October 03, 2006 at 07:56 AM
My folks have an air conditioned 3-car garage for their cars. It's like a room extension of their home, as many homeowners are doing these days. Read about this in my blog post "Garage Retreats - bigger, bolder, better" at http://www.organized-living.com/get_organized_weblog/2006/07/garage-retreats.html
Posted by: Cyndi Seidler | October 03, 2006 at 08:02 AM
Congratulations!! Wish we had room for 3 car garages here in Northern NJ... you're very lucky if you have a garage at all in this part of the state... even 2 car garages a big luxury here!
Posted by: Ariane Benefit from Neat Living | October 07, 2006 at 12:28 PM
Ariane,
You'd think from that article, that SoCal is just flushed with space for three and four car garages.... the "average" (if there is an average person here.. ha ha!) usually is LIMITED in space to two-car garages. Or even one. I think a lot of the homes that were built in the 20's and 30's and 40's had one garage because driving just wasn't that important back then, or families could only afford one car. Boy, things have changed. I suspect it's the same way in Northern New Jersey-- the more congested the area is, the smaller the garages seem to be.
Posted by: John Trosko | October 07, 2006 at 01:25 PM