Costco Connection - January 2006

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Tips for
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Angelo Surmelis shares
Clean Sweep secrets
By Judith Stock

“Every show has tears,” Surmelis continues. “This is the thing we work for. At the beginning of _You _don’t _have _to _hide _your _things _to _bethose two days it’s tears of frustration, and at the _organized, _says _Angelo _Surmelis; _they _justend it’s tears of joy. We’ve never had anyone say, ‘Put _have _to _have _their _own _place _to _go.my stuff back.’”

AS ONE OF THE design-team members on The Learning Channel’s Clean Sweep, Angelo Surmelis has pretty much seen it all. The TV show gives a couple two days to sort and toss out clutter while two rooms of their home are redesigned by the program’s interior designers.

“A lot of people who appear on the program haven’t seen their floors or walls in years,” Surmelis, a Costco member, tells The Connection. “One couple had a family room that hadn’t been entered for 15 years. It was like an archaeological dig.”

Until he joined the Clean Sweep team, Surmelis admits he had no idea that clutter could be so overwhelming for so many people.

“It’s not that easy to get rid of stuff,” he says. “There’s an emotional aspect to keeping it.” The real challenge comes when he attempts to make big changes in two short days.

While taping a show, Surmelis often sees a tremendous transformation. “There is this incredible moment—there’s resistance, then frustration, then the emotional breakdown and, at the end, all of a sudden they are plowing through the mess.

PHOTO COURTESY OF SWELL SPACE

Born in Germany of Greek parents, Surmelis grew up in Chicago. He demonstrated his future based in Los Angeles, to design interiors, outdoor career path when, at age 7, he rearranged the family’s spaces and events. living-room furniture and it actually looked better. Surmelis himself is the poster child for “a place

As a child, Surmelis read all the architectural for everything and everything in its place.” He con-

design magazines he could get his hands on. He fesses, “I have the opposite ‘disease’ from the people majored in architecture, but later switched to fine art on our show. I’m a neat freak.”

and design with a minor in theater. While working as What people learn on Clean Sweep sticks, he an actor in Chicago and New York, he also began notes. According to Surmelis, 70 percent of the peo-designing window displays. ple keep their homes neat and organized after the Nine years ago, Surmelis opened his own lights, cameras and the TLC design team leave. In design firm, Swell-Space ( www.swell-space.com), fact, Surmelis discovered that often couples would feel so empowered by what they’d accomplished during the show that they’d take on organizing The Costco Connection other rooms of their house. C

If it’s time for you to do a clean sweep, you’ll find various products to help with your Judith Stock is a Los Angeles writer who’s written for organizing needs at Costco warehouses and USA Weekend, National Wildlife and AARP. She costco.com, such as rolling storage racks, lam- promises to stop lining her furniture up against the inated shelving, plastic storage tubs and more. walls and has sworn off painting her walls white.

ANGELO SURMELIS shares his design philosophy.

■ People spend so much time in spaces designed for the public, such as offices, banks and schools. Your living space should be about you. But you can’t know what you want in your space unless you get out and check out the world. Put down the glue gun and start looking at public spaces as inspiration for your own home.

■ Your home shouldn’t look like you purchased everything from the Pottery Barn catalog, page 12. Find your own style. If you’re creatively challenged, look at home-design magazines and books, watch design shows and ask your more creative friends for inspiration.

■ A lot of people are afraid of color and end up with white walls. It’s just color—it can’t hurt you! Experiment with color choices. Have the paint store mix a pint of the color(s) you are thinking about and paint at least a 12-by-12-inch square on the wall to see how you like it. The color you love at 9 a.m. may not be so great at 9 p.m.

■ Move your furniture around and look at your space in a new light. You know what you like; you just haven’t paid attention. Stop taking your furniture hostage and putting it in a lineup against the wall. Move the furniture away from the walls, let your room breathe and create better flow. If you don’t like the way it looks after you move it, try another layout or move it back.