ABOUT US

What you should know:

Patience Oaktree adventures are at the forefront of our endeavor to bring the field of professional organizing into popular culture. The stories are meant to be lighthearted but realistic, entertaining and educational. Their author, Valentina Sgro, has more than 20 years of experience in the professional organizing industry. We plan to continue to expand the world of Patience Oaktree with more books, extra stories in our blog, and videos.

What you could know:

Val’s years as a professional organizer have been a series of adventures, too.

There were the basics – 15 years working closely with both residential and business clients, analyzing their situations and designing integrated solutions that fit their unique circumstances and addressed all three areas critical to organization – space, time, and balance. In the course of learning more to help her clients, Val achieved her certificate as a Chronic Disorganization Specialist.

There was the limelight – Val spread her knowledge of organizing through a podcast, TV and radio appearances, magazine features, and many, many presentations, including at professional organizing conferences in three countries. Along with all that was the fun of learning what goes on behind the scenes. Although Val’s time now is devoted mostly to the Patience Oaktree adventures, she is still available for keynote addresses and fundraising presentations.

There was the service to the profession – Val is proud to have served a combined 14 years on the Boards of Directors of the two largest professional organizing associations in the world – NAPO (the National Association of Professional Organizers) and ICD (the Institute for Challenging Disorganization).  She believes her most significant contribution to NAPO was coordinating the establishment of an insurance program specific to professional organizers. She believes her most lasting contribution to ICD was chairing the committee that oversaw the association’s name change from the National Study Group on Chronic Disorganization to the Institute for Challenging Disorganization. Val’s continuing contribution to the profession is through Patience Oaktree.

There were awards – Val’s first book, Organize Your Family’s Schedule In No Time, commissioned by Que Publishing in 2004, won an iParenting Media Award. Val’s first novel, Patience and the Porsche, won the honor of Best Organizing Book at the 2008 Los Angeles Organizing Awards. And in 2009, Val received NAPO’s President’s Award. (Val also had the pleasure of accepting awards on behalf of ICD during her two years as ICD President.)

And a bit more – Val received her JD (law degree) from the University of Michigan Law School in 1980, and she still holds an active license to practice law in Ohio. She met her husband and now-illustrator of her books, Carl Cormany, while in law school. And, as she likes to remind their now-adult son, she will always be a mom.