Faces of Our Community
The Efficiency Project
Alia Glasgow and Casey Geeb
The Efficiency Project was founded by us... sisters, Alia Glasgow and Casey Geeb (yeah yeah yeah...Crump sisters for locals.) We are obsessed with styling homes for an organized and efficient lifestyle. With our nit-picking habits we inherited from our perfectionist mother and neat freak father, we both gravitated towards careers that allow us to control our environments and make them prettier, Alia an event producer and Casey an interior designer. By combining our skills and our need for structure our little side hustle was created!
As Santa Barbara natives, born and raised, we get true Santa Barbara style. Tourists see SB as a beach town destination for the rich and famous but we know what real lifestyle in the 805 is like, what the cute cottages on the Westside are like to grow up in, what being a Goodland mama means and how it feels to be raised by the waves of Carp.
The whole mission of our PROJECT is to help families like our own, conquer their spaces, get their shit together and win back time so they can do what they are passionate about. Our job is to create efficient interiors for real life with STYLE and win back some of your precious time so you can spend it doing what you love....for us that’s get back to the beach!
Meet Alia & Casey:
Q: How did you start your business?
A: We found ourselves constantly doing organizing and interior design-like favors for friends...picking out their curtains, choosing a floor tile, purging their closet and advising on furniture layout. Casey is an interior designer and Alia is an event planner. We are sisters with similar interest and personalities, both detail oriented with a good eye for design so it is only natural that our friends would want to pick our brain. Three years ago we started our little side hustle of interior styling and organizing and now it has grown into a full time business with a growing team!
Q: Why did you start your business?
A: Since we were kids we have been obsessed with order and design, playing house was our favorite. We didn't care about who was the mom or what the pretend family was doing, there really wasn't any game at all, we only cared about how the playhouse looked, what scarf would make the best curtain and if our mom would notice that we stole the bath mat as our new area rug. We shared a room into our teenage years and even that was constantly being "re-done." We would reorganize our drawers, repaint our dresser and rearrange our furniture just for fun. When we finally did get our own rooms we still helped each other pick out wall paint color and decorate the book cases. So, even though The Efficiency Project is only three years old, as sisters we have worked together for a lifetime! We are still each others sounding boards for our own home projects and we love helping our friends and now our clients create their dream homes
Q: What has been a struggle of owning your own business, and how are you overcoming that?
A: Like so many small start up companies, there was a lot of ups and downs in the beginning. The main issue was how to get clients consistently. Marketing and social media are not our strong suits and we have to work really hard to just be mediocre at it. Slowly but surely we started to get more word of mouth referrals and build a return client base. Casey still works for an interior design firm and had that income to fall back on but Alia let go of her day job to pursue The Efficiency Project full time so it was often scary financially when no new clients were coming in.
Q: What is the Efficiency Project’s specialty?
A: We specialize in designing and styling homes with efficiency in mind. There are many designers who are not organized and many organizers who don't have an eye for design...we can do both! We want a home to be beautiful, feel welcoming and like a reflection of our clients personality but with real life function. Many designers can create a magazine picture perfect kitchen but does it actually work for the family cooking in it? Well, since we have organized many of those designer kitchens, we can tell you that many do not!
Q: What is the Efficiency Project all about?
A: For The Efficiency Project, our mission has always been to create efficient spaces for real life with style. The relationship between organization and design for us goes hand in hand. If it it pretty but doesn't work, its out. If it is necessary but not nice to look at we will come up with a creative solution to make that item work in the space.
We are most proud of the results we achieve for our clients lifestyle, yes we leave them with a more beautiful space. But we are thoughtful in teaching them new efficient lifestyle habits and leaving them with manageable organization system that is life changing!
