All You Need To Know About Working With a Professional Organizer

Is your home driving you crazy? Do you dream of a streamlined, uncluttered, organized space that invites you to relax at the end of a long day? An organized home is one of the best investments you can make in your mental health. Yet many folks are hesitant to take the plunge and hire a Professional Organizer.

Why? It may seem weird to have a stranger in your home touching your stuff.  You might worry that a professional will judge you for all the stuff you accumulated or the mess your children seem to leave in their wake.  Maybe you feel guilty, thinking ‘I really should do this myself.’  All totally normal and understandable reservations.  

Last week I wrote about the different levels of support available to help you finally declutter and organize your home. If the thought of decluttering and organizing completely stresses you out but you’ve been hesitant to contact a professional let me ease your fears. What is it really like to work with a Professional Organizer?

‘This person doesn’t know me’

A good Professional Organizer should be curious about you and your lifestyle.  She will ask you questions about your family and how you use the spaces in your home.  She will ask you about traffic flow and what drives you crazy about your house. Then she’ll incorporate all those data points when designing systems that are easy and intuitive to maintain. Organizing isn’t about implementing some cookie-cutter blueprint that applies to everyone. Every household is different.  The more the organization systems in your home are a reflection of you, the better chance you have of sustaining them over time.  So remember, the more an organizer knows about your life, the better you will feel when her work is done!

‘I’m scared to be judged’

Most people want to apologize for the state of their home when a Professional Organizer comes over for a consultation.  Some people can’t stop apologizing. And some folks are so paralyzed by the fear of being judged that they never even make it to the consultation.  Let me ease your fears on this point. A Professional Organizer has seen everything!  Your house is not going to phase them! Where you see a nightmare a professional sees opportunity. Where you see a trail of your kids’ crap a professional sees a traffic pattern.  Most importantly, here you see a source of stress, a professional envisions the transformed product and the systems needed to achieve your goals.  So don’t worry about judgment because working with a Professional Organizer means you are entering a judgment-free zone.

“I have a hard time letting go’

Organizing, especially the decluttering part, is hard for a lot of people.   Depending on what you are decluttering it can range from monotonous to traumatic, with many variations in between.  When you hire a Professional Organizer to help you declutter, you are hiring emotional support.  She has no attachment to your stuff and knows all the strategies to help you overcome feelings of fear and guilt. She can also provide a buffer zone when spouses have different philosophies on how much to keep, or what to purge!

Many people are scared of someone coming in to tell them to get rid of everything they own. Wrong!  A Professional Organizer should help you identify the items that matter to you and why they are worth keeping. She will offer gentle pressure, keeping you on track while reminding you why you are decluttering in the first place.

Basically, an Organizer can move your project forward in a caring, respectful way, giving you a soft place to land while making tough decisions.  You can do hard things…especially if you hire a Professional Organizer!

‘My brain doesn’t work that way’

A Professional Organizer’s mind works differently than most people’s.  She will find opportunities to optimize for the quality of life in your home; saving you time, money and sanity in the process. A good Professional Organizer usually has a gift for process, which is helpful when designing a space that functions smoothly.  She will remove friction points from family routines. She’ll help you prioritize to make the most frequently-used items the most accessible. Most importantly, she’ll point you towards storage solutions that enhance the aesthetics in your home! (And she’ll also let you know when they aren’t needed!)

She can see your space as it could be and will also be able to identify the most efficient path to get there. The best organizers will also give you insights on how to build good organizational habits, because they think about this stuff all the time – it’s how their brain works!

If you’d like to find an organizer who services your area please reach out! I have professional conacts throughout the US and can help point you to someone great! If you need help in the Seattle area or would like to learn more about my Custom Blitz service (where I travel to you!) check out my Home Organizing Services. Remember, the hardest part is starting – it’s all downhill from there!