What To Expect When You Hire A Professional Organizer

Want to Get Organized?

If you’re considering hiring a professional organizer but you’re not sure if it’s right for you, this post breaks down exactly what you can expect if decide to go ahead and get some help in your home.

The first step to any organizing project is a consultation – either in person, virtually, or even just a phone call. This is the time when you can explain what areas in your home you’re struggling with, what you would like to accomplish, and your ideal timeline. This is also when your organizer can explain their costs, talk to you about how they work, and what resources they have to ensure that your job will be handled professionally from start to finish.

As with any professional collaboration, make sure you feel comfortable with the organizer and have confidence that they are listening to you and understand the goals you have for your home.

Some questions to ask:

  • How much experience do you have?
  • Do you work alone or do you have a team?
  • Are there any extra potential charges I may incur?

Every home is unique and depending on the complexity of your situation, costs and timelines will vary. Make sure you have a full understanding of the details of your project before you commit.

If you’ve hired a professional organizer to help you declutter your home, prepare for some amazing changes! Decluttering can be emotionally difficult and overwhelming, but with the help of an organizer you’ll be able to make decisions that have eluded you in the past. Sometimes it just takes a person who isn’t invested to ask you the right questions to help you let go of things you don’t actually want or need. We recommend choosing the areas that cause you the most stress to declutter with your organizer because working in those spaces will give you the confidence you need to handle the process on your own moving forward.

Some questions to ask:

  • How will you handle it if I don’t want to get rid of as much as you think I should?
  • Do you have any systems that might make the process easier for me?
  • How many areas will we be able to declutter in the time allowed?

We’re firm believers that the purpose of organizing is to make your life easier. While labels and color coding can look amazing, if it takes more time and energy than you have to maintain, you’ll likely be frustrated with the results in the future. Make sure you convey your preferences to your organizer. You may want highly curated spaces that are labeled and arranged just so, and have the resources to keep up with it – and that’s a fantastic option. Or you may have a huge busy family life and just want a way to maintain order regardless of how it ultimately looks, which is also a fantastic option. Try to be realistic about how much you can keep up with before you decide on how you want your home organized.

Some questions to ask:

  • What is your organizing philosophy? Is the goal function or aesthetics?
  • Will you work with me to ensure my family and I can implement your changes?
  • Do you organize all spaces if necessary? For example, do you handle something as small as the space underneath the bathroom sink to something as large as a basement or garage?

If you’ve done a lot of decluttering on your own, you probably know that dealing with the things you no longer want can be as challenging as the decluttering itself. Many of our clients have homes that are chaotic and overfull because they don’t know how to responsibly get rid of things and feel guilty enough that they choose inaction over making a “bad” decision. A professional organizer can make sure that donations, garbage and recycling are handed, so at the end of the day, you aren’t stuck looking at bags of things that will sit in the back of your closet for weeks, months or even years to come.

Some questions to ask:

  • Will you take away my donations and garbage at the end of the job?
  • Do you work with a hauling company? Is that an extra charge?
  • Can you assist me with items I may want to sell? Do you have any consignment contacts?

Hopefully, after your project is completed you’ll be thrilled with the results. But even better is if your organizer has taught you a few things along the way and set you up for lasting success. While decluttering and organizing aren’t rocket science, there are proven strategies and techniques that make homes run more efficiently. As you go through the process, make sure to pay attention to how your organizer is working and ask questions about their methods if they don’t make sense to you – it may be something you’ve never thought of doing that could change the way you run your home.

Some questions to ask:

  • Will the systems you implement be easy to upkeep?
  • Will you teach me your strategies as we go along?
  • Do you have a maintenance program that I can sign up for?

When we first started our business over a decade ago, we worked incredibly hard but we weren’t always confident in our methods. But after helping hundreds of clients, we’ve gained a ton of knowledge and perfected our systems and now have a huge network of trusted partners. If you need help in your home, contact us today! Our team is efficient, kind and professional and can handle any situation in a remarkably short amount of time. Reach out, we’d love to help you!