What exactly does a professional organizer do?
You’re probably wondering whether this is really a thing! Well, believe it or not, professional home organizing companies exist all over the United States.
That said, a professional organizer is an individual who has gained considerable organizational skills and applies that knowledge to help other people become more organized in their homes. They help their clients create a more effective and efficient approach to organization and decluttering the different spaces of a home.
A good professional organizer assesses the organizational needs of a client, how much space they have, the number of items they have, what needs to go, and how they can make the most of their space. This can be in the client’s home, office, storage unit, or even digital space.
So What Exactly Does a Professional Organizer Do?
A professional organizer assists families and individuals through the process of organizing and decluttering their homes and helping you decide what items should stay and what should go.
Additionally, home organizers can help implement organization products to streamline the organization in your home better and help keep it that way. Many organizers will assist their clients with the shopping and decision-making based on a client’s product budget.
A professional organizer brings much-needed value to a chaotic life. They have the skills to listen without judgment and help you make better organizational decisions faster to improve your day-to-day lifestyle (and organize your space, too).
Some work exclusively with a specific group of clients, such as those with hoarding disorder or the elderly, while others specialize in downsizing and business/office organization. Additionally, some work solo and others have teams of 2, 3, or more organizers for any particular project.
While the list of what professional organizers can do for you is long, here’s a look at how they can help you organize the different spaces in your home:
What Areas Can They Help With?
Kitchens & Pantries
A professional organizer can organize your kitchen by organizing and decluttering your pantry, cabinets, drawers, shelves, countertops, and more.
Organizing and decluttering a kitchen typically begins in the pantry, starting with removing expired or unused items, followed by sorting and categorizing the items. Once the pantry is complete, an organizer will help declutter your drawers, cabinets, and shelving to give you more space. Once that space is created, it is much easier to organize the different spaces and incorporate new products.
The kitchen is often a great space to incorporate organizational products as it looks great and helps maintain organization.
Some of our favorites include,
- Lazy Susans
- Tiered Shelving
- Wicker and clear bins for the panty
- Drawer dividers
Living Rooms
The living room is a focal point in your home. And so, it must stay neat and tidy for ultimate peace and mind at home. Some professional organizers assist with space planning, and n organizer can give you an honest appraisal of the current layout of your living room.
They will tell you whether your furniture works well for space and whether there’s ample space for books, video games, movies, or any other item you would like to add to your living room. They’ll then remove any items that encourage clutter and disorganization or block the flow with your approval.
They may recommend a list of items to buy, including furniture and storage materials (most organizers recommend pieces that provide hidden storage space or lateral materials that free up floor space).
Finally, they’ll work with you to integrate the existing pieces with the new items to create a well-organized home. Generally, an organizer will provide clear labeling and an easy-to-follow that allows you to recall what to do long after they have gone.
Bedrooms & Closets
A professional organizer can organize your bedroom so it’s appealing while still neatly accommodating clothes and other personal items for productivity. Often, a client may work with a single organizer to go through each and every item in a bedroom and closet to decide what to keep and what to donate.
The process of decluttering is a big step in organizing a bedroom or closet. It ultimately gives you more space and makes organizing and keeping your space organized easier.
Once that step has been finished, an organizer will begin to sort and categorize the different items in your drawers and closet. Once categorized, an organizer will put all the items back in an organized and appealing fashion.
The bedroom and closet also offer an excellent opportunity to incorporate organizational products. An experienced organizer may recommend new products such as wicker baskets or bins, but they may also recommend storage pieces that need to be built, such as shoe racks or storage cabinets.
Bathrooms
The bathroom often offers limited space, and finding a space for all of your things can be tricky.
A professional organizer can help maximize your bathroom space to house all of your essentials. They may recommend installing extra shelving or organization products to increase storage space. Additionally, they will work in your cabinets and drawers to add functionality to your most essential items.
Garages
For most people, there always seems that there isn’t enough space in their garage. Often, the garage is where most overflow tends to pile up, mainly due to the poor organization in other areas of the home.
From being able to fit your cars in the garage again to knowing where everything is, organizing your garage can be a breath of fresh air.
Professional organizers aren’t afraid to get dirty and may recommend incorporating organizational and storage products to create more space for all items housed in the garage. Much like other areas of the home, a team of organizers will begin to remove all of the items and sort and categorize them, followed by using storage pieces to create maximum organization in your garage.
Our favorite storage and organizational pieces include
- Large black and yellow storage bins
- Garden wall hangers
- Large labels
What to Expect with Professional Organizers
If you’re considering hiring a professional organizer for the first time, the chances are that you have a lot of questions regarding the organization process.
When you hire a professional organizer, you can expect them to either work independently or with you to decide how best to create more function in different living spaces in your home. They can also help you determine what to keep, the unwanted items you should get rid of, and how to get rid of them (e.g., through donations, yard sales, trash/haul, etc.)
Some organizers may require you to be present and active throughout the process, but some organizers don’t require you to be home while organizing your home.
What They Don’t Do
There are several things that a professional organizer won’t do, and the reasons could vary from safety to how much insurance they carry.
For instance, they don’t necessarily offer cleaning services. But they do ‘light cleaning,’ which entails ensuring spaces they work on are wiped off, dusted, etc.
Also, some organizers don’t work with a certain level of hoarding situations. Professional organizing companies leverage the clutter-hoarding scale to identify the critical issues with the overall safety of an interior of a home before deciding whether they can work on it or not.
However, organizers can often be well connected in their industry and may recommend that they can help with areas of organization they don’t cover.
What Else Do They Do?
Most professional organizers work in other areas in the home, too.
According to Olivia Parks, “many clients think our services stop at in-home organization, but we also offer other services to help our clients rid their homes of clutter. We offer packing and unpacking for a move, senior downsizing, donation and trash hauling, and more.”
Besides these services, many professional organizers can incorporate organization products such as shelves, closets, cabinets, and drawers in client homes. Moreover, they can help clients purchase and build products that fit their space best.
Now, How Do I Find a Professional Organizer
Now that you know how a professional home organizer can help you? How do you find one? You could perform a Google search for the highest-rated professional home organization companies in your area, ask in local Facebook groups, ask people in your circle for references, or look through NAPO (National Association of Productivity & Organizing Professionals) for a certified professional organizer.
No matter how you find your professional organizer, ensure that you do your due diligence. Check for previous work and client reviews.
Final Thoughts
While organizing your home or office space may seem simple, it requires a lot of planning, patience, a keen eye for detail, time management, knowledge of custom organizational systems, and organizational skills.
Fortunately, most professional home organizers possess these attributes.If you’re ready to improve the organization of various spaces in your home, My Professional Organizer can help. With our team, you can transform your home into an organized and clutter-free living space that you and your family can enjoy.
Contact us today to schedule your home for our professional organization services.
