What is a Professional Organizer?
Definition
A professional organizer, “provides information, products and assistance to help others organize to meet their needs. A professional organizer should guide, encourage and educate clients about basic principles of organizing by offering support, focus and direction.”1
Qualities
Experienced & Skilled – Whether from previous organizing jobs or their lives prior to professional organizing, organizers bring with them a wealth of knowledge and the tools to provide the best results for your project.
Hard Working – A professional organizer will work to get the job done involving you in as much or as little of the process as you would like.
A Good Listener – The organizing process can be an intimate one. An organizer must listen to the needs and wants of the client in order to provide appropriate solutions that will lead to lasting results. Always, it is the client who has final say over any decisions that must be made and what suggestions will be implemented.
A Teacher – Through example and instruction, an organizer will comunicate the skills a client needs to maintain the new system and to apply what they have learned to other areas.
Creative – “When people engage in self-help efforts alone they tend to try to impose someone else‚Äôs idea of being organized on themselves.” (p. 9) explains Judith Kolberg.2 Professional organizers provide customized solutions that fit the client.
Inquisitive – As Julie Morgenstern states in her book, Organizing from the Inside Out, “In order to reach any goal, you have to begin by defining it.” (p. 39). A professional organizer will ask questions in order to understand your situation and define your goals.
Objective & Sympathetic – An organizer will provide honest, relevant feedback that will help the client achieve their organzing goals.
A Member of NAPO – The National Association of Professional Organizers provides a code of ethics that members must abide by as well as training and networking. Organizers that are members of this group have made a committment to you and to their business.
Why Hire a Professional Organizer?
“For many years, people have struggled without the professional assistance needed to help them get organized. As a result, they suffered with inadequate filing systems, information overload, lost productivity, and general overwhelm. Without the knowledge to create organizing systems, they have become victims of inefficiency.” — Cyndi Seidler, A Manual for Professional Organizers
A professional organizer will provide you with a fresh prospective as well as the support you need to reach your organizing goals in a timely manner. The solutions that she presents will help you to reduce stress and increase productivity. Clients have found working with an organizer to make the otherwise sometimes dull, challenging work of organizing, fun.
© 2004 Nettie Owens, Professional Organizer, Member of NAPO
1 National Association of Professional Organizers, http://www.napo.net
2 What Every Professional Organizer Needs to Know about Chronic Disorganization
