What to Expect When Hiring a Professional Organizer

By Cindy Gunderson

What does a Professional Organizer do?

Understanding what Professional Organizers do is integral in achieving your organizing outcomes. A Professional Organizer uses principles and techniques to teach clients organizational skills and design customized systems. The organizer helps the client gain control over their time and space by creating organizing systems that an appropriate and customized for the client and helps the client develops skills to maintain organization.

Organizers come from a variety of backgrounds and professions and as such offer a wide array of organizing services. While most Professional Organizers specialize in either residential or business organization, there are niche services as well such as moving, estate organization, special population organizing (Attention Deficit Disorder, the chronically disorganized, children, seniors or students), event planning, and public speaking.

Residential Organizing specialists generally offer services such as decluttering of spaces, storage design, living space flow, personal coaching, time management, filing and home office organization, and planning, packing and unpacking for relocation.

Business Organizing specialists work with clients to improve and increase productivity, develop work flow systems, space design, paper filing and storage, electronic organizing, time management, create streamline inventory systems, space design, and much more.

While many Professional Organizers specialize in one or more areas, there are some services which most do not offer. Organizers typically don't offer cleaning or secretarial services, but often times can provide you with referrals to other businesses that do offer those services.

Now that you understand more about Professional Organizers, how do you find and hire them?

Finding a Professional Organizer is fairly simple, first, look online at the National Association of Professional Organizers (NAPO) website www.napo.net for free referrals. The alternative is searching local phone books or search engines for ads. Most organizers are listed as "Organizing Services: Household and Business" and will specify what type of organizing services they provide.

Once you contact a Organizer, he or she will do an initial consultation in person or over the phone to assess your needs, surroundings and ask questions about daily activities and long term goals. The assessment consultation may be provided for a fee or free of charge, it varies with each organizer, but they will make you aware of their policy. Based on the assessment the organizer may provide you with a verbal or written plan for the project, the cost, and develop a schedule for project completion.

If you hire a Professional Organizer who is a member of NAPO they must commit to the NAPO Code of Ethics. The Code of Ethics is a set of guidelines for professional conduct with clients, colleagues, and community. As a member of NAPO adhering to the Code of Conduct a member is committed to serving clients with confidentially, objectivity, integrity, competence, and with respect.

So what happens next?

After the assessment and all the terms have been agreed upon the Professional Organizer will schedule an appointment with you to begin the work. Your organizing project will require participation from both you and the Professional Organizer. The Professional Organizer will:

· Work hands-on physically

· Assess your personality type, work styles, and environmental influences to create the systems that work

best for your organizational needs.

· Give you workable suggestions, practical solutions, and methods of organization.

· Act in a respectful, nonjudgmental capacity

· Support and encouraging you to achieve your organizational goals

· Provide resources and tools that will save you time and money

As the client you will need to:

· Partner with your Organizer to work on all steps of the project

· Make decisions and be willing to let some things go

· Communicate what you are feeling to your Professional Organizer

· Be patient with your progress, but proud of your achievements

· Do your homework

· Maintain the work you've accomplished

Now that you have a better understanding of what services are provided, how the work is accomplished, and what is expected of the client, you can successfully initiate your organizational project.

Cindy Gunderson is the Chief Organizing Guru at TheChaosPlan.com the most comprehensive, creative and cutting-edge personal organization service on the web, we help men and women cut the clutter from their lives. Our members receive individualized attention, direct support, and access to dozens of resources. Sign up for a membership today @ http://www.thechaosplan.com

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Continue Staying Organized

By Julie Riber

Once you have organized your space whether it is a drawer or an entire room, the real challenge is keeping it that way. Many clients get their area or areas organized, but fail to realize that it requires monitoring and purging. It will take some additional work to maintain the organized space.

Once you have found a system that works for you, you must continue to monitor that system because updating is often needed. At least once per month you should look at the space and decide if there is a piece of the puzzle not working for you and readjust. Maybe you need to just take a few items out, or label some pieces you forget about because they are out of sight. After you have organized the space, make sure you come back in 6 months and look at all the pieces to see if some you have not used since the organization, and purge those. Eliminate items you are not using so those you are using are easily accessible. Making decisions about items coming into the space immediately will eliminate clutter because clutter is delayed decisions.

Review your processes for system often to make adjustments to reflect your current life. If you started the organizing when your child was 2 and they are now 13, the system should look and be different. If you change occupations or your family status changes, make adjustments to accommodate your changes. To stay on top of your spaces review them often.

Julie Riber has been a Professional Organizer since 2004. She helps organize her clients home and businesses. She is a Golden Circle member of the National Association of Professional Organizers and a board member of the Ohio Chapter of NAPO. Sign up for her free monthly newsletter with organizing tips. http://www.transformare.net

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My Favorite Organizing Products

By Julie Riber

My clients often need products for us to complete their organizing project. I have some favorites that I use consistently because they work in many of my client's spaces and I use them in my own home.

For storage, I recommend clear plastic totes. It is easy to see what is inside and they are available at a numerous stores across the country. Most stores have sales on them consistently so they are very affordable. Why plastic over a plain cardboard box? Critters like cardboard and will make a mess of your treasures especially if they have any type of material. Plastic eliminates the chances of this happening. Depending on where you have them stored, if a pipe bursts, water would ruin whatever is in a cardboard box where plastic would keep your treasures dry.

When it comes to shelving for the basement or other areas where installing is not needed or wanted, I use the metal shelving sometimes referred to as metro shelving. They are available in many stores and in 3, 4, and 5 shelf sizes. They are great for the basement for holiday decorations, appliances used occasionally, and other items you store in your basement. I have also used them in closets and kitchens.

For filing larger amounts of paper in one file, I use expandable hanging folders. You can get them in a couple different expanding sizes based on your needs and they have sides on them to keep small papers from falling out. I recommend getting colored hanging folders just to keep your filing a little more festive because the standard green can be very boring. These are available in office supply stores and large stores with an office supply area.

For taxes, I like the expandable folder so you can place all your tax information in as it arrives in January.

For the coat closet, I use the clear hanging shoe holder. Gloves, hats, scarves and other coat closet items fit so well and smaller members of the house can put their belongings away too. These clear hanging holders can also be used for small toys, crafts and bathroom items in homes that have small storage space.
Many of my clients have linens or off season clothes they would like to keep and the Ziploc tote is a great solution. It has a real zipper and the top has small breathe holes to keep the fabric from mildew and to keep the critters out.

Busy moms love to have snacks their kids can grab for school and lunch. I use the mesh CD holders sold in many office supply stores. It keeps the snacks from falling all over the cupboard and you can fit a box of them in one container.

To organize the drawers in the kitchen, bathroom or office, I use the clear organizers. They come in a variety of sizes and shapes perfect for any size drawer. They keep things looking neat and organized.

Children need a place to keep their toys, crafts, and assorted play things and I use the fabric tote sold in many stores in a large array of colors. They can be placed in specially designed shelving or on any book shelf. They are easy to label for kids to learn the easy way to pick up and put away their belongings.
Be careful not to buy an organizing product because it looks neat, be sure you have a specific plan and need for the item.

Julie Riber has been a Professional Organizer since 2004 and is a Golden Circle member with National Association of Professional Organizers. She helps her clients in their homes and in their businesses get their clutter out and their lives back. Visit her website for weekly tips http://www.transformare.net

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Organizing Your Time to Fit It All In

By Julie Riber

Time management is for everyone not just businessmen. If you are one of those feeling that you just can't get it all done, then you need to start by writing down your schedule for everyday for a week. Write down the time, the activity, and how long you spent on it. Include everything such as your morning routine, making meals, driving kids around, grocery shopping, even choosing clothes. After a few days you might start to see a pattern and some events you spend too much time completing or others you need to spend more time on.

For instance, if it is taking you 20 minutes in the morning to choose what to wear each morning, then possible going to choosing in the evening will save you time each morning. Pay close attention to times that you are wasting much of your time or it is taking longer than it should to complete a task. If you are a morning person, then the evening should not be the time you are trying to make a multitude of decisions. Leave that for afternoon or morning. The same goes for those of you who are not morning people. Make those decisions in the evening. Continue to look at your schedule and the events you're spending time on during the day.

Once you have a good idea of your days and weeks, sit down and decide what you can let go of and what can be tweaked. If you are spending 2 hours a day reading the paper, can you reduce that to just the main parts and then watch the local or national news? Don't save the papers and think you will read them all later, that trick never works. Your goal is to add some time to your schedule to fit more pertinent events in. You might decide that you need help in some areas such as cleaning or grocery shopping. Maybe you need to arrange more carpooling for kid's practices or parties.

Do not feel bad if you have to miss one or two games during the season. It happens and kids adjust much easier than we think. Do not be afraid to ask for help. Maybe you cannot afford a cleaning service every week or every other, but maybe once a month. Delegate some of the chores to others. Don't try to me super mom or dad as that will just wear you down and get less done. If you are going to the grocery store every day, maybe spending a little time planning the week of meals out will help you cut your time at the grocery store down. Spending a little time and planning ahead will award you with more time.

Learn to say no too. Do not feel the urge to say yes to every task someone asks you to take on or help with. Sometimes you just have to say your schedule currently does not allow you to add the time and maybe the next project you can help on.

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Why Purging Your Office Is So Important

By Julie Riber

Purging your office frequently can be one of the most important tasks you can perform whether you have a home office or share office space with others. I have many clients who call me to help them organize their office and we soon discover they have many items they will never need again. We usually find things they kept from their last job or calendars from 10 years ago. They are unable to find items they need now and often do a task twice because they lost the original. They also waste a considerable amount of time because they are constantly looking for things.

If you are wasting time everyday looking for lost reports, notes or files, then you need to purge and only keep those things you use and refer to often. Someday it could mean your job. You could be up for a promotion or downsizing could be happening in your workplace and if you are the least productive because you are always looking for things, the more organized worker will win.

Files also seem to be a problem as far as keeping paper never looked at again. Statistics show that 80% of the paper we keep, we will never look at again. Ask yourself what would happen if you did not have that piece of paper? Can it be obtained elsewhere? Keep completed projects in a space that will not interfere with your everyday job but where you can refer to them if need be. If a project was completed 5-10 years ago and you have not looked at it since and the information or technology is out of date, it is possible that purging is the best.

Always purge the outdated information. You certainly do not want to have the older version of a report while you are in a meeting. Take time to purge monthly and your productivity will improve greatly.

Julie Riber has been a professional organizer in the central Ohio area since 2004. She helps organize individuals spaces, time, and lives and she helps businesses streamline processes, increase productivity, and organize their spaces. She is a Golden Circle member of the National Association of Professional Organizers and a board member of the Ohio Chapter of NAPO since 2005. Sign up for her free monthly newsletter with organizing tips. http://www.transformare.net

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