Clutter Control: How To Work With a Professional Organizer

mom • home management • parenting • home management

by Debbie Sardone on September 27th, 2011 | No Comments »

Clutter Control—As part of this clutter control series, we’ll be discussing ways to free yourself from a cluttered home and uncover simple organization tips that you can follow to live in a more organized and functional home. Today’s rule is all about calling in a professional to help you organize your home.

Clutter Control Rule #13: Call in a Professional.

A whole new profession has arisen of saintly people who make their living solving other people's clutter and organizational problems. They will come into your home and—working either with you or by themselves—will clean out the closets, install the necessary organizers, set up a filing system for you, and generously encourage the calm you've longed for to emerge from the chaos that's been driving you crazy.

If you opt to have the professional work with you, use this time to observe and ask them about their techniques and why they like what they do. Their responses might be things you haven't thought about before and could be just the encouragement you need to keep your home clutter free.

How do you find a pro? Look in the yellow pages under "Organizing." In my city's yellow pages they're listed under "Organizing Services and Systems—Household and Business." Some other places to look are the advertisement spaces of your neighborhood fliers, and also and through community-oriented classes. Household organizing or anti-clutter classes are taught several times a year in some cities and the instructors usually work in the field themselves.

However, there's a catch to this rule. We insist that you use the service only if you promise to follow all the other rules once the professional has come and gone. Otherwise, he or she will leave, and the clutter will return almost immediately unless you modify your behavior. That would be unfortunate because you would have paid someone to de-clutter your home, but it will only stay like that for a short time. Again, take this opportunity to learn from the ones who know what they are doing and continuing with the upkeep. Implementing this rule does not reduce the number of rules to just this one, in other words.

Have you ever called in a professional to help you organize your home? How did the organizer help you get and stay on track with maintaining your home's organization?

To follow along in this series, please be sure to check out the previous clutter control tips and tricks:

Debbie Sardone is the founder of Cleaning For a Reason which provides free cleaning services to women who are touched by cancer. She also owns a Dallas cleaning service.

Her long-time passion for teaching cleaning and organizational has lead her to continue the legacy of Speed Cleaning and the use of green cleaning products.

She can be followed as @DebbieSardone on Twitter.