Professional Organizer

[PTL]

Anyone ever hire someone to come to their house and organize? I am seriously considering it and would like some feedback if anyone has info. Mainly cost and what they did as well as if you were satisfied.

 

[mommyoftwinfants]

I have never hired a professional but if you message me your email I can send you some great tips with pics which will make your life so much easier to be organized

 

[happily single]

I would love to do this as well, but I think in my area the organizers charge about $100+ per hour. So if anyone could start posting their suggestions that would be great.

My first suggestion is to sort the mail as soon as it comes and dispose of all the junk mail immediately

 

[Sagginit]

i have never hired an organizer but for a cheaper solution look into a cleaning lady. my co-worker pays her lady an extra 20-30 a day to organize her closet or dresser on some of her cleaning days. i also know someone that cleaned and she started offering organizing as one of her services. she did fairly well as a lot of people added it on to the service (because people that don't want to clean their house each week really don't wake up on their days off and go let's clean out the garage!). ask around to people you know that have cleaning ladies and see if any do organization on the side.

if you want to do it yourself my advice is baby steps. even if it is one pile of clutter a day. i also now take 2 min to sort the mail each day. junk gets toss, to do goes in a pile, and shred goes straight to a pile next to the shredder. papers are the thing i hate so i got a bunch of plastic accordion files an started using those. real simple.com will have lots of advice as well.

 

[mommyoftwinfants]

The #1 key for me is to make sure EVERTHING has a home, also make a space for stuff to be put up later, but you have to pick a day and time of the week to put the 'stuff' up and commit to that time.

 

[a1tinkfans]

Touch it ONCE and do with it what has to be done..that piece of mail...dont make piles for later....rip it up, pay the bill, etc etc....

Id never pay anyone to organize...just start with one draw in one room and continue in that room till done, then move to the next.....it really is a great way to RID yourself of clutter

 

[Kellydelly]

I would pay someone just to sit and watch me/make me organize . I looked into it once but the fees were laughable, I thought. I can't just pay someone $50 an hour and have them come advise me for 6 hrs, they won't do it that way (which is what I can afford). You have to pay for an overall "plan" and then per hour on top of that (at least when I was checking it out). I am not paying someone $1000 to tell me what to do but not help me, I kinda already know .

 

[DebMcDonald]

My husband works at The Container Store, if you don't have one in your area, hang out on their website and sign up for their emails. I'm not an organized person by nature, but once my husband gets his hands on it, it's much easier for me to keep it up because everything then has a place. I also agree, start small, under your bathroom cabinets, in your linen closet. Sometimes to stay organized it takes purchasing items, bins, etc. Also don't be afraid to through away.

 

[Debbie7452]

Step 1: Watch a few episodes of Hoarders.

Step 2: Get to work...it will be much easier after watching that show!

Sorry to joke. I have a friend that does this professionally, but I've never seen what it's really like. My Mom paid for my Sis to have her closet "professionally" organized, but it didn't take in her case. I know the Container Store will help you for free if you take in dimensions and pictures. This is what I'm planning on doing for my closet. It's not really messy, but a bad design has resulted in a lot of wasted space!

 

[shelwoj]

Go to the library and see what books you can find from Peter Walsh. He was the organizer on the TLC show Clean Sweep. He gets you to look at things in an objective way making it easier to de-clutter and organize.

Take a look at this blog/website it could be very helpful. http://iheartorganizing.blogspot.com/