Learning how to become a professional organizer is an exciting process; from practice, to training, to professional experience, and finally certification – you will definitely learn something new every step of the way! Are you ready to organize? Learn how you can go pro today!

How to Become a Professional Organizer

Some people are born with a natural talent for organizing, but going professional is a completely different story.

It takes a special kind of person (one who exudes efficiency, is fascinated by function) to help the disorganized get their lives and homes back on track.

If you want to learn how to become a certified professional organizer, you have to start with the First Step: practice, and lots of it!

Organize for your friends, family, neighbors – make sure that you “really” love the art before you commit!

Step Two is a little bit more difficult.

There are plenty of online courses and location-based classes out there designed to help you figure out how to become a professional organizer. These resources are great for beginners, but classes are not a prerequisite to professional practice by any means. However, you may want to remember that professional organizer certification often requires lengthy exams so you can never be “too prepared”.

Gaining professional experience is the Third Step in the path to becoming a fully-fledged member of the pro organizer community.

You may not yet possess the qualifications to call yourself a professional organizer, but you can still explore several related areas that demonstrate your abilities: publish articles or speak to schools about the art of organization, become an apprentice to a practicing professional, or expand into project management at your current company.

Get creative – if you want to know how to become a professional organizer, then you already know a little bit about ingenuity!

But remember to ask the granting organization if your proposed job will give you the credit hours required for becoming a professional organizer.

Not everything will count, and the regulations are often fuzzy on the matter.

The Fourth and Final Step to establishing a real career in organization is also the most important.

With enough hours of real paid work experience under your belt (up to 1,500 hours for some certificates), you just may be ready to become a certified professional organizer. You may be surprised at the amount of trust, authority, and networking power that a single piece of paper can generate.

Remember, though, that you will never truly be finished with learning how to become a professional organizer – continuing education is practically a built-in requirement for recertification within most programs. If you are not willing to spare a few weeks each year to attend seminars and classes then perhaps certification isn’t for you.

Then again, organizers are known for their strong motivation, so education is rarely an obstacle!

If you’re dedicated to the art of organization you should find the transition between the four steps (practice, training, experience, and certification) to be a seamless, natural process.

One accomplishment leads to another, and next thing you know your future is just as organized as the rooms you re-arranging.

If you are naturally tidy and efficient, learning how to become a professional organizer may be one of the most challenging, rewarding, enjoyable things that you ever do – quitting your day job is just an added perk!

Are you looking for professional organizer jobs that you can run from home? You have options!

Organizing is a versatile, open-ended career that can take you through many extremely educational experiences – from sorting file cabinets to building shelves, to creating organization routines for businesses or homeowners, there are endless possibilities when it comes to deepening your understanding of organization.

1. Professional Home Organizer Jobs

Professional organizer jobs within the residential sector can be diverse – some organizers take a “full service” approach and tackle everything from space planning to physical de-cluttering, while others may prefer to keep their services limited to purely planning or purely labor.

Other organizers get more specific yet – these specialists may focus on garage organization while others may prefer to work with disorganized children. Home organizing requires attention to the wants and needs of the client, and sometimes requires working within strict budgetary limits.

2. Office Organizer Jobs

If you’re not so keen on snooping through the personal belongings of a family, perhaps the office and business organization route is a better fit.

These professional organizer jobs often require the ability to create detailed workflow or organization plans for anything from electronic file systems to time management.

Professional organizers are also extremely helpful during the transition from one office building to another – these types of moves are stressful for the homeowner, but just imagine a business trying to relocate 50 employees efficiently without the help of a pro!

3. Specialty Professional Organizer Jobs

Sometimes disorganization is the result of a disability, disorder, or disease – working with those who have exceptional needs is one of the toughest and most emotionally rewarding certified professional organizer jobs out there.

And yes, “certified” is usually a prerequisite if you want to ensure that your business is on the right track – extensive training is often required before working certain causes of disorganization, such as ADHD, ADD, dementia, or hoarding.

Professional organizing is sort of a “dream job” for self-motivating entrepreneurs – these three options are just the beginning if you’re looking to start a new career or expand upon your current entrepreneurial ventures.

There are plenty of professional organizer jobs out there to explore; if you really enjoy helping others stay tidy and efficient, then you’ll love the world of pro organization.

Are you itching to become the next big certified professional organizer on the block?

If you have ever seen those home-improvement shows and thought, “I could do that so much better!” then you just might be the perfect candidate!

Of course, there is always more to the story than what they show on those de-cluttering television programs – including the following 3 things that you didn’t know about life as a real professional organizer:

No Such Thing as a Certified Professional Organizer Degree

Technically, there isn’t a single “nationally recognized” certified professional organizer degree that can guarantee you a job. In fact, you’ll probably have trouble finding any kind of college courses that can be applied to your certified professional organizer career.

Thankfully, all college degrees can count toward credits for the biggest professional organizer certification programs so your college education will not go to waste.

You can also pursue courses in organization – these can be taken online and can give you insight into the many different forms of disorganization, their causes, and effective remedies.

Average Certified Professional Organizer Salary

CNN Money has referred to professional organization as a “six-figure career”, but even if you can’t expect to rake in that kind of profit you may still have a shot at some big bucks.

Depending on your client base and level of experience, you may enjoy nearly $11 per hour just to start, although some certified professional organizer salary figures can reach up to $200 dollars/hr, and organizer speaking fees have been known to fetch several grand for just one session.

Of course, many clients would pay any fee, no matter how high, to get their lives and homes back under control – it’s a matter of supply and demand.

As a certified professional organizer you would have a perfect opportunity to go solo and decide your own salary!

Certified Professional Organizer Training Never Ends

Your education doesn’t stop when you get certified. In fact, the top certification organizations require organizers to participate in a certain amount of continuing education credits in order to qualify for renewal every few years.

However, you don’t have to be forced into receiving further certified professional organizer training, because certain classes and courses can really broaden your career horizons.

Organizers of every specialty can benefit from classes that teach you how to deal with physically, mentally, or behaviorally challenged clients and their families in addition to courses that specialize in different age ranges – this sort of all-directions approach gives you the tools to work with any client!

Specialty-oriented paths are also useful.

For example, a certified professional organizer organizer who desires to work with the chronically disorganized may want to study up on compulsive behavior, collaborative therapy, hoarding, and/or adult learning.

Everything about this career is flexible, from the educational requirements, to salary expectations, and even training requirements – this is still a largely unregulated field and there are very few “absolutes” to becoming a certified professional organizer. That’s why you will continually discover new skills that you never knew you were capable of and new opportunities that you didn’t even know existed.

The life of a certified professional organizer isn’t easy, but it sure is exciting!

As the workweek grows and free time slowly disappears, more and more people are finding it increasingly difficult to remain organized and efficient outside of the workplace – and just one professional home organizer can be the breath of fresh air that a family or individual needs to regain control.

A pro organizer wears many hats: motivator, coach, educator, helping hand…

Does this sound like a job that suits your skills? Keep reading to find out what home organizing is really all about!

Open-Ended Job Description of a Professional Home Organizer

The professional home organizer is a master of life transitions – they understand that anything from the death of the loved one to the birth of a lovely new child can throw a household into disarray.

Whether the clients are moving to a new location or simply drowning in a sea of scattered paperwork, a professional home organizer should be able to devise an organization plan that the client can and will utilize. This requires an ability to analyze the needs of the client, devise a long-lasting strategy, and bring organization to the home on a suitable budget.

These, of course, are not easy tasks, but that is why a professional home organizer can make $200 or more dollars an hour; this career is not just about cleaning and de-cluttering, it is about restructuring lives, habits, and attitudes!

While the theory is universal, the methods used are unique to each individual professional home organizer. Some may prefer to work room-by-room, while others may take a planning-oriented approach.

Organizers may even choose to cater to a specific group, such as children, the disabled, or the elderly. The path you take is completely up to you and your clients.

Does the work of a professional organizer excite you?

Some people just aren’t cut out for the critical thinking, intensive planning, and active listening that home organizing involves – and there is nothing wrong with that!

Choosing to become a professional home organizer is no small decision, but it is a decision that could improve your life, and most importantly, it is a decision that can improve the lives of every client you work with!

Looking into professional organizer certification today!