Professional Organizer Myths - Busted!

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Think being a professional organizer means your house is always tidy and your life runs like clockwork? Today we're busting some of the top myth-conceptions people have about professional organizers.

Myth #1: You’re a professional organizer? Your house must be perfect.

BUSTED! No one’s house is ‘perfect.’ Being organized doesn't mean that your home is photo-shoot ready all the time. We all have cords for our computers, papers to read and dishes to wash. Being organized simply means that you have room in your space, your mind and your calendar for the things that are most important to you and a system for dealing with things when they happen. For example, you may have a basket to collect your electronics cords in, but those cords probably are not wrapped up 'perfectly' (there's that word again) each time. They don't need to be! If you keep them in the same place, and know where to find them every time, then you're organized. You may have time set aside in your schedule each day to deal with housework tasks, but that means those dishes are in your sink til then. Perfect? No. Organized? Yes.

Myth #2 Professional organizers never need help decluttering and organizing their own spaces.

BUSTED! No one, naturally organized or not, can "get it right" 100% of the time. Mistakes and mishaps happen to everyone. Everyone has problem areas, even organizers. It is a difficult skill for anyone to learn how to care for and when to let go of items they are closest to. Even Liberators have a hard time letting go of things that they might be able to use to repair the house one day or the handful of decor pieces that are sure will be perfect in their next home.

It is also true that everyone has their own organizing style, and the way one person organizes is not always the right fit for other family members. Often, having a third party's impartial perspective can identify solutions that others closest to the situation cannot.  

Myth #3: This situation/clutter/forgotten appointment would never happen to a professional organizer.

BUSTED! Again, organized people have a talent for finding systems and strategies to keep them on time and on task, but no one is infallible. Liberator Wendy Ahrens shares this story: "When my youngest son was 16, he got in big trouble with me. I took his car keys away and hid the spare keys. The problem-- I couldn't remember where I hid the spare keys!! Five years later, I found them in a foot spa when I was organizing my master closet! Well, I didn't have the car anymore and the foot spa hadn't been used in five years -- so I knew I had to throw away the keys and donate the foot spa!!"

Myth #4: I would have to clean my house before I would let an organizer see it.

BUSTED! Fear of judgement is one of the main reasons people are reluctant to hire an organizer. That is why we have a no-judgement policy. Remember, we’re ‘those people’ who LOVE organizing. You show us an overflowing craft room, and we see an exciting opportunity, not an #epicfail.

The other half of this myth is that once someone becomes an organizer, their friends and family often feel that they have to clean house before that person comes over! Organizers meet more friends at Starbucks because people are afraid to have them come to their houses for fear of judgement! Please, never worry about this; your organizer friend is in your home to see you, not your linen closet! 

As painters work with oils and canvas and gardeners work with soil, Major Organizers are organizational artists working in space and systems. We are human- imperfect and flawed- with a gift for restoring order from the chaos - even when the chaos is our own. And it often is!

Don’t delay - bust those myths and get organized today!