Is a Professional Organizer Worth The Expense?

Have you hopped on the decluttering and organizing trend? Perhaps you’ve seen the Netflix shows featuring Marie Kondo and The Home Edit. If so, you might wonder if getting a professional organizer to help you clean out your home or office is worth the cost. Professional organizers don’t come cheap. But they do come with benefits.

What is a Professional Organizer?

As the name suggests, a professional organizer is an individual or team that comes to your home or office for the express purpose of helping you organize it. Some of them are very hands-on; they have a system and they do the work for you. Others are more about teaching you how to organize in a way that works for you. If you do decide to hire a professional organizer, then it’s important that you find one that works in a way you appreciate. After all, if you can’t keep the place organized once they leave, then it’s definitely not worth the cost.

What Does a Professional Organizer Cost?

Rates vary drastically for hiring a professional organizer. The Home Edit works with celebrities such as Reese Witherspoon and Eva Longoria, so obviously, their prices are probably out of your price range. What you’ll pay depends upon your location, the size of the job, and the organizer’s experience. That said, you should expect to pay between $50 and $100 per hour.

When Is The Cost Worth It?

Hiring a professional organizer can help you get a job done that you wouldn’t do otherwise. When you have a cluttered space, you have a cluttered mind. Therefore, getting things organized can end up giving your peace. Moreover, you might find yourself motivated to do more, which could translate into money. Additionally, sometimes you find big savings when you organize your home.

Here are some of the times when the cost of hiring a professional organizer would be worth it:

You Have a Big Space to Organize and Won’t Do It Yourself

For example, let’s say that your garage is so cluttered that you can’t fit a car in it. Your car would last longer if it weren’t sitting out in the elements. Therefore, hiring a professional organizer to do the job for you may help you save on car costs in the long run.

You Are Selling Your Home

This is the scenario where hiring a professional will give you the most bang for your buck. Bringing someone in to help you cut down on the clutter and make your home look organized will result in higher offers, and more offers, for your home. Plus, you’ll be all organized when it’s time to actually move.

You’re Moving, Even as a Renter

During a move, there’s nothing worse than wasting time, space, boxes, and back muscles on moving stuff that you no longer need or want. Trust me. Before our last move, we had a basement full of things I had forgotten about and a moving truck that wasn’t big enough to fit them. Because we were moving 3 hours away, we didn’t have time to go back for all the junk. We had to rent another moving truck the next weekend in order to get rid of it all. I would have much-preferred sorting through it in advance, having a yard sale a month before the move, and disposing of the things that weren’t worth moving. It will save you money in moving and storage costs. If you won’t do it on your own, a professional organizer can get you started.

You Have Stuff You Don’t Need

If you have a closet full of stuff that you never use but hope to use, then a professional organizer can help you make the decision to keep, sell, or toss. The organizer helps you with making decisions so that you can better let those things go. Potential payout will vary, depending on the amount and type of stuff (one old dining room set could get you $500, whereas a pile of unwanted CD’s might only get you $5).

You Don’t Know What To Do With Sentimental Items

If you’re struggling with what to do with past birthday cards or outgrown clothes or a sentimental earring that has lost its mate, a professional organizer is going to have suggestions for you that will reduce the amount of space the items take up. The payoff here varies by the value of your home’s square footage. If you clear out a closet full of stuff that you’re holding onto but don’t know what to do with, how much is that closet space worth to you? Remember that clearing space can also clear your mind, which can have unquantifiable benefits.

You Pay For Storage

If you rent a storage unit to store items that you rarely use, then a professional organizer can help you quantify whether you’re getting the most bang for your buck. Like your finances, once you organize it and see what’s taking up all the space, you may find that 50% of your storage unit is taken up with “good boxes” that are useful for an eventual move. Yet, people are always giving away free moving boxes after they move. You can even find piles of free boxes at UHaul. There is no sense in storing something easily replaced for less than what you’re paying to store it. Again, the payout will vary based on how much you’re paying per month for your storage unit.

You Want a Workout Space

If you have exercise equipment you can’t use because it’s holding up your dry cleaning, because your closet can’t fit any more clothes, because it’s storing boxes you haven’t unpacked since your last move, then you may need some organizing expertise. Most of all, you may be able to stop paying for the gym every month if you can use your home equipment. Or, once it’s unburied, you could probably make a few bucks from selling it on Craigslist.

5 Ways a Professional Organizer Makes The Job Easier

You know I like to DIY whenever it will save me money, so of course, I thought I could do this without assistance. Honestly, though, if I could do it on my own: Why hadn’t I don’t it already? Right?

Here are five things that a professional organizer can do to facilitate the job:

1. Hand out some tough love. You may simply be too close to the mess. A professional organizer can see it with an objective eye. They can tell you if you’re hanging on to things that you should just get rid of.
2. Share creative ideas. You’re paying them for their support as well as their knowledge. They can provide tips on decluttering, organizing, and maintaining a clean space. That’s the part that you might not get on your own, no matter how many books you read.
3. Get into the nitty-gritty details. There are things that you’re likely to just avoid in your mess because “it’s not that big of a deal.” However, your professional organizer will help you do the small things as well as the big things. That will make the work you do last longer.
4. Suggest you do “just 20 minutes more.” In other words, a professional organizer will keep you on task. They’ll make sure that you get the job done. And since you’re paying them, you’ll be motivated to work hard in that given time.
5. Listen to you. Although your organizer isn’t a therapist, they play a key role in supporting you. Clearing things out can be emotionally overwhelming. Your family might not understand but a professional organizer will help you work through those challenging feelings.

What would make it worth it to you to hire a professional organizer?

Read More:

• How to Make Money While Decluttering
• How to Use eBay to Turn Clutter into Cash
• I Paid for Junk. Then I Paid to Have Junk Removed. Lesson Learned.