Product Description

The Professional Organizer’s Bible: A Slightly Irreverent And Completely Unorthodox Guide For Turning Clutter Into A Career is an encyclopedic three-volume start-to-finish road map for navigating your journey through the organizing industry. It covers those issues most crucial to launching a new career—the motivations and skills needed to succeed, legal requirements, developing credibility, affordable marketing, and traditional/alternative business models.

This is a life-cycle text for every stage of business—whether you’re a newbie considering productivity or decluttering as a profession, a mid-careerist who needs a boost to reach that next level, or a veteran of the trade seeking innovation and inspiration. The Professional Organizer’s Bible offers sassy and savvy nontraditional organizing methods, “no holds barred” business honesty, and edgy insider advice. This is definitely not your older sister’s career guide!

What Makes You Want To Be An Organizer?

Admit it. We’re all drawn to this field (at least in part) because being helpful gives us a big fat case of the jollies. Lord, do we time-tamers and clutter-cutters love showing lost clients “the way!” At the core of our being, organizers are essentially search-and-rescue workers — leading folks over their obstacles, out of the woods, and back onto the right path. We’re happiest when hacking a new trail through the brush after the old one has gotten overgrown — color-coded pith helmet on our heads, machete in one hand, and a label- maker in the other!

I’ve never met a colleague yet who didn’t get a huge charge out of “fixing” broken situations. I swear it’s genetic, part of our DNA — few things are more satisfying to us anal-retentive types than hearing folks rave about what a difference we’ve made in their lives. Turning that beneficent streak into a fulfilling career, being rewarded for what comes so naturally, (and getting paid for something that feels so damn good) is better than sex, drugs, or chocolate!

Fortunately, nothing promotes this sort of personal growth like the kind of work you’ll be doing with disorderly clients. Savor every chance you get to enter that arena, stare a problem down, and stab it through the heart with your big steely (and highly organized) blade. You may walk away a bit sticky, sweaty, and stinky — but your confidence level is guaranteed to soar, every time you emerge from battle victorious and dripping with self-esteem!

“Simplifiers” have been preaching the virtues of downsizing in one form or another ever since Thoreau went to the woods to live deliberately (conveniently returning to Concord every time the dinner bell rang). The idea that modern life has gotten too big and too fast is not new — and every so often, the cause re-emerges sporting a different face, ready to scowl at the latest contemporary “excess:”

• arts and crafts movement — The William-Morris-fueled anti-industrial backlash of the late 19th century promoted cottage industry and a modest design aesthetic.
• back-to-the-land crusade — Hippie homesteaders in the 60’s shunned city life in favor of self-sufficiency and utopian off-the-grid living.
• tempering shopaholism — This most current incarnation questions the sustain-ability of a consumption-based “work-buy-earn-spend” lifestyle.

These days, we’re trading ladder-climbing and oversized McMansions for leisure time and financial freedom. We’ve come to recognize that the key to stress-free happiness is not having more, but wanting and needing less. We’re right-sizing our lives to fit a new American dream — and organizers occupy a prime position on the front lines, leading the attack against “affluenza!”

What Does A Professional Organizer Look Like?

I once had an apprentice organizer express concerns about not succeeding in this field because she didn’t fit the stereotype of a real PO. She described a terminally left-brained and logical individual, fastidious to a fault, immaculately dressed in a suit and sensible shoes — a compulsive neatnik who follows a strict schedule from dawn to dusk, never puts anything where it doesn’t belong, and insists that her clients do the same. All I can say is, if that’s what a “real” organizer looks like, not many of my colleagues qualify. (Lord knows I don’t look anything like that!)

There’s no such thing as a “typical” PO — we’re as varied and diverse a group as you could ever hope to find. We’re young and old, gay and straight, male and female, liberal and conservative, representing every conceivable socio-economic, religious, and ethnic background. Some have been anal retentive since birth, others are recovering “messies.” (And many of us actually revel in slobbery during off-hours!) You’ll find buttoned-down “banker’s-business-blue” alongside jeans and tees — a handful of birks-and-hemp granola-types, a few serious fashionistas, and even a couple of total weirdos like me. (I’m pretty sure I’m the only NAPO member who pairs biker boots and facial piercings with a professional blazer!) Whomever you are, there’s a place for you in our house!

Organizers also hail from every occupation imaginable — teachers, scientists, executives, actors, lawyers, counselors, artists, homemakers, hookers (joke!), you name it. Many were previously involved with tangential industries (like interior design, social work, con-sulting, or house cleaning) and saw this career shift as a natural transition. Others fled white collar slavery in search of a more balanced life. The majority either worked in “helping professions” or at jobs which required them to be exceptionally efficient and methodical in order to survive. But they all share one common characteristic, in that they wanted more — more satisfaction, more control over their time, and more freedom.

Let me also point out that organizing is just about the least cutthroat industry you’ll find anywhere in the free market. Think of this profession as more of a tribe, a family, an anarcho-syndicalist commune (if you’re a Monty Python fan) — filled with positive reciprocal relationships. We’ve adopted a “pay it forward” way of thinking rather than a “me first” mentality. You’ll find folks (who should by all rights be your competitors) offering advice, pulling for you to succeed, and even referring their excess customers your way — the general attitude is, “there’s plenty for all of us.” It’s a refreshing little slice of cooperative economics in the midst of all this insane, frigging, dog-eat-dog capitalism!

25 Signs That You’re A Born Organizer

You can always tell a natural-born PO. You know what I’m talking about — the kind who started color-coding while in diapers, who took a label-maker with her to preschool, and who knew how to categorize before she could walk. Now it’s time to channel that innate anal-retentiveness into a successful career!

My college roommates realized that I was destined for the organized life years before I had any clue. (That ruler-drawn household chore chart must have given me away!) Of course, they also thought it was a great prank to put every pair of my shoes in the wrong labeled boxes and turn all my beautifully-aligned cans in the pantry upside-down — bastards! You never want to take yourself too seriously in this industry. So for a laugh, I’ve assembled this oh-so-true-if-somewhat-exaggerated list of characteristics we all share:

1. You hung Barbie’s clothes according to season and purpose as a child.
2. You create lists of things you’ve already done so you can cross them off.
3. Your magazines are arranged in the rack by subject and date.
4. You draw up a daily schedule for your pets.
5. You plan (and prepare) an entire month’s worth of meals at a time.
6. You divide that bag of M&Ms up according to color before eating them.
7. You straighten the tray of dental tools while getting your teeth cleaned.
8. Your first action in a hotel room is putting everything “where it belongs.”
9. You’ve never owned a Tupperware tub with a missing lid in your life.
10. You create mind maps and flow charts in your sleep.
11. You carry a spare label-maker with you in case the main one breaks.
12. You show up at every meeting with a three-page checklist of questions.
13. You leave every meeting with a half-dozen pages of (indexed) notes.
14. Your personal library is organized by genre, sub-genre, author, and
15. Your kids’ coloring books are arranged by dominant hue.
16. You have an organizational system for the magnets on your fridge.
17. Your mom never got a chance to tell you to go clean up your room.
18. Your socks are lined up in neat little rows in your dresser drawer.
19. You schedule your day down to what time you’ll brush and floss.
20. The staff at The Container Store greet you like “Norm” from
21. You realign the cans and boxes on supermarket shelves as you shop.
22. You can retrieve any of your 5^th grade book reports in 30 seconds or less.
23. You record the purchase of a 35-cent pack of gum in Quicken.
24. Even your piles of clutter are categorized and labeled.
25. Your spices are alphabetized and arranged by country of origin.

Click here for reuse options!
Copyright 2014 RamonaCreel.com