Choosing a Professional Organizer

For those who need the help, a professional organizer can be a life saver. If you have never hired someone before, you may not know what you need to do. Surprisingly, choosing a professional organizer requires you to be just a tad organized. Thankfully though, it is only a little. Here are a few simple guidelines that you can use to help you in your task of choosing a professional organizer. Simply write down what comes to your mind as you work through them, and by the time you are finished you will know which of the available professional organizers you should choose.

• What do you need? Before beginning your task, you need to consider what you need in a professional organizer. Are you looking to hire someone that will help you go through your papers, documents, and other files and create order out of chaos? Perhaps you are looking for an individual who will help you create an organized system for managing your time? Maybe, you are looking for someone who will help you create a more balanced life? Remember, before you can hire the best possible organizer for your situation, you need to be aware of what your situation is.
• Ask around. Ask your friends and family, coworkers and even your boss for advice on a professional organizer. You will be surprised at how many people you know may have hired the services of these professionals, and can therefore point you in the direction of a good one. However, if you do not know of any, then look in your phone book to see if you can find any. Your best bet to find a really great professional organizer, would be to look at the website for the National Association of Professional Organizers, NAPO, found at http://www.napo.net/.
• Interview. After you have created a list of professional organizers that you may be interested in, actually conduct interviews. You will be hiring these people after all, so you have the right to interview them like you would any employee. Be sure that you ask them what services they provide, the hours they are willing to spend on this project, how much is going to be required of you, and so on. Write down the answers they give you for later comparison. Keep in mind also that you will be working with these people, so make sure that you pay attention to their attitudes to see if you can get along with them.
• Compare. After having interviewed the candidates, it is time to begin comparing them. Look back over their interviews, see what you liked about each, and what you did not like. Since this is a fairly important decision, make sure that you take your time.
• Choose. Finally, you will need to make a decision as to who to hire. By this time you should have narrowed down your list of candidates to who you think will do the best in this position. Call them up, and tell them the good news.