Debunking Cleaning Up Before The Professional Organizer Arrives
EPISODE 18
by Dianne Jimenez
This article takes 11 minutes to read
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Debunking Cleaning Up Before The Professional Organizer Arrives
Hey there! Welcome to yet another episode of the Parenting Guide: Organizing Habits Made Easy podcast. Thank you SO much for being here! I hope you’re having a great week and getting things done or taking some well-deserved you-time. Whichever it is, I hope it’s serving you well and aligned with the goals you’ve set out for yourself.
Ok! I’m so excited to share this episode with you because it’s talking about breaking down a very common and popular belief in the industry of Home Organizing. I’m talking about the belief that you need to clean your house, or tidy it up, before the professional organizer arrives…for either their first session or, not even, it’s for a consultation the very first time we talk in person or via video-chat!
I know it’s SUPER hard to NOT tidy up when company’s coming. I don’t blame you. We’ve ALL been brought up to do that. But here’s the thing, professional organizers are not considered ‘company’. We’re here to see your space, as-is, how you live in it and how the space is working, or not working, for you.
Are you ready to break down this belief with me? Alright, let’s go!
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So you need to clean your house, or tidy it up, before the professional organizer arrives. It’s automatic, we were brought up to get things ready when guests arrive. It’s like we’re programmed to do that since…way back when.
But part of this could also be due to fear: Fear of judgment.
And that’s a valid feeling that can stem from a way deeper and more complex path that this episode is not about.
I can tell you honestly that when you’re hiring, or even just talking with, a professional organizer, and being one myself, there is no judgment. None.
Want to go from 'drowning' to peace of mind?
Just to show you some proof of this, here’s an excerpt of my client’s testimonial:
I never felt judged about the mess hidden behind a drawer or a door. She understood me and my journey that had gotten me here. And that was so very important to me
Now about cleaning up before we show up…
When – you’re considering, or have so already, hired a professional organizer, it’s to HELP you with the disorganization and clutter in your home.
I’ll say that last part again so it sinks in: A professional organizer is there to HELP YOU with the disorganization and clutter in your home.
You’re overwhelmed: life is happening, things are changing, more things are falling on your plate, you can’t keep up…
You finally decide: you need help with all of this. Now, I’m not one to push the ‘you should do this…’ or ‘you should do that….’, but in this case, after you’ve decided to call a pro organizer to help you, the very first thing you SHOULD do is congratulate yourself for step 1: being aware of something you need help with. You reached out and sought help.
That is a HUGE step! So congrats for making that decision and taking action!
Ok, so you BELIEVE that you need to clean your house, or tidy it up, before the professional organizer arrives – for a consult or even a first session.
I’m here to lay it to you straight, once and for all…close the book on this thought or belief….
Don’t. Don’t clean or tidy up your house before the pro home organizer arrives because you’re defeating the WHOLE purpose of us being there.
Another way of looking at it is… if you hired someone to help you get organized, why the heck are you organizing beforehand?
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Imagine, you’re about to spend your hard-earned money for a service that you’re going to partially do yourself? How does that make any sense?
If you need more proof that what I’m saying sounds a little off, or you still need some convincing, here are a couple of examples that I’ve personally experienced:
When I go for consultations, either in-person or virtually, I’ve seen and walked through homes that had clothes all over the floor. I wasn’t sure if they were clean or dirty, but it was everywhere: up the stairs, down the stairs, hanging on the railings. Piled on chairs and the beds, on dressers and lining the hallway. No, they weren’t moving or in the middle of laundry. It’s just the way they had their things.
I’ve walked into kitchens where you couldn’t even see the counters they were filled with stuff. And not only kitchen-related items… anything from anywhere.
I’ve also walked into rooms that were floor to ceiling filled with boxes, papers, shelves filled with books, more boxes and stuff… you’d think that it was a garage or storage space, but it wasn’t. It was a regular room, inside a regular house. And it didn’t end there. The backroom and bathroom were filled up too. You could barely see the other side of the room, let alone walk through to see the back.
Heck, in my very own house, when my kids were just babies and toddlers, the room in our basement had everything from clear, large, plastic bins with baby clothes inside them – the clothes that were upcoming and the ones they were handing down to their siblings. We also had bins for bigger clothes. Ones they wouldn’t even be wearing for several years later! That room was also our storage room for regular household items AND where we kept the kids toys… even though they had toys everywhere else in the house, we had several bins in that room too.
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If you don’t believe me, I even posted a video about it on Tik Tok and Instagram reels a while back. And it’s SO fitting to the topic I’m talking about today!
I’ll link both videos in the episode’s show notes so you see what I mean. It took some guts for me to post MY things (and not actually SAY it was). But now I am and it’s strange, it’s awkward and scary. But I want to be real with you. And this WAS our reality.
Ok, moving on!
Now, I know you know this already but it’s important to really understand and grasp this – especially when we’re overwhelmed with all our stuff and we’re anxious and feeling squeamish at the thought of having someone come over to help organize our things. I get it.
But it’s important to understand that everyone, and I mean EVERYONE – even those with really nice houses or friends that look like they have all their poop together; everyone goes through rough and challenging seasons in their life. They can last a few months and even well into several years! And we all go through different levels of challenges, frustrations and obstacles at different times in our life that will result in our homes being cluttered and disorganized.
So some typical examples of what contributes to this are:
- Getting a new job, changing jobs, retirement, and getting fired
- A new baby, or babies. Parents moving in, kids moving out, downsizing or losing someone so dear to us…
- Then there’s losing or gaining weight, changing lifestyles and getting into new hobbies or starting your own business too!
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There are SO MANY MORE reasons or circumstances for us to lose control of our belongings, our stuff…. On top of that, trying to raise families, taking care of our aging parents, staying on top of our work stuff – at home and outside of the house. Then there’s taking care of ourselves…IF we even think about that at all.
Plus we want to balance everything out with some social time too, right? We want to make time to see our friends, go out with other couples…or find a babysitter to be able to do any of this stuff…
Life is just GOING! It’s busy. Time keeps running.
You’re stressed and overwhelmed so doing the bare MINIMUM is all you can muster up to do these days. And then the days turn into weeks, then turn to months and then years….
If at this point, you’re curious to know where you stand or just want to know HOW to go from Drowning in clutter to Peace of Mind, grab my Roadmap. I’ll link it in the show notes.
A client of mine wrote this in her review, or testimonial, after we worked on getting her home organized. It’s just an excerpt but I thought it was very fitting regarding overwhelm and her busy life…
…(it) led me to overlook certain areas in my home. The mentality was, if I get it out of my sight, stuffed in a closet or a room with a door closed, that was good enough. Well, that was good enough for the “old” me. The old me was stressed, overworked, and grossly neglecting my mental health. It was, after all, survival mode ….
She continued on to say
… There was enough laundry, cooking and basic cleaning up to keep me exhausted. Going beyond that felt impossible.
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So you see, dear friend? You are not alone.
OK, so back to closing the doors and breaking down the belief that you gotta clean your house before the pro organizer arrives…
What SHOULD you do instead?
Well, after you congratulate yourself for making the decision to reach out and book an appointment with a professional organizer, what you CAN do before they arrive are some of the following:
- Make sure you let us know who will be at the house with you and if you own any pets, or…let me be more specific – are there any animals we should know about that are in your home. You MAY not be the owner or the one who cares for them usually, but someone in the house does… so make sure to let us know what’s in your house.
- Do people smoke? Will we be working in a smoking environment? There are organizers who are super sensitive to smoke, pets, etc. it’s important to bring all of these things up.
- Is your place accessible ? Do we park on the street or your driveway? Do we need to pay for parking because you live in the city or building with very limited street parking. Are there a bunch of stairs to climb…?
- Do you have kids? Yes – this is important to mention also, just like pets, because interruptions happen all the time. Now imagine if the organizer is there charging you by the hour? Or they need more information from you but you’re not always around? It can get a little awkward, not to mention expensive.
Now, this may seem like a tall order to remember, that’s OK. You’re taking notes, remember? Haha I’m kidding, it doesn’t hurt to take them though, right?
But when you do have that initial chat with a pro organizer, they might be asking you the same or similar questions. And if they don’t or forget to, because it CAN happen, that’s OK – you’ve got them covered!
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And that’s another pat on the back for yourself for being ready and meeting them halfway! Another step closer to less overwhelm and getting organized.
At this point of the episode, if you’re in the midst of shopping for an organizer and haven’t found one yet, but still need to organize and get your own thoughts straightened out before sitting in for a consultation, listen to podcast #7 Things you need to know before hiring a professional organizer, I’ll link it here too.
While you’re listening to that episode, you can also grab my cheat sheet to help keep things organized for you too during your consultations. You can either grab it after listening to podcast episode #7. It’s linked in that episode’s show notes OR head to diannejimenez.com/POCheatSheet and grab it right away.
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Well that’s it for me! I hope you found today’s episode helpful and got 1-2 takeaways from it. If you liked this episode or found it to be helpful, don’t forget to hit that subscribe button from wherever you listen to podcasts. And be the first to know when the next episode releases.
Also, if you find that my tips or examples on today’s episode will help guide a friend, or 2, then by all means, please copy-paste the link of this episode and text it to them. I’d be forever grateful to you for helping me share what I know and love to teach.
My mission is to help as many parents out there with organizing their life and home, all while balancing the parenting-life journey. So you never know what positive changes you’re helping to make in their lives too!
Thank you for spending your time with me today. don’t forget to grab my my cheat sheet to help for your next consultation. I’ve linked in today’s show notes.
Alright friend, I hope you have a wonderful rest of the week! I’ll see you next time! Bye for now.
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