Mistake #1 – Organizing for Yourself and Not Your Client

You love to organize and even have fun organizing your friends or family members. What about organizing a stranger’s kitchen or garage? Will you be able to listen and seek to understand what ‘organized’ looks and feels like for each client?

There are various personality types, barriers to organizing, and mental health issues to navigate and understand to organize others successfully. Working with clients who are chronically disorganized, who have ADHD, or who hoard requires specialized training and experience.

Mistake #2 – No Clear Process for Organizing

Organizing is easy for you. It is just something innate that comes naturally. So, how will you communicate that to someone who doesn’t understand “everything has a place”? This is the key to working with clients.

As a Professional Organizer, our goal is to transfer skills to our clients. Having a tried and true process will not only give you the tool to communicate organizing skills to your clients, it will provide you with confidence.

Mistake #3 – Not Establishing Boundaries and Managing Client Expectations

It is essential to communicate at the beginning of your relationship what you expect of your client and what your client can expect from you as a Professional Organizer. Prepare a Letter of Agreement between you and your clients and business policies that will help you to establish and communicate clear expectations.

Mistake #4 – Performing Tasks and Working with Clients You Are Not Skilled or Trained to Work With

There is a heightened awareness of the need for Professional Organizer services due to reality TV shows such as Hoarders. Watching these types of shows, you may be thinking, “That’s what I want to do. I want to work with people who hoard and make a difference in their lives.”

The question to ask yourself is, “Are you skilled and trained to work with them?” Working outside of the skills, education, and experience you have can do more harm than good.

Mistake #5 – Working Beyond Your Physical Limitations

I have been working as a Professional Organizer for 16 years. Before working with clients, I didn’t realize how physically demanding this work is. When I organize for myself, it is usually small projects that take a maximum of one hour. Working with clients for three or more hours requires a great deal of physical stamina. There is constant lifting, twisting, and bending. You can spend hours on your feet or, worse, criss-cross on the floor sorting papers. When you do this day after day, year after year, it takes a toll on your joints and overall skeletal structure. It is vital to stay in top physical condition and pay attention to your body.

There are many more mistakes you can make working with clients. If you can think of any others, please share them in the comments.

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