I’m in my 19th year in business. I consider my anniversary to be the day I joined NAPO, which was June 30, 2005. I am so fortunate to have chosen such a fulfilling career. I just reread this post, originally written in 2013, about why I became an organizer and why I continue being one. A decade later, all the reasons in this post are still valid and I’ll add another: It feels so great to have helped so many organizers get their start in their own businesses by working on my teams. (I now have employees, as well as independent contractors, and I’m thrilled they enjoy their jobs so much.) Peace of Mind Organizing® has helped hundreds of clients over the years and helped many organizers along the way. I feel so good about that. If you’ve ever wondered what a PO gets out of her work—which to some people looks decidedly unglamorous—read on.
Often when I meet folks who learn what I do for a living, they’re keen on learning how I became a professional organizer. I explain the training I took and how I went about starting my business. (That’s all detailed in my blog post, Are you interested in becoming a professional organizer?)
But seldom am I asked why I became a PO, rather than how. I thought I’d spend a little time exploring that question.
In my observation, there are two sorts of folks who become professional organizers:
I fall into that second camp. As I’ve mentioned over and over, I’m a naturally messy person. I’m pretty organized in my space and I’m definitely organized inside my head, but I’m a bit messy and unruly. I sought solutions for my time management and clutter issues throughout my life and I learned a lot. I felt it was time to start sharing.
When I first contemplated starting my business, I was a freelance writer. I’d been writing about pets for ten years and had written hundreds of articles on various aspects of pet care. I’d had seven books published (most of which are no longer available) and contributed to several others. I was working on my last book, an ill-fated venture called Jane Goodall’s Return to Gombe co-written with the famed primatologist. The process of writing that book about killed me (and was never published) and I knew that in order to get through writing that manuscript I had to know it was going to be my last book. So I started looking for other things to do.
As I considered becoming a PO, I thought of several very important things that being a professional organizer would offer that being a freelance writer was not delivering:
That was very appealing and a big part of why I became a PO. But why do I keep doing it, after almost twenty years? The truth is that my employees do most of the actual organizing. But I still thoroughly enjoy running the business, communicating with the clients and seeing the huge difference my organizers make in their lives.
Those initial three reasons did prove to be powerful rewarding. In addition, here are some other things I’ve found to be very rewarding (as do my employees):
Being a professional organizer has been life-changing work for me. And its results can be life changing for our clients. It is easily the most rewarding work I’ve done in a career that’s spanned four decades. And as long as it continues to be this rewarding, I’ll keep doing it. I’m so grateful to have the help of my wonderful employees!.
Tagged with: becoming a po, becoming a professional organizer, commitment, compassion, order catalyst, starting an organizing business, worth repeating