How to Become a Professional Organizer: Start Your Career Today!

The good news is, your efforts will NOT be in vain! Interest in professional organizing has drastically increased on a global scale over the last couple of decades. In many ways, we have popular TV shows to thank for this.

Back in 2002, a UK reality program, “Life Laundry”, became a smash hit all around the world. This show focused on transforming cluttered homes and the lives of those living within them. Since then, pop culture has eagerly embraced many other TV shows of the same nature, such as:

Professional organizers, in general, have been in high demand for years. Since 2020, the demand for organizers has only grown!

If you think about it, this makes perfect sense. Over the course of 2020, the majority of the world was confined to their homes during lockdowns. Naturally, this posed tons of new challenges.

For instance, those transitioning to a work-from-home lifestyle suddenly had to create home offices to accommodate their needs.

Then there were those who unfortunately lost their jobs and/or dealt with increasingly difficult struggles pertaining to mental health. While some stuck in their homes were able to thrive, others weren’t quite as fortunate.

This means now is the ideal time to get started as a professional organizer.

As life returns to the “new” normal, everyone is scrambling to find a subject-matter expert who can help them turn their house around, create the perfect home office space, de-clutter the mess that accumulated over 2020, etc.

So now that you know just how sought-after your services will be as a professional organizer, it’s time to know what you sort of training you’ll need to work as one in the first place. And this is where things get a little tricky…

Technically, a proper education and certification are not required to work as a professional organizer. This is why some aspiring organizers choose to jump right into the industry without any prior experience. They have a natural eye for where things should go, and so they mistakenly assume that will be enough for them to be successful.

But this is where they’re wrong.

In reality, there’s a LOT more to professional organizing than simply knowing where to place things. You also need to thoroughly understand:

Just as important, you’re going to need to know how to successfully launch and run your own professional organizing business.

For all of these reasons, this is exactly why you should get properly trained and certified – even if it’s technically not required of you. After all, you want this career endeavor to be a success, right?

On top of the fact that professional training will make you a true industry expert, it’ll also benefit you for these additional reasons:

If you’ve asked yourself, “how do I become a professional organizer?” then you’ve probably also wondered how long it takes to become a professional organizer.

There’s no clear cut answer to this question. Ultimately, it boils down to you and the type of training you choose to pursue.

Firstly, you’ll need to decide whether you want to obtain your education through a brick-and-mortar or online school. Chances are, this will be the single key decision that’ll determine how long your training will take.

Brick-and-mortar schools tend to offer set curriculums and timelines. They decide how long the program is, which days of the week classes are held, and the times these classes take place.

Furthermore, classes will be held at the institution itself. As such, it’ll be on you to meet their schedules, as well as get yourself to and from classes.

Another thing to keep in mind is that with brick-and-mortar schools, you’ll have no choice but to go at the same pace as everyone else. If the course is 6 months long, you won’t be able to graduate any sooner than that.

If a physical learning environment is where you thrive, this may be a small price to pay for you.

Distance learning has been a popular option for quite some time. But over the course of the pandemic, it became THE most popular option for those looking to learn in a safe, convenient way.

If you want to be a professional organizer and start your career as soon as possible, then online schooling is the solution you’re looking for.

With the right school, your training will be done entirely at YOUR preferred pace. You can graduate and earn your certification in as little or as much time as you need!

Take QC Design School, for example. All of our internationally-recognized certification courses are 100% self-paced. There are no deadlines or rigid schedules to follow.

You get to decide when and how you want to focus on your studies.

Let’s talk about salary expectations. The first thing you need to know is that there’s no “one-size-fits-all” income for a professional organizer. How much money you make will depend on a handful of factors, such as:

That said, I can give you some general figures to help you get a better idea of potential salary ranges.

In Canada, for instance, PayScale reported that as of August 4th, 2021, the average annual income for professional organizers (based on 25 salaries) is $40,000 CAD, or approx. $35 CAD per hour. In the United States, Salary.com found that as of July 28th, 2021, the average salary for professional organizers is approx. $47,024 USD per year.

Remember when we looked at all of the benefits of getting your professional organizing certification? Consider this another benefit to add to the list:

When you have a certification/designation on your resume, you can earn a better income. 

Why is this? Because prospective clients will always prefer to work with a professional organizer who’s taken the time to earn their stripes.

Furthermore, when you get a proper education, you’re investing time, money, and effort into your craft. As a result, you earn the right to price your professional organizing services in a way that properly reflects that.

Alright, now that you know what it takes to be a professional organizer, how can you actually start your career as a professional organizer?

If you wish to offer as many professional organizing services as possible, and cater to as many different client types as you can, then go for it! There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this option, and many prefer this route because of the endless possibilities it provides.

However, you can also find just as much success by honing in on a niche (or a few niches) for your business.

For instance, would you like to gear your services solely towards those with hoarding disorder? Is your passion organizing offices, rather than homes, or vice versa? Would you prefer to work in smaller living spaces, such as apartments, or strictly larger homes?

If you prefer to target specific areas of the home, such as closets, pantries, kitchens, bedrooms, etc., this can also be your niche. Another option could be to assist clients who are in the process of moving, or have just moved.

The beauty of this career is that there’s so much room for personalization. You can build your business in whichever way feels right for you, and tailors most to your key strengths, interests, and passions.

By this stage, it’s time to get properly trained and certified as a professional organizer!

QC Design School’s Professional Organizing Course is 5 units long and developed specifically to help you launch a fruitful, long-term career in the design industry.

Once enrolled, you’ll get a full 2 years to finish your program. But as I mentioned earlier, since it’s all self-paced, you can choose how much (or how little) of that time you’ll need.

Within 1-2 days of enrolling, you’ll receive your login details for QC’s Online Student Center. From here, you’ll have access to all of your digital course textbooks, instructional videos, quizzes, and assignments. But if you prefer having physical course materials to learn from, don’t worry! QC will mail those out to you as well, and you’ll receive them within 1-2 weeks.

Another perk of QC Design School’s professional organizer training is that your tutor is a real-world industry expert with years of experience. After you submit each unit, your assigned tutor will go through all of your work with a fine-toothed comb.

Afterwards, they’ll then submit your grades, along with thorough audio feedback to help you recognize where your current strengths and weaknesses are.

The best part?

Once you’ve graduated and earned your professional certification, it’s time to become a member of esteemed design associations within your field. Being a member of these associations adds even more credibility to your name. You can include your memberships on your resume, as well as proudly plug them on your social media pages and business website.

Furthermore, becoming a member can create networking opportunities with other members as well. And as we’ll discuss in Step Five, networking is CRITICAL in the home design industry!

Here are just some of the professional organizing associations you can join once trained and certified:

“But wait, how can I hope to make money if I’m giving away my services for FREE?” you might be wondering.

Just stick with me on this for a moment!

Everyone needs to start somewhere. When you first begin your career as a professional organizer, you likely won’t have any projects under your belt. By extension, you won’t have much of a professional design portfolio either.

Until you have these things, it’s going to be challenging to book real, paying clients, because they won’t be able to see any proof of your abilities. There’ll be no raving testimonials for them to read or high-quality photos illustrating how great you are at what you do.

For this reason, providing complimentary services at the very beginning of your career is a smart business move – even if it isn’t a financially attractive one.

By providing free organizing services, you’ll be able to gather images to use in your portfolio. Furthermore, you’ll also be able to start gathering positive client reviews that can be used on your website, in newsletters, in social media posts, etc.

Plus, the people you service for free could wind up referring you to people they know, which could very well lead to paid jobs!

Here are a few suggestions for how you can provide freebies in order to build your portfolio:

Networking is – and I cannot stress this enough – going to be one of your single strongest assets throughout your career as a professional organizer. This is because the home design industry is a pretty close-knit community.

You’ll quickly find that it won’t take long for you to meet and/or become acquainted with the other organizers in and around your area. Moreover, you’ll also get to know contractors, suppliers, other types of designers, and real estate agents.

Trust me: ALL of these are people you want within your professional bubble!

Yes, this means even other organizers. While they’re technically your “competition”, they’re also your allies, too. It’s important for you to establish positive connections with others in the industry – and this includes your competitors.

Now, you might be wondering, “But why is it so important that I do this?”

Here’s why: whenever you network and build solid business relationships, you’re increasing your chances of getting referrals. Even other organizers can sometimes wind up sending clients your way, if their own schedules are completely booked up. So long as they trust that you’d do the same, if ever in their position, then they’ll always be willing to refer a prospective client to you.

These days, we all live online. That means prospective clients are going to expect you to have a legitimate website for your professional organizing business. Yes, you can have social media accounts (and we’ll cover this in the next and final step), but in order to truly be successful, social media alone won’t be enough.

A proper website shows people that you’re the real deal and that you take your business seriously. But once someone clicks on your website, the meat and potatoes of it are what will really seal the deal. This is basically just a fancy way of saying, make sure your website is worth their time.

Firstly, you’re going to want to secure your domain name.

I strongly recommend keeping your domain the same as your registered business name, so as not to create any confusion amongst prospective clientele. From there, make a check list of all the different pages and information you wish to offer on your site. Pertinent information would include:

Your website will be the perfect place to showcase your past projects, so take advantage!

As a general rule of thumb, your website needs to be easy to navigate.

Visitors shouldn’t have to struggle to find relevant information about you/your business, nor should they be sent through a maze in order to have their frequently asked questions answered. In that same breath, if they find it too difficult to locate your design portfolio, you’ll likely lose the client before you’ve even had a chance to speak with them.

You can avoid this by making your portfolio easy to spot from the moment someone lands on your website. Place it right in the top menu and be straight forward with how you name that page link. “Portfolio”, “My Portfolio”, “Past Projects”, etc. would all be acceptable names, as they’d all tell the person exactly what to expect.

In terms of your portfolio images themselves, make sure that you only showcase images of the best quality. Blurry photos, selfies, poor lighting, and unattractive framing should all be omitted from your website. Potential clients want to see that YOU’RE the professional organizer who can help them achieve their goals.

Once your website is up and running, you can get creative about how you wish to promote it. Email marketing, newsletters, marketing ads, social media, etc. can all be used to bring more exposure to your site – and ultimately, your business.

One important thing to keep in mind, when it comes to your website, is SEO (Search Engine Optimization).

Ideally, when people in and around your area are searching online for professional organizing services, your website will be one of the first to pop up in their results. In order to achieve such a high ranking on search engines such as Google, you’re going to need to beef up your SEO.

When combined, utilizing social media AND an official business website together will make you an unstoppable online force!

So, do a little digging! Off the top of your head, I’m sure you can already think of more than a few platforms with heightened popularity. (I’m looking at you, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, and TikTok!) But are there any others you might not have thought of?

Sit down and make a list of the main social media platforms you’d like to promote your business on. That’s always a solid place to start.

From there, you can get some inspiration to help you decide what you’d want your social media presence to look like. There’s no harm in checking out what other professional organizers are doing on social media, so long as you don’t plagiarize any of their ideas. You never know – their strategies could wind up inspiring something completely new and fresh out of you.

Just remember to keep your business’s brand in mind as well! You don’t want the vibe on your website to completely clash with the vibe your social media pages are giving off. Rather, everything should stay consistent and complement one another. And if your brand has certain colors or moods associated with it, don’t hesitate to work those into your social media platforms, too.

Here’s the thing, though: once you establish yourself on social media, it won’t be time to wipe your hands clean and walk away forever. The only way to build your following and get your accounts seen by the masses is to continuously be present on your channels.

Here are 5 handy tips to help you produce the best possible content on a regular basis AND build your network (there’s that word again!):