Are you itching to become the next big certified professional organizer on the block?
If you have ever seen those home-improvement shows and thought, “I could do that so much better!” then you just might be the perfect candidate!
Of course, there is always more to the story than what they show on those de-cluttering television programs – including the following 3 things that you didn’t know about life as a real professional organizer:
No Such Thing as a Certified Professional Organizer Degree
Technically, there isn’t a single “nationally recognized” certified professional organizer degree that can guarantee you a job. In fact, you’ll probably have trouble finding any kind of college courses that can be applied to your certified professional organizer career.
Thankfully, all college degrees can count toward credits for the biggest professional organizer certification programs so your college education will not go to waste.
You can also pursue courses in organization – these can be taken online and can give you insight into the many different forms of disorganization, their causes, and effective remedies.
Average Certified Professional Organizer Salary
CNN Money has referred to professional organization as a “six-figure career”, but even if you can’t expect to rake in that kind of profit you may still have a shot at some big bucks.
Depending on your client base and level of experience, you may enjoy nearly $11 per hour just to start, although some certified professional organizer salary figures can reach up to $200 dollars/hr, and organizer speaking fees have been known to fetch several grand for just one session.
Of course, many clients would pay any fee, no matter how high, to get their lives and homes back under control – it’s a matter of supply and demand.
As a certified professional organizer you would have a perfect opportunity to go solo and decide your own salary!
Certified Professional Organizer Training Never Ends
Your education doesn’t stop when you get certified. In fact, the top certification organizations require organizers to participate in a certain amount of continuing education credits in order to qualify for renewal every few years.
However, you don’t have to be forced into receiving further certified professional organizer training, because certain classes and courses can really broaden your career horizons.
Organizers of every specialty can benefit from classes that teach you how to deal with physically, mentally, or behaviorally challenged clients and their families in addition to courses that specialize in different age ranges – this sort of all-directions approach gives you the tools to work with any client!
Specialty-oriented paths are also useful.
For example, a certified professional organizer organizer who desires to work with the chronically disorganized may want to study up on compulsive behavior, collaborative therapy, hoarding, and/or adult learning.
Everything about this career is flexible, from the educational requirements, to salary expectations, and even training requirements – this is still a largely unregulated field and there are very few “absolutes” to becoming a certified professional organizer. That’s why you will continually discover new skills that you never knew you were capable of and new opportunities that you didn’t even know existed.
The life of a certified professional organizer isn’t easy, but it sure is exciting!
