How to Hire a Personal Organizer

Personal organizers can help you tackle organizational nightmares like overstuffed closets or garages. They also can help set up an efficient home office or create time management systems specific to your busy life. Here's a list of questions to ask potential organizers.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Recommendations
• List of questions

1. How many years have you been working as an organizer?

2. What are your areas of expertise?

3. What did you do before becoming a personal organizer?

4. What is your educational background?

5. Are you a member of any professional guilds?

6. Can you supply three references who are former clients?

7. What is your rate?

8. What would you suggest for my stuffed filing cabinets/chaotic kitchen/magazine collection/home office?

9. Do you offer a free half-hour consultation in person so that I can assess whether we'd work well together?

10. How do you guarantee that your solution will work for me? Will you include a complimentary follow-up in three months if the system fails me?

11. Do you offer quarterly "tune-ups" to keep me on track?

12. Do you have a reliable handyman that you work with in case we need to construct or install organizational systems?

Tips & Warnings

• Rates vary from $40 to $200 an hour, depending on experience and geography.
• The National Organization of Personal Organizers (napo.net) lists personal organizers by region.