A week in the life of a home organiser

It has been such a long time since I have talked about me on this blog. I usually stick to decluttering and organising tips, hacks, and thoughts to take with you on your own journeys.

The role of a professional organiser, a home organiser or whatever you would like to call us is still evolving in the UK. It is well established over in America but there are a lot of people only just finding out about it now over on this side of the pond.

So… I thought it might be fun to take you on a week in the life of an organiser. I could have done a day, but my weeks are so varied and frankly I don’t think you often worry too much about what I have had for my breakfast. 

It is actually one of the things that I love about my job, how varied it is and how no two days are exactly the same. It is one of the big reasons becoming self-employed worked for me and my family as I can set the hours as needed around everyone.

Keep reading for a week in the life of a home organiser (or professional organiser if you prefer)

Monday

After the whirlwind that is the school run, it is usually my time to catch up on admin. Wherever possible, I like to keep Mondays clear so that I can get ahead on social media, meetings and all the business admin from the previous week.

This could look like:

• Social media posts
• Customer reports and guides from consultations
• Accountability and catch-up calls with clients
• Book-keeping (oh the fun)
• Working on the business e.g., planning for future services, collaborations etc.

Monday’s usually whizz by with so much being jammed into one day and before I know it, it is time for the school run again and all the madness that comes with having the children home. I often find that I work most Monday evenings too as often initial chats with potential new clients are easiest for all in the evening and I have usually not got round to finishing everything on the old to do list (especially social media, that always takes longer than you think)

Tuesday

This is my longest day. I will always try and fit in an in-home client on a Tuesday as I am not rushing to get back for school-runs etc and can take my time. If I don’t have a client booked in, I will try and get to one of my local networking events to build relationships with other business owners in the community. I really enjoy these and often helps spread some more awareness about what I do.

However, if I am at a client we will start in the morning and work through for a maximum of 5 hours. I find that any more than this can become overwhelming, and everyone is exhausted from all the decision making. 

The process once I am there usually looks like this:

• Quick 10-minute chat and look around the space and we get cracking (we have already had our planning session virtually before I visit in person)
• We start decluttering and go through each category of item one by one
• We then go back over the piles and double check to see if we have too much of any one category of item.
• I double check with the client they are happy with the layout, and we make any last-minute adjustments (there are always a couple no matter how well you plan as it all depends on how much the client declutters)
• The client is then free to go for me to do the organising space if they wish to. Of course, I welcome the company if they would like to do together. It is the most relaxed stage so it means they can pick my brains and make use of me for other spaces whilst I am there working.
• A quick walk through after to talk about any home-work or final coaching moments to take away. I use this opportunity to write this all down too ready for me to write up in a final report for the client.

I usually then go home and walk the dog and then take a well-deserved break to put my feet up.

Wednesday

This is usually my follow-on day for any clients that have a larger project spanning over a couple of days but for the sake of this example week and be able to show you as much variety as possible, let’s pretend I only had one in-day session this week.

I would start my day by completing the write up and report/ guide from yesterday’s client and get this over to them asap whilst it is still fresh in my mind. It covers coaching moments, what we achieved and any homework for them to continue with after I have gone.

This then leaves the afternoon to book in one or two declutter and organise consults. These are my virtual consultations where a client gets my eyes on their space, we create a plan that we know will work for them and the way their family works but they go and implement it. We spend an hour on zoom talking through the area they would like to organise. We talk about goals for the space, how they use it and talk about what kind of organisers the people living in the home are. I then give my advice, tips, and knowledge about where to go next and together we create a plan of action. From there they will also get a guide written up for them with the plan and I will also shop for the perfect storage solutions for them too (however we are skipping ahead to tomorrow now)

I always try and keep my evenings as clear as possible for a break but never mind booking in an initial chat with a potential client as they tend to be very relaxed and informal anyway.

Thursday

Admin day number 2 if necessary. This is when I may book out some time to write up all the reports from any virtual consultations, I have had that week. They take a couple of hours each to write so depending how many, this could take up my morning or the whole day. The shopping for storage solutions takes the longest but I love shopping so again, as with all the parts of my job, I enjoy the process so doesn’t feel like work to me.

I also work with a handful of clients that I coach on a regular basis for an hour a week, coaching them to begin to let go of their clutter in very small steps due to their real struggle with collecting items. I will usually fit those in within the in-home services, so Thursdays usually end up a good day for this.

If I have time, I try and take the dog out with me and drop off a few leaflets in the local area as of course not everyone has social media, and it is always good to spread awareness of what you do for those that may need it. I include a copy of my free guide to declutter success on the back of the leaflets, so it is always nice to see how many download them at the other end. (You can tell I was a numbers girl for years in a previous life)

Friday

Research, education, and development. This is the day for me. However, I am still working. I am always developing my skills, researching new techniques, and implementing them into my business. I don’t think as a small business owner you can ever know all the things and so I like to keep aside time for learning.

It could be investing in a course, it could be developing a new service and working on the inner workings of that, or it could simply be watching YouTube videos and reading articles for inspiration on how I can help my clients better.

As I have a young family, if I have been lucky enough to have a week like this one, I may also decide to take an extra day with my youngest before she starts school and do something just us two. A reason for becoming self-employed was for a better work/life balance after all and so I try to remind myself of this as often as possible.

Of course, no week is the same. I may have a week with in-home clients most days and the following week only have virtual consultations. It is the variety I love but I wanted to show you the variety the week could have.

I hope for those of you interested in what I do, this has been useful and given you a little insight into a week in the life of a home organiser.

If you would like to hear more from me, you can join my mailing list here where you get weekly lessons from my week that you can apply in your life too (all things organisation of course). Click here to register.