Professional Organizer Career
I often get asked why I decided to teach others to do what I do, and I suppose it could seem quite a silly move from a competitive perspective! My passion behind setting up The Declutter Academy and training others to build a professional organizer career was based on many different factors, some of which I would like to share with you today.
After leaving school I studied Media and Communications as part of a BA Degree, and then I undertook a Higher Diploma in Systems Analysis, Business Systems Development, which took me off in a slightly different direction into the world of business IT. I first started designing and writing e-learning course content in my role as an Instructional Designer for the Business and Professional market after finishing this course in 2001, and creating learning materials and aids is something that has brought me great joy over the years. The fact that I come from a family of teachers has certainly influenced my work – I grew up in an environment where helping people to learn was part of the everyday fabric. I’ve also enjoyed writing professionally for many years, as well as coaching, mentoring and team leading in different guises.
Having acquired qualifications in many modalities over the decades, it’s now I recognise how my career as a professional decluttering trainer was shaping itself, even though I was not consciously aware of it at the time. The many courses relevant to decluttering that I’ve done over the years include Interior Design and Architecture, Project Management, Training, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, Quantum Thinking Technologies and Style Consultancy, amongst others. Being part of many progressive personal and professional mentoring programmes through the years, I’ve also been lucky to gain some very cutting-edge business knowledge and experience. There was a thrilling point a few years ago when I came to realise how everything in my background had naturally come together to enable me to teach others to create a professional organizer career in the most effective way possible.
I also really took notice when I started to get emails from people in different countries around the world who were really interested in the decluttering approach I had developed and were asking me to show them how I learned what to do what I do. To be honest, I’ve found that individual courses in Style Consultancy, Interior Design or Architecture or even Life Coaching or other therapies alone have not traditionally been enough to equip all the skills needed for the decluttering that truly transforms lives, and this is what has really spurred me on to teach others the ropes of a professional organizer career.
It helps that, from 2010, I spent much of my non-client-facing time happily developing written and graphical content about decluttering and all related areas, so I had a massive body of relevant work to share. I also had the frustration of being unable to help every person who needed my services. Getting lots of client requests in Ireland and much further afield and with only two hands, it, of course, wasn’t feasible to travel to every home, and I was sadly unable to recommend anyone who offered an approach that was similar to “Declutter Therapy” in their area. So, I understood from the early days that showing others how to develop a professional organizer career would be an inevitable part of my business journey, and the outcome of that was the founding of The Declutter Academy.
Involving three very separate skill-sets, for a successful career in decluttering and organizing you need to:
- Conquer the decluttering, organising and putting the heart back into your own wardrobe and home
- Be able to competently and confidently help others overcome their decluttering blocks and inspire them to let go
- Understand how to create the business, brand and range of services that is right for you personally, while avoiding the many common stresses, pitfalls, mistakes and time-wasters in this kind of business
Each of these areas need to be mastered individually so you can give yourself the best possible chance of success.
I believe if we want others to invest in our services, it’s vital we see the value in investing in ourselves first so we can learn the personal and professional skills we need to create and run a decluttering and organising business and enjoy the healthy and fulfilling career that we deserve. The great thing about The Declutter Academy is that it condenses and further develops all the information, tools and techniques you need to know from all the relevant disciplines into a single training. So, it saves you all the research and the investment of the time, energy and many thousands of dollars required to complete the right courses so you can set up and maintain a rewarding professional organizer career easily and confidently.
What’s so unique about The Declutter Academy too is that the training also equips students to offer services such as talks, workshops and customised consultations outside of a client’s home, as well as the more conventional in-the-house wardrobe and home decluttering services.
Find out more about The Declutter Academy here.
