Every time I tell someone I am a Professional Organizer, they are usually amazed. Either because they have never even heard of such a profession or can’t believe I would actually put myself smack dab in the middle of people’s chaos. Then they always ask me how I came to be an organizer and this is the story I share.
My first memory of organizing was 12 years old. My friend lived in a very messy and cluttered home. And I was delighted to go over there every time because I just couldn’t wait to dig in and make order out of it all. It only occurred to me a few years ago why she stopped inviting me over. Her idea of fun and play time wasn’t cleaning and organizing. Mine was. So I got the boot.
Fast forward to my first receptionist job at a car dealership in Tacoma, Washington at 19 years old. I remember being walked into the service garage and seeing boxes upon boxes of paperwork. I soon learned it had been a nightmare project that no one wanted to handle for years. Until this oddball shows up and says, “Let me at it.”
I manhandled that paperwork and let it know there was a new sheriff in town. Every office position I had after that involved some degree of organization. I just instinctively knew how to organize and was driven to do it along with making things work faster and better.
When I started to understand that not only was I compelled to do it but I had a real passion for it was when I lived in what I lovingly refer to as “The crazy house.” I was staying with a friend who was staying in a family home where the previous tenant had Alzheimer’s and had died a few years prior.
The reason I called it the “crazy house” was because of the condition of the backyard. It sat on an acre of an old avocado Grove. What this backyard contained would have sent any sane person running. But not me.
Nut job that I am, I couldn’t wait to sort through the coke bottles from the 1950’s, old rusty gardening tools, unopened letters from the White House, the graveyard of toilets and the other random items thrown about.
I found myself waking up in the morning and practically running to get outside to work on the backyard. Not to get paid, not because someone told me to, because I really wanted to. Call it a sick compulsion, but hey it’s helping people so I’ll take the label.
Fast forward again another 5 years and I am a stay at home mom. Little did I know that watching HGTV’s show Mission Organization one day would change the course of my life. I saw the Professional Organizer come on the screen and I jumped off the couch in shock that there was actually a career for someone who likes to organize.
I researched immediately online to find out more and low and behold this profession had existed for 25 years.
Six months later, I opened Miss Organized Professional Organizing Services and have been professionally transforming spaces into livable and lovable environments since 2003.
It’s been a fascinating and exciting journey. I am still in awe of the process, the transformation my clients experience and my own transformation inspired by my clients.
I feel so blessed that I have found my calling and am able to make a living doing what I love to do and helping people along the way.
Which reminds me of the quote, “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success. If you love what you are doing, you will be successful.”
Let’s make you love what you are doing. Some organizational know-how just might be the dash of support you’re missing.
If you’d like some help achieving your organizational dreams, reach out and contact us.