I’m often asked if someone can hire me for a person they know. It’s usually a partner/spouse, but sometimes it’s adult children asking for parents or a friend asking for a friend. The people who contact me asking this want to buy my services for someone they love and care about, but sometimes they are not sure if the “gift” will be well-received. So I decided to write a blog post about this.
Professional Organizers, as is the case with most service-industry jobs, are not miracle workers. We are not therapists, nor can we work magic. We CAN, however, work efficiently, honestly, and thoughtfully with our clients, but progress doesn’t happen overnight. I would never hire a personal trainer and expect to have J. Lo’s body within a month; the same relates to the progress that is made through professional organizing. Decluttering takes time and involves a lot of decision making. It can be tedious to the client, and at times, overwhelming. Sometimes it gets worse before it gets better. Ideally, the progress is steady and gets faster with each session; however, sometimes with certain items (e.g., sentimental things, paperwork), the progress might slow a bit since some items involve more thoughtful decision making. Your loved one might not be open to getting organizing help right now. You may have thought that buying a gift card for organizing services for your mom was a great idea, but did you check with her first? Does she really want the help? And does she know exactly what this will entail?
Professional organizing is not like hiring a house cleaner or an interior designer. An organizer works with the client one on one to go through the house with the goal of decluttering, which involves sorting and purging (e.g., donating things, giving items to friends/neighbors, and/or throwing away things) and also moving things around to where they’ll fit better. If a client isn’t 100% ready to do this, then it’s best not to push this work on someone.
Is your loved one really ready? Sometimes we hear one message from our loved ones but read another. What was your friend’s body language saying when she said that she wanted help decluttering her home? Is she definitely ready to purge, sort, declutter, and organize her home? Be sure to talk with the receiver of the organizing services before buying the gift certificate! And also talk with a professional organizer about this. We have experience with this. I’ve had a handful of clients buy gift cards for my services for a loved one only to never work with the person. It’s unfortunate, but sometimes people are not ready or they just don’t want to change or they could have any number of reasons why they never go through with the work, but it’s good to know this before purchasing a gift card. Buying someone a service might not have the desired effect you’d imagine. The person might view the gift as yet another to-do on their ever growing to-do list; buying a service requires time and tasks. Your loved one might not have the bandwidth for this right now. They might take the offer as an insult. Imagine if someone bought you a gym membership; even if you had been very vocal about wanting to lose weight and lift weights, someone buying you the actual thing that requires you to take action might be a bit off-putting. Be careful about your own expectations of how the gift will be received even if the person said they wanted it. They could still be nervous, wary, hesitant, upset, or negative.
That said, I’ve had many people buy gift cards for their loved ones for my services, and all has worked out well. The clients have been receptive to the work, and they were happy with the results! It CAN be done! I recommend talking with the person first and being sure that the gift is something that they are ready to do.
Cheryl Russo
August 2021