When we're talking about how much it costs to hire a professional organizer, it's also helpful to talk about the value. I am unapologetic about the investment it is to hire Reset Your Nest, but I also think it is helpful to look at the investment through a different lens. You can watch my IG Live "Let's Talk About Money" or read more below.
Talking about money and the value of organizing is something I've had to get very comfortable with as we've figured out the pricing for Reset Your Nest and I've learned to own the value of the services that we offer. I hope this acts as a great resource for those who are thinking of hiring a professional organizer, whether that's Reset Your Nest or any other professional organizer near you. I hope this helps other professional organizers in the industry as well.
How much does it cost to hire a professional organizer?
In the last 10 years, the organizing industry has really taken off, but it's still relatively new and young. It's becoming more common to plan and budget for hiring a professional home organizer in the same way we hire landscapers, house cleaners, and interior designers. Those services have existed for much longer and they're more generally accepted. The work that's done in the home, especially creating systems for busy families, has largely gone unrecognized as a professional service.
"You don't have to be great at organizing just because you're the primary caregiver."
Many people fall into the line of thinking that organizing is something they have to be good at because they're the partner that stays home, or because they're a woman, or because they're a mom. Somehow we're supposed to know what products will work, what products won't work, and how to keep our families organized. You don't have to be great at organizing just because you're the primary caregiver. And most of us don't have time for organizing anyways, even if it's something we enjoy doing.
Value
In the beginning, I had a hard time owning the value that I was giving as a professional home organizer. I now better understand the value of our unique expertise. At Reset Your Nest, we employ incredible organizers who have been trained in the Reset Your Nest method. Every Reset Your Nest organizer is an expert in organizational products, organizational design, and system creation. This is why Reset Your Nest is uniquely equipped to curate your space in a way that's beautiful and functional.
Landscaping Experience
Last summer I experienced the value of hiring a professional. When we moved into our house, the front yard needed a lot of work. There were huge pfitzer bushes that were 8 feet high and at least 10 feet deep. They were completely overgrown. We wanted to get rid of the pfitzers and landscape the yard, keep in mind we were remodeling the house on the inside at the same time. In the fall we spent hours pulling out all the pfitzer bushes and it was a massive project.
The second year, we spent hundreds of dollars on bushes. I did a lot of research and talked to a lot of friends about what would grow (I don't have a green thumb). That summer, we spent so much time filling in the sod (because the pfitzers had grown out so far, we needed to add grass), and I bought tons of palettes of little bricks so I could create curbing. We worked all summer long to try and make it a little bit better.
The third year the project continued, we did more and more to the yard. We added more sod somewhere else, we did more landscaping. I was really discouraged because some of the plants from the first year had died and I didn't know whether or not it was because the soil wasn't good. So we invested in a lot more soil and more plants. We spent three years of constant projects, investing money in plants, doing it ourselves, and trying to make it work. It was obviously far improved from where we started but we had put in a lot of blood, sweat, and tears.
"I got to the point where I realized that I just needed to hire an expert."
Finally, in year four, I got to the point where I realized that I just needed to hire an expert. I hired a landscaper to help me make a plan. I was heartbroken for the time my family and I had spent on it, not to mention the money we had spent doing things that didn't work. I knew it was time to hire someone who really knew what they were doing, who knew the ins and outs of all the plants, who could bring the entire yard together and create a space that looked beautiful. I was finally ready to make the investment. We saved our money and decided to move forward with the landscaper and it was a great experience.
In the end it was great, but one day after the landscapers had done the bulk of the planting, I was walking through the yard and saw a tree that had just been planted and still had a tag on that read $250. In my mind, I was thinking, "What? He spent $250 on one tree? We just filled the entire yard with trees and plants and bushes!" I had this moment of "What am I doing? I could have gotten a tree for way cheaper! Or my mother-in-law has a friend who has trees and he said we could have dug one of his out. Why am I doing this?" I had this moment of thinking, "This was a really bad financial decision." But then I remembered the process that had gotten me to where I was.
"There is something to be said for having an expert come in and do everything, an expert who can look at the project as an entire package."
This landscaping experience just brought me back to what we do at Reset Your Nest in thinking of what we provide as a full package. I know when we're doing a pantry or any space, sometimes the cost of one container can be a ridiculous amount, and even a little scary. But there is something to be said for having an expert come in and do everything, an expert who can look at the project as an entire package. At Reset Your Nest, we bring our expertise, provide value, and solve pain points (some that have been around for years).
Seeing Value - Garages
I've had to explain Reset Your Nest's pricing and service value before. One conversation I had in a consultation made me realize that they didn't see the value of what we do. It's uncomfortable but important to talk about pricing and value.
We were talking about organizing a garage. We had just finished a garage for a different client who had not parked in their garage for 20 years. It was filled to the brim (which is not the norm for all garages), boxes were stacked from floor to ceiling. There was a lot that needed to be sorted through, discussed with the client, and everything needed to be wiped down. It was a massive project. We brought in shelves, tons of containers, they wanted a new tool bench that we brought in, and even though we had a very large team it took more than a day (usually our projects are done within one day). An average garage starts at $3,000 but this particular garage was $10,000.
As I was having this consultation call, I explained to her that it's hard to predict costs for garages but that $10,000 was the high-end of what she could expect to pay based on a past project as what she was describing to me sounded similar to a garage we had recently completed. I explained to her that our teams work really fast, we come in as an army of experts, we go through everything, sort everything, and create systems. But at the end of the day, this garage could end up costing $10,000. The woman's response was: "Jen, that's the cost of the car, you really think that an organized garage is worth the value of a car?" I was a little stumped and I felt sheepish for a moment because I agree that it's a big investment.
"Can you put a price on peace of mind?"
I answered that yes, it is the cost of the car, but can you put a price on peace of mind? Can you put a price on being able to park in you garage and being happy that it's the first thing you get to see when you come home every day? Can you put a price on letting go of years and years of built up stress and boxes (when most times you don't even know what's in them)? Many times we find that our clients have boxes from deceased family members and it's a lot that you emotionally need to sort through. Sometimes there are kid items, things that you've held onto for so long and it's taking up precious space. I don't know if you can put a price on that. While it can be really expensive (and I've given you an extreme example of cost), when you see the value it means you're ready to invest in the service.
Seeing Value - Pantries
In another consultation when I gave the client a rough estimate of what I thought the pantry would cost, their response was "that's more than the cost of all the food in my pantry combined." It very well might be, I had never thought about it that way before, but we can't think about it in terms of the value of the food.
What if you can't ever find the food you're looking for? What if every time you go to cook a meal you get discouraged and end up doing ramen instead? What if you swore you bought the ingredients but you can't find anything? What if you're constantly throwing away expired food because you can never find it? What if every time you open your pantry, which is multiple times a day, you just think "I am the worst" or "this is so frustrating" or "this is so overwhelming"? What if every time you opened your space you knew exactly where everything was, it was beautiful, and made you happy?
"What if you're constantly throwing away expired food because you can never find it?"
You can't put a price on the peace that comes with having an organized space. It might be more expensive than the cost of all the food, but you are setting yourself up for success now and for years to come. At the very least, for the rest of the time that you live in that home, that initial investment will have been worth every penny.
Money
At Reset Your Nest we provide a premium and transformative experience for your home. For those who would like to know how we calculate the cost of a project, these are the three things that make up the final cost of an invoice:
1. Time spent organizing
There are lead organizers and additional organizers (depending on the size of the project). We normally have one lead organizer per job, except when we do whole house moves or really big projects where we may send in multiple lead organizers with their own teams of additional organizers.
2. Product
We do all the shopping and bring in the product on the day of the project, but we do NOT upsell that product. You pay market value for every product we end up using in your home. We research every product that comes out on the market to ensure that everything that comes into your home is high quality and works best for your space.
3. Project Management and Design Fee
The Project Management Design Fee covers time spent planning the project, designing the space, ordering the product, and doing returns for the product that doesn't end up being used. The bigger the project, the higher the project management and design fee is going to be. There's a lot of planning and expertise that goes into each project, which is a huge part of Reset Your Nest's value.
4. Additional charges
We charge an additional amount per organizer when organizing garages because the labor required is more intense. Organizing garages is harder, dirtier, and we're more likely to encounter extreme temperatures and heavier items.
We can also discuss travel costs for projects outside of our listed regions (see homepage).
You Get What You Pay For
I've always been a budget-seeker, deal-finder, and lover of doing things on the cheap. That's one of the reasons why I love sharing as many tips as I do on Instagram with my best tips and tricks. I think there are a lot of things you can do on a budget and get the same or similar results. For example, because I have four kids I recognize that buying the cheap couch or the cheaper rug makes sense right now during this stage of life. However, I have learned the hard way that you usually get what you pay for.
There are two specific examples where I have used Groupon for services I never should have used Groupon for. I've used it for hairdressers and microblading. I totally got what I paid for and it wasn't great. I think the same thing applies to organizing. Our prices at Reset Your Nest are premium because we have trained employees, we get most projects done in one day, and we provide beautiful, functional, and fast results.
Premium Organization
One thing to remember is you're not just paying for labor, and the products, and our expertise. More than that, you're paying for time back in your life, and systems that will last. This is not us coming in and tidying up your house only to find it a disaster the next day. You are paying for a new way of living in and experiencing your home, which brings peace of mind.
"You are paying for a new way of living in and experiencing your home."
Clients have told us that once they've gone through this experience, they're much more intentional in their buying. They think twice before purchasing clothing. It's an investment in the way your home works for you and it changes the way you treat your home. We're so grateful for our clients who see the value and want it in their life and the opportunity that we have to make a real impact in the way they live in their homes.
At Reset Your Nest, we pride ourselves on the luxury experience we provide. We know that the end-to-end experience from design to execution is life-changing. We deliver luxury professional home organization that's different, that's curated, that's premium.
Jen is the founder of Reset Your Nest, a Professional Home Organizing Business in Utah (servicing Salt Lake City, Park City, Ogden, Alpine, Highland, Mapleton, and St. George). She loves creating order and systems out of chaos and is known for bringing a beautiful aesthetic as well as easy to maintain function to any space. She shares her tips and tricks on Instagram @reset_your_nest.
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