Certified Professional Organizer Puns

I'm interested in becoming a professional organizer. I live in Florida.

I was curious if I have to become certified in that state to offer professional organizing services.

I appreciate any help, tips, responses. Thank you!

We're all given the same amount of time - 24 hours in a day - and it's up to each individual to decide what to do with it. We can't save it up for later or ever get any of it back.

My name is Helene Segura and I am a Certified Professional Organizer and have worked as a time management consultant for the past 10 years. Here I am.

By the time someone calls me up to be my client, they've already realized that time is our most valuable resource. They're the ones who tell me why time is precious to them. With that realization, they understand how important it is to learn how to control it.

Helping people manage their time effectively has become my calling. I've had the chance to work directly with over 350 different individuals - all over the country and around the world. I've worked with teachers, programmers, managers at small and large companies, CEOs, and more. I also spend a lot of time presenting keynotes and leading seminars. At the end of the day, I try to help as many people as possible get their shit done.

My teaching philosophy

1. Neuroscience and educational psychology: Why fight the way your brain was built? I teach strategies and tactics that work with your brain.

2. Life balance: Life is too short to not have fun. I work with clients to develop time for work and play.

3. Build gaps in your schedule: We’re not robots. Life happens. I teach people how to build a schedule that creates structure and flow, but also has the ability to be flexible in case a fire needs to be put out or a great opportunity comes along.

I am happy to offer more tips on time management, whether in regards to Reddit, school, work, home life, or relationships. Everyone has different challenges with time management, so feel free to share details of your situation and I will do my best to offer productive advice. Of course, don’t hesitate to ask me anything.

FYI - Before I got into time management consulting in 2006, I was a public school teacher for over 10 years. I've also flipped houses, coached soccer teams, trained teachers, and operated an e-commerce business selling bridal accessories. I grew up in Los Angeles and currently live in a rural area south of San Antonio.

If you want to dive deeper into saving time and being more productive, I’ve written five books on the subject. My latest book is called [The Inefficiency Assassin](http://www.amazon.com/InefficiencyAssassinManagementTacticsWorking/

What did you learn?

Just passed the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional ( version SAP-C01 2022 ). The exam was absolutely mind-blowing. It feels like there are hundreds of AWS services that were included in the exam, and new stuff that I don't have real-world experience off. You won't pass this exam if you don't prepare very well.

For everyone's benefit, here's a not-so-complete list of the uncommon AWS services that I encountered:

• Amazon Alexa for Business
• Amazon Managed Blockchain
• AWS Compute Optimizer
• AWS Single Sign-On
• AWS Well-Architected Tool
• AWS Control Tower
• Amazon Connect
• Amazon Lex

Resources:

- Tutorials Dojo practice tests – Contains relevant scenarios with clear explanations

- Adrian Cantrill SA Pro video course – Awesome course and has complete information on AWS services.

- AWS Exam Readiness - SAP-C01 - Interactive course and contains relevant topics on the test. Great additional resource.

- Hands-on labs

Don't ever think that you can crack the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional exam without studying for it. You just can't. The scenario is loooong and so does its available selections.

Good luck to all! Next step for me: DevOps Pro!

Hey, everybody! Professional rabble rouser, here. I have noticed thread is chock-full of workplace complaints. Quitting is great, but if you are going to quit, anyways, try and organize! The strongest flex is to take out your boss or get your company's trash policies burned down on your out the door.

My literal job is to show people how to organize their colleagues, pressure management to change policy, fight against bullshit corrective action and terminations, and use governmental oversight structures to teach bad employers a lesson.

I wanted to offer my advice to anyone interested in these things. Feel free to post your Q's, and happy organizing!

My mum's house has 2.5 rooms and multiple closets literally stacked high with boxes and piles of clutter. She's a workaholic and the rooms have been building up with junk or near junk she insists on keeping or dealing with herself (which she does not) for twenty years (decades more if you include the previous home)

I've attempted to help her go through it before but she's incredibly intimidated by it and can't bring herself to do anything but ignore it.

I can't handle it just by myself because 10% of it is my dad's and the remaining 90% is hers and I have no clue what's junk and what should be kept.

I've also tried pulling out single boxes of things from the junk rooms to try and encourage her to chip away at it as I thought that would be less intimidating but no luck.

She needs the help of a professional organizer who can help her get past her mental blocks relating to this. I found a few sites online as well as a website that's supposed to help you find an organizer near you, but there were no reviews so K was hoping someone here might be able to share any good (or bad) experiences they've had so I can try and find the right person.

Hi Ottawa, does anyone know of a service in the city that offers professional organizers to go into your home and help declutter spaces? TIA!

Do you have any recommendations for or against a specific professional organizer? Thanks.

Title pretty much says it all. Are there different specialties of organizers and/or certifications? My only reference to professional organizers is from the tv show Hoarders.

I am curious if any of you have worked with someone to organize your home, as part of recovering from childhood trauma and / or lack of skills with caring for your possessions.

I've been clearing my mom's hoard for most of the past year. I'm done with it. I am emotionally and physically exhausted -- and grieving. I want a fresh start, a new chapter of my life.

The thing is, I don't know if I have it in me to do a full-on Marie Kondo Festival of Cleaning on my own. I just want all of this old stuff gone, by the end of the year. I'm very skilled and capable of cleaning and organizing, but just feel so burned out on it right now, that I don't entirely trust my judgement.

Any suggestions or similar experiences?

And second, curious if any CoHs here work as organizers now.

EDIT: I do not need help or advice about cleaning out a hoard.

Thanks for all the well-meaning posts. I really can't read about or look at hoards right now. I have been through absolute hell and I am trying to start healing.

I'm talking about my own life. I want to know if anyone here has worked with a professional organizer to give you a new perspective and fresh start.

Thank you all <3

So I'm embarking on my journey to take the exam later this year. I've had 5+ years in my role and want to improve my skill set, increase job security, etc. There seems to be a ton of study guides and materials at different price points online and they all guarantee a passing score. My employer already endorsed me to meet the APA criteria. It's just the matter of finding the best guide. Any suggestions or experiences with anything in specific?

Hello DevOps persons!!

I'm some operations guy looking to change job and aiming to a DevOps/SRE role. Since in my current job we don't use public clouds (we host our services on premises), I know I have to sharpen my knowledge in that regard.

GCP was my first choice because they have quite good resources on cloudskillsboost.google/ and the free trial let me use whatever resource I want to test (I'm having trouble finding good resources for AWS, but the free trial is longer :) ).

At first, I was going to do the GCP Professional Cloud DevOps Engineer (because I really liked some SRE topics embedded in the exam), but I wonder if there is any demand for that kind of certification in the market. I'm thinking of going for the Professional Cloud Architect, o just the Associate Cloud Engineer.

Should I just change my plans and going for other cloud related certifications?

I live in a small, 500-750 square foot house (basements half-finished, so footage depends on what your standards of “usable space” is). It’s me, my husband, our two kids, and our cat.

This year has been really rough on our home. Not only did I school-home three kids (one of mine + my nephews), but both my dad and my grandma died, and one of my siblings divorced this year. Not only was I there for them in these crisis moments, but I also accumulated a metric tonne of stuff. Basically, there’s been a lot of dropped balls - and I was never a great housekeeper to begin with.

Anyway, my husbands up for a promotion at work, but the new job comes with significantly more working hours once the transition starts for about a year until he’s stable and has built a solid team under him. It’s what he wants to do and what we’ve known has been his end-goal for over a decade.

We have a few months before his boss officially retires, and I told him that if I’m going to essentially be solo-parenting it, I need to get the house into shape and make it efficient enough to do by myself. So, we figured out a budget and are hiring the help I need to keep me on-task.

The organizer is great! I told her I really want to the bulk of the work myself. But, she’s going to help me with planning the stages of the project, how to execute it, be there for me when I hit a wall, help me plan how to organize my stuff, tell me the “hard news” when I have too much stuff for the space, and basically act like a practical-life-skills counselor for getting my shit in order.

A friend has agreed to help watch my toddler, help with the projects if I need a hand, play body double, and basically be my MVP in exchange for watching her kids when she needs a sitter, helping declutter her house next year (I helped my sibling when they moved, and we’re hoping I learn a lot from this process), and giving her an excuse to hang out for a few hours a week.

Anyway, it’s an interesting process, and I thought other people might be interested in hearing about how it’s going and what it’s like to get a professional’s help.

After upvoting everyone's "I passed my cert!" post for good luck; I finally get to post my own. A couple of things I would like to share from passing:

Passed with a 744/700

Used (In order or most to least)

• Professor Messer Videos
• Jason Dion Exams and PBQs
• Examsdigest.com
• Cert Master (Definitely don't recommend as loading pages was painfully slow and the web app crashed many times. Overall too expensive for what it is)

That's it, for those looking to take the exam, my advice is study for it. I felt the exam had alot of things that neither Dion nor Messer covered. Some really wonky questions close to like "what security feature could help stop a car from driving into a building?"....hahaha I don't know!

Good luck!

Hi Philly!

I'm planning on moving to Philadelphia in the next month. I'm a certified Project Management Professional with 9 years of relevant work experience. I've worked a lot in data and am knowledgeable in Salesforce, QuickBooks, ADP, Google Workspace, Microsoft Suite, Slack, Basecamp , Formsite, ChildPilot, Raisers Edge, Constant Contact.

If you or anyone you know is looking for a Project Manager please reach out or point me in the right direction! I'm looking for remote, hybrid, or onsite opportunities. Thanks in advance and looking forward to talking with you soon!

Hello, I'm glad to announce that I've successfully completed the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional certification. Considered to be one of the toughest ones, this certification is known for its sheer scope and depth.
I've already completed Developer Associate certifications, and due to overlap, skipped Solutions Architect Associate.
I would like to thank Adrian Cantril, Jon Bonso & Stephane Maarek for their highly professional study materials.
It was beautiful learning and I'm genuinely impressed by AWS' solution offerings for on-premise systems and hybrid cloud.

Does anyone have a recommendation?

What is the smartest way to get into this field without going to college? Is there an online certification I can get or is it more important to have on the job experience? I’m currently a medical assistant and have been working as such for 8 years.

Last week, I got an email from the organizer I hired (let's call her PO for short, since I don't want to use her real name and Professional Organizer is long). Her youngest caught Covid from her school, and she was bracing for her other child to get it, too. She and her husband are both vaccinated and their test came up negative, so she wasn't terribly worried, but she was going to quarantine as long as someone in her household was quarantining.

So, that was a setback in the whole scheduling thing. But! During our initial consult, she asked me what the most important single thing I wanted to change. Not a room, or a flow, but one thing that could possibly be fixed in an afternoon. I said that our front entry really needs some help. We don't have an entry way, a porch, or a coat closet. My front door is in a corner and opens to the box of the living room. Typically, when people come into my house, they stall out. There's no where to go except into the room. It's especially bad in the winter while trying to take off their winter gear... and guess what's coming to WI in just a few, short months?? This hesitation usually leaves the door open for bugs/heat in the summer, and cold in the winter.

So, when you walk into my house, I have a coat rack on the left-hand side of the door, and a shoe rack on the right-hand. The Professional Organizer (PO) recommended swapping my shoe rack and my coat rack at my front door. Normally, when people try to kick off their shoes, they're kicking them off in front of the direction they need to go. Then, they trip over their shoes as they try to clear the door. Then, if they have a coat or a bag, they have to turn around to hang it up. If there's someone behind them, now we have a traffic jam. By putting the shoes to the left, they can walk forward into the room to put their jacket or bag away, clearing the space in front of the door for the next person to get in. Much more efficient.

She just mentioned it in an off-hand kind of way. She hadn't even gotten around to recommending furniture or storage solutions, yet. But, I decided to test these locations with my current furniture, just to see if it makes any difference. And you guys? It's WORKING! Exactly as she said it would. None of the other furniture has moved, but people are driven further into the room and the door gets shut much sooner without people walking onto my floor with dirty shoes on!

I still have to do a declutter of the shoe

Why YSK: Problems that can be spotted by a complete professional inspection, which includes putting the car up on a lift, include: frame damage, damage to wires or insulation caused by animals, poor previous repair work, flood or fire damage, hidden rust, fluid leaks, burned-out bulbs, nonfunctioning accessories, suspicious odours and overdue maintenance procedures.

Source: Inspect That Used Car Before Buying

Hi, I'm keen on taking up a course in Google Cloud and eventually getting the cert for Google Professional Cloud Architect.

I keep seeing it as the most sought and well paid IT certification.

However, when i search in job portals, the only companies looking for Google Cloud certs are Google itself? Most prefer AWS

Can someone perhaps clarify how useful a Google Cloud cert is in the job market?

Is anyone a Certified Integrative Mental Health Professional (CIMHP)? If so, curious as to how you use this in practice and in what kind of setting

Yes, I know this is r/CompTIA*. Don't care, Sec+ was my first cert, CompTIA will always be dear to my heart, and I am not posting in* r/CEH*.*

TL;DR I heard about Pentester Academy and CRTP on Reddit, learned a lot, and passed my first 100% hands on exam. Previous self study for other exams, particularly Microsoft ones helped. Prior home labbing helped a ton.

Disclaimer: I am not a pentester. I have worked everything from service desk to change management & procurement to junior admin to auditing. I am a unashamed Windows guy and use a fair amount of PowerShell and AD in audits. I have passed 2 prior exams that included a hands on portion.

First off, the CRTP is an incredible deal at $500 for the course, 3 months of lab access, and an exam voucher. The exam is 100% hands on and includes writing a report. You are given Domain User access to a VM in a Windows domain and have 24 hours to do what you can. Following that you have 48 hours to write a report and submit it.

Both the lab and the exam offer both web browser and RDP over VPN access. I only used the web browser access for about 5 minutes in the lab. RDP is just too convenient. You have to

• use a specific version of OpenVPN (https://openvpn.net/index.php/open-source/downloads.html)
• drop the config files they provide you into C:\Users\<local-user>\OpenVPN\config\
• RDP to the IP they give you

Importantly RDP allows you to easily

• copy/paste commands from your notes into the VM
• take screenshots and save them to your local system
• copy/paste files & tools from your local system to the VM

This is critical during the exam as there are no tools provided on the VM and you will need LOTS of screenshots for the report. The only tools required are those from the lab. You can either copy/paste them from the lab or download them from the course. The trick is to keep the tools and your notes handy for the exam.

The lab and exam systems are all fully patched. This course is not about vulnerability scanning and Metaploit. It is about enumerating users and computers in AD, ACLs, GPOs, etc and then taking advantage of misconfigurations. It is about everyone’s favorite dance move ‘The Credential Theft Shuffle’. You will PTH, PTT, Kerberoast, ASREProast, and play around with Mimikatz and PowerShell in general. The point is to compromise accounts, move laterally as needed, and escalate to Enterprise Admin.

T

I've organized stuff for fun since I was about 5 years old, but lately I've been wondering if I'd enjoy being a professional organizer (my career for the last 10 years has been digital design).

Last weekend I went to a friend's house to help her declutter her closet before moving (she requested my help). I had some aha moments that I wanted to share :)

1. I was physically exhausted by the process. We decluttered for 4 hours and while it was mostly just standing (not heavy lifting) I was beat by the end (I'm in my 30s). As I got tired, my patience and ability to help and coach my "client" waned. I learned I would set a maximum of 4 hours per session if I was to do this again. (When I've decluttered my own stuff, I've never felt this tired.)

2. I was surprised how quickly I needed to coach my friend. In the first 5 items we looked at, we got into topics like what to do with an item you like but it is torn/needs repairs, and what to do about a gift that you think is aesthetically pretty but you never wear. I felt a bit like an imposter, repeating strategies I've read about online like "don't hold onto things out of guilt" — but that type of advice worked and helped my friend make decisions! I gained some confidence that I know enough strategies to help people decide on what to do with items in many categories.

3. The thing I'm still looking for a strategy on: even after several hours, my friend still wanted to hold up every item and tell me its story, even if she knew she was going to donate or toss it. We did move at a reasonably quick pace, but the storytelling never really faded. Is it good to let people tell their stories, or are there techniques I could use in the future to encourage skipping the storytelling once they get comfortable decluttering?

I don't know if I'll ever turn organizing into my career, but this experience has given me so much to think about. Parts of the process I loved; other parts were super challenging. But I think I was able to help my friend a lot, which feels great. Organizing has always come naturally to me, I forget that not everyone has my same knowledge and experience - maybe I have something unique to offer in this space after all :)

Has anyone here earned their CHFP? I have some questions about the process.

What's everyone's thoughts on Autodesk certification? Does it open doors, or is it really just something that looks good on a resume?

(Background: I'm an Architectural Drafter/Job Captain/BIM Manager with 7 years experience. Not actively looking for a change in employment, but always looking for ways to improve my capabilities)

Apologies if this is a recurring topic in the sub

I just passed the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional exam ( SAP-C01 ) today! This is my 5th AWS Certification and I'm so happy in achieving this truly difficult test!

You really have to prepare for this exam. The topic coverage is simply just crazy extensive. The knowledge I acquired in passing my previous 4 AWS certs really helped. I also did several hands-on labs too on my AWS account, but what really helps are the course and practice tests:

Resources used:

• AWS practice tests: https://portal.tutorialsdojo.com/courses/aws-certified-solutions-architect-professional-practice-exams/
• Video course: https://learn.cantrill.io/p/aws-certified-solutions-architect-professional
• SAP-C01 AWS Exam Readiness

Some interesting AWS services that I encountered:

• Amazon AppStream 2.0
• Amazon WorkSpaces
• AWS Outposts
• Amazon Managed Blockchain
• Amazon Alexa for Business
• Amazon Connect

AWS Machine Learning Services that I encountered in my test:

• Amazon Lex
• Amazon Comprehend
• Amazon Forecast
• Amazon Rekognition
• Amazon SageMaker
• Amazon Transcribe
• Amazon Translate

Thank you to everyone who share their exam feedback here too.