I made a client safer

Professional Organizers don’t come in to a new client’s space and start calculating how many “name the store of your choice” designer baskets to buy. We come in and ask “Do I need to reduce harm?” Our first concern is safety:

• Can my client get to doors and windows?
• Do the doors open all the way, in case emergency personnel need to get in with equipment?
• Can my client use the appliances?
• Are hazardous materials scattered around, like thumbtacks, glucose monitor test strips, broken glass?
• Are items stacked so they are likely to fall?
• Numerous other checkpoints make the list

As often and consistently as possible, we work on those issues first, in fact we sometimes never get to what we “might” call “organizing” at all. And from a Professional Organizer’s perspective, and with scrupulous training, we have to be OK with that. It is a guiding principle in our vocation that we can’t want change for our clients more than they want it for themselves.

I made a client safer this week.