Well, I have never written on a blog before, but I figured since it is on our A Sorted Affair web site, and I am an employee, I should give it a try. And, luckily we have a new client that is willing to let me write some thoughts down as we work in her home. I spoke with Fay on the phone, as we do with all clients, and at the end of the conversation we both were excited to make an appointment and get started. I explained to Fay the initial assessment usually takes 1½ hours and gives us, the organizers, a chance to talk and walk through the home and gather as much information as possible.
As my colleague and I arrived at the apartment and parked, we were greeted with the sign No Parking Without Permit. Yikes! We forged ahead and figured we would ask Fay about it when we got to her apartment. Fay met us at the door and invited us in. We began our conversations right in the living room, looking, asking and wanting to learn as much as we could about Fay and her needs. Like many of us, there have been some major life events that led to the disorganized state in which she is currently living. Other things were more important, had to be dealt with, and now she is able to take a breath and address this part of her life.
Fay was very open with us about those events and very willing to answer all questions that we had (and we had a lot!!). She talked about her daughters and how very proud of them she is and showed us pictures. We asked about her desk area and her work habits, the papers and filing system, her kitchen, her closets, her bedrooms and most importantly, her vision, her goals. There are parts of her home that were just fine… the bathroom, the kitchen (she loves to cook). But the clothes -- oh the clothes! and the papers -- oh my! We took pictures, notes and then my colleague and I “put our heads together” and came up with some goals and a plan of action for Fay.
Our shared goals were to create an office area where she can work –- with a clear surface –- a filing system that will keep track of personal, business, important and archive papers and a central calendar that will contain personal, business and family activities; to create some individual spaces in her daughters’ bedroom that will accommodate school work, hair/make-up, lounging/sleeping and clothes storage (and yes, that will be defined by the dresser(s) and the closet); and finally to create a peaceful refuge for Fay in her bedroom. Our plan of action for the office will involve going through the many papers of her office, some furniture relocation, computer equipment consolidation, new filing systems. Because there are so many papers, the first step will be the presort -- general categories for papers, for example: personal, business, financial, important papers. The bedrooms will involve a lot of letting go -- mostly the clothes, furniture relocation and such. Throughout the visit we talked a lot about how everything needs to justify the space it takes up, serve a useful function, and make you happy! This is her home not a storage facility -- Home Depot, Bed Bath and Beyond, Target, etc. can be the storage facilities. We finished with setting up a date for our first work session. As we were about to leave, Fay showed us a very beautiful piece of art that she found and is her inspiration and now it is also our inspiration for her. This picture sums it all up...
And OH -- as we are walking out the door we remembered to ask if we would be towed since we were parked in the NO PARKING/PERMIT ONLY area…