Occasionally I am approached by insurance assessors requesting decluttering and organising services for clients with work injuries and there is just not enough information to quote.
Recently, I have been asked to quote for 2 sessions of 3 hours, including teaching the client during sessions how to declutter & organise. No other information provided.
My experienced Professional Organiser brain immediately goes into overdrive. What injury has prompted the need for decluttering and organising services?
How was 2 sessions of 3 hours decided? What is the client’s issue/injury that is impacting their ability to organise and declutter their own items?
Prior to a person’s injury, how did they manage their home? In a naturally organised and orderly way or have they always struggled to stay tidy and find things they own?
If the situation is temporary, like a broken leg, then decluttering and organising is just about making the space safe for the client. Access to items of daily and immediate importance needs to be prioritised until the client is back to managing life and their home as usual.
If there is a brain injury however, then teaching them strategies might require far more than just squeezing it in, along with decluttering the space, which is already a mentally fatiguing exercise for anyone.
If we are decluttering, that implies items leaving the home. Are the items going, in a suitable condition for donation or a council cleanup or a commercial rubbish removal? Will they be going into off-site storage for a period of time? This implies extra time and costs that impact the quote too.
If someone has had a life changing injury, then having to relinquish personal items that are part of their identity can be very painful and challenging. That corporate wardrobe or the beautiful furniture they have worked hard to purchase might have to go, so they can continue to live and move around at home in a safe and accessible way. A lot of grieving needs to happen and you can’t ride roughshod over that.