Can you believe it? We’ve come to very last A to Z of Organising.
X-rays – What the heck do you do with unwanted x-rays? That’s just one of the tricky items we can help our clients to declutter when we know how. X-rays contain silver in the form of halides, which can be extracted and converted into pure silver. Some organisations will accept x-rays for recycling. To find out more I use Planet Ark’s Recycling Near You website, where you can search by location and materials. They list everything from aerosol cans to x-rays.
X rated – Then there’s the tricky subject of X-rated materials. How do you balance your own sensitivities with the privacy and needs of our clients? More than a few times while helping someone to declutter, I’ve come across X-rated material, from toys to videos and more. In every case, you need to handle the situation with discretion and professionalism, just as if you were sorting through a spice rack or a sock drawer. In fact, a sock drawer is exactly the kind of place you might find those items. Preserving both your client’s dignity and your own, responses could vary from turning a blind eye while the client removes the items to another location, to openly discussing the choices available, i.e. keep, toss, donate. The point is that these items are part of your client’s life, and we organisers are often invited into our client’s most private thoughts, feelings and spaces. That is a privilege not to be taken for granted.
Yearly planner – I use a yearly planner to take a high-level view over my year. I use it to plan my holidays, my special projects, my marketing campaigns. By taking this helicopter view of my year, I can avoid burnout, and maximise my time and energy.
Zones – One of the best ways to organise things, and the easiest way to remember where things belong is to create zones. A zone for coffee-making, where the cups and coffee-making supplies are located together nearby to the coffee machine is a perfect example. Another zone for bill paying, where incoming bills are collected and held, ready for prompt payment. Some clients still pay by cheque, so of course the cheque book would be in that location too. I pay my bills online, so my bills to pay are within arms reach of my computer. Also in that spot is a pink highlighter pen to mark the due date. I never pay late. When we help our clients group like things together in zones, it helps to know where things are and where to put them back.
To read about the rest of the A to Z of Organising so far, click here.
What on earth could be next? I do have something in mind. Stay tuned.
