Decluttering doesn’t seem like a strong enough word for what we’re doing. After two days of working on the kitchen, we barely made a dent. It doesn’t feel like we did anyways. Take a look at the kitchen decluttering pics and let me know what you think!
Here’s the before picture of what we started with:
Yes, there’s actually an oven under there. She hadn’t seen it in years. I was hoping to get through this on one day and then the other side of the kitchen on the second day but this area took both days.
I felt like such a failure after the first day.
After six hours, this was as far as I had gotten. I could see part of the oven but there was still so much stuff. I was really discouraged after this day. At least I had cleared away enough room in front of the refrigerator to open the doors but it didn’t seem like enough.
I knew that I needed to hit it a lot harder the next day.
She needed to let more go. That was the biggest problem here. Nothing could go. I didn’t want to go back since I was feeling like nothing more than a slave to her clutter, moving it around the house like she does all day long.
But I went back anyways. At one point during the next day, she brought it up that all she does is move things around all day and it’s exhausting for her. I told her that I was exhausted from moving things around and I had only been there a few hours.
Wouldn’t it be nice if you didn’t have to do that all day long everyday?
We had a really nice discussion about it and then we cleaned out a small kitchen cabinet together. Surprisingly, she let go of a lot of things out of that little cabinet! It was one of the few moments when I was really proud of her because I knew what she was going through and I know it was hard.
By the end of the day, we were all tired and hungry and my mom had been done for hours. She’s not doing well with all of this. I love doing it but not the frustration of knowing she’s not getting rid of much and then still goes shopping daily. It’s nerve-wracking!!
Here’s the after pics!
We had to put things back on the oven and cabinet since she still wanted to keep so much. I almost forgot to mention, when she first came in the house to see what we had done, she let out a big yell! She was so happy! She went on and on and on about how nice it looked, but apparently not enough to get her to get rid of more things. Bummer!
Look! There’s an oven and a floor!!
We’ve been talking about what’s next and we think we have the plan ready!
Do the after kitchen decluttering pics look like we spent two full days on it?
What an accomplishment!
you are doing wonderful. looks like a looong process – all the best