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rachelmanija Apr. 18th, 2019 11:43 am)
rachelmanija Apr. 18th, 2019 11:43 am)Being on crutches, in an apartment up a flight of stairs, has certainly made decluttering more challenging. I cannot take anything to trash/recycling, but have to get someone else to do it for me (and I live alone). Also, it's a lot more difficult to carry things from room to room.
Nevertheless, I persisted!
KonMari has completely changed a lot of household chores for me, from things I hate and avoid to things I actively want to do as a combination of relaxation/meditative activity and geeky hobby. (I still hate washing dishes though). Sherwood and Layla, who have both seen my apartment in various stages, can attest to how much this has changed how it looks.
Here is a set of shelves in my kitchen which had not been decluttered in twelve years. There's a huge space in the back of them which is very hard to reach into. Consequently, when I stash anything there, it tends to drift toward the back, where I can then neither see nor reach it. Otherwise I only opened it to grab a tool from the tool box.
The other day, having hired someone to run some errands for me and also take out the trash, I parked myself on the floor and pulled everything out, a task which at times involved lying flat on my stomach and using a tool to sweep things toward me. I really wish I'd photographed the floor once everything was out, because it was a hair-raising mound of trash and weird junk. I found a half-drunk bottle of Kahlua which had probably been there for twelve years. I found paper towels so old that they shattered like glass. I found a bag of birdseed that was at least ten years old, dating back from when I thought birds would come if I put out food. (They wouldn't.)
I dumped the trash in trash bags and sorted the rest. Here is the end result:
Nevertheless, I persisted!
KonMari has completely changed a lot of household chores for me, from things I hate and avoid to things I actively want to do as a combination of relaxation/meditative activity and geeky hobby. (I still hate washing dishes though). Sherwood and Layla, who have both seen my apartment in various stages, can attest to how much this has changed how it looks.
Here is a set of shelves in my kitchen which had not been decluttered in twelve years. There's a huge space in the back of them which is very hard to reach into. Consequently, when I stash anything there, it tends to drift toward the back, where I can then neither see nor reach it. Otherwise I only opened it to grab a tool from the tool box.
The other day, having hired someone to run some errands for me and also take out the trash, I parked myself on the floor and pulled everything out, a task which at times involved lying flat on my stomach and using a tool to sweep things toward me. I really wish I'd photographed the floor once everything was out, because it was a hair-raising mound of trash and weird junk. I found a half-drunk bottle of Kahlua which had probably been there for twelve years. I found paper towels so old that they shattered like glass. I found a bag of birdseed that was at least ten years old, dating back from when I thought birds would come if I put out food. (They wouldn't.)
I dumped the trash in trash bags and sorted the rest. Here is the end result:
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You remind me I absolutely must get a toolbox of some kind, as keeping all the screwdrivers in a plastic bag is suboptimal!
I had a deep cupboard like that in another house, where things got lost in the back, and I found that putting in one of these bin-on-glide things helped---mine was plastic and smaller, but the principle is the same, if you have something like a double-depth cabinet in which there is no way to get things from the back easily... I don't see anything exactly like what I used, but this is the general idea, you can install one of these at the back and pull it forward when you want something. It might work in a blind cabinet, too.
https://www.amazon.com/ClosetMaid-3087-14-Inch-Cabinet-Organizer/dp/B07111M1PJ
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Deep cupboards can be surprisingly unhelpful for tidying - I remember I loved the tall, deep one in our old flat, but we had a similar problem to you. And deep, high cupboards are hopeless because I can only reach stuff in front. Unfortunately this described a lot of our bedroom cupboards, so I've started putting their contents in light baskets stored lengthwise, so I can just pull the basket out and find what I want.
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I am doing some spring cleaning currently as well. It is going slowly but it is progressing and that is all that matters. :-)
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The bin for the rolled things is a great idea. I might need to see if we can do something like that with our place.
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