It takes me about 15 minutes to clear one kitchen cabinet, and I sit down the whole time.
I didn’t always work this way. Years ago, I spent a whole Saturday on my feet clearing out our hall closet. My back was sore, and the closet was full again by spring.
My mother showed me a better way, and she never meant to. In her 80s, she’d work on one drawer for ten minutes, then stop for tea and a rest. (She never called it a plan. She called it being tired.)
So when I cleared my own kitchen, I did it her way. I did one spot at a time, in a chair, with a timer.
This is my kitchen decluttering checklist for seniors. It has 12 spots, and it starts with the easiest one. You won’t climb on anything, and you don’t have to do it all at once.
Before You Open a Single Cabinet
Get set up at the kitchen table first. It only takes a minute, and it saves you a lot of getting up.
I put a trash bag on one side of my chair and a cardboard box on the other. The box is for things to give away. A third, smaller box sits on the table for anything that stops me, like a note in my mother’s writing.
Then I bring things to the table a few at a time. I don’t