Today I was able to finish the kitchen cabinets. In the cabinet above the microwave, medicines, bandaids, and first aid essentials were spilling out. It took a couple of hours to sort through the medicines and black out my parents names on the bottles with a Sharpie to appease their fear of identity theft. To myself I thought it was pointless to black out their names because if you really want you can see the typing through the Sharpie, but I didn’t want to spend hours trying to peel labels off of medicine bottles, so I didn’t say this out loud. My dad did acknowledge at one point that if someone really wants their names they could find them Sharpied out name or not. On the top shelf of the cabinet were about thirty McDonald toys: Bambi, Bernstein Bears, Anastasia, Lion King. I collected these in a bag. Dad entered the kitchen and asked, “What are you doing with my stuff?” I answered that Mom had said we could donate these. He said, “I am going to sell those for $0.50 each.” So I wasn’t able to extract them from the house.
The next cabinet was next to the medicine cabinet. I pulled out drinking straws, ten different patterns of paper plates, thermos’s that went with lunchboxes (Strawberry Shortcake, Popples), cups, napkins, aluminum foil, sandwich bags, and coffee. I sorted these between trash and recycling bags and a keep pile. The thermos’s I was able to sneak out. I feel a little guilty about not asking my parents about these, but things just don’t last forever and plastic breaks down with age. They just can’t stay forever. I reorganized the three shelves with coffee, hot chocolate, sandwich bags, and aluminum foil on the bottom, paper towels and a bottle of wine on the second, and pie plates, a huge knife for cutting watermelon, and the forty-year-old toaster my dad loves on the third shelf.
Next I cleaned out behind the microwave. I found hot chocolate in a glass container, two ladles that were used for fetching well water, more medicine, a metal drinking container, and bent shelf paper. After sorting all of this, I reorganized the cabinet under the kitchen sink. Lots of swiffer dry wipes, but they all fit. There were only duplicates of about five cleaners, so I threw them in a bag and took them to my car before anyone could see. I’ll carry them to the recycling center. I placed garbage bags, swiffer wipes, and plastic grocery store bags on the left of the cabinet. The rest of the cabinet has about fifteen different cleaners. That’s fine with me, though, as long as they aren’t on the floor or cabinet.
In total, there were two bags for recycling and two for the garbage. I also found some ornaments that my grandmother had given me in the dining area. I’ve been wondering what happened to these for a long time. The computer and floppy disks are still on the kitchen counter. I guess I’ll have to start nagging Dad to go through these. I do not plan on decluttering the kitchen drawers for a while. I also started tonight on rolling coins that were sitting in a tin on the countertop. In the dining room there’s still a container of sewing supplies for Mom to sort through. There’re also items that we’ve looked at but just don’t have anywhere else to put right now. My plan for next time is to get Mom to declutter the cabinets above the washer and dryer. They need a space in those for candles and vases. I would also like to begin on the living area, since it’s the first room you see when you walk in and since Dad wants to have their window replaced.
Wait and see… will the She-ra and Carebear Halloween costumes above the washer stay or go?
House of Hoarders 