![]() ![]() Work for whatever amount of time you have. I chip away at the powerful delusion that it makes more sense to wait until I have time to do the job perfectly. I accept that small amounts of time are worth spending on my home. The same delusion-breaking strategy has worked hundreds of times inside my home.Įven when I’m confident I don’t have time to make a real impact, if I take a before picture and start working anyway, I always see an impact.Īnd every time I swipe back and forth between the before and the better pictures, my brain adjusts a little. I know, with timestamped photo proof, that spending less than an hour working in my yard makes an impact. This smashes my delusion that I don’t have enough time to make an impact. ![]() The first set was taken 48 minutes apart. The effort was worth my time.Īnd the beauty of taking the photos on my phone is that I can see exactly how much time passed between photos.Įach of the sets of “before and better” photos in this post were taken within an hour. Taking the before picture is always worth it. Visual proof of progress is a powerful thing. Before photos inspire me to keep decluttering. Seeing the difference produces a version of the same lovely feeling I get from applause. When I do take a before picture, and then I take a “better” picture, I can swipe back and forth and know for sure I made a difference. When I don’t take a before picture, I’m pretty sure it looks better when I’ve worked for a while. Especially when the result is just better, and not a Grand Finale of Perfection. The most frustrating thing about housework is that no one very few applaud. “Before” pictures provide affirmation I want so badly. Not about my identity.)īecause I “had to” take before pictures, I learned their power. Even in the beginning when I was anonymous and lived in fear of someone I knew recognizing my house, I was committed to total honesty. Here on the blog, where I’ve documented my deslobification process over the last decade, before pictures were a requirement. I have experienced the power of a before picture so many times. I knew I was wrong even while I wasn’t taking the pictures. I just couldn’t believe that the results would be anything to be proud of. I had no faith in my ability to make it better. I also didn’t want to take a before picture because I didn’t believe it was possible for me to truly make a difference. I didn’t want to take a picture because I was embarrassed about how bad it was. My biggest regret, though, is that I didn’t take a before photo. It’s not perfect, and I’d never call it gardening, but it’s better. When he was home, Hubby joined me with some bigger choppy things and we kept on hacking things down.Īnd now, a few weeks later, working a little bit on a lot of days, our front yard looks significantly better. I never spent long out there, but I was starting to see a real difference.Įventually, I got out a long choppy thing/tool and a shorter choppy thing/tool and started trimming. So the next day, I did another small section. I dragged the leaves from a 4’x4′ area into a pile, pulled up the weeds, and bagged them up. that hasn’t had flowers in it since the ones she planted died. (A flower bed created by the lady we bought our house from 14 years ago. I started getting the leaf clutter out of one small section of one flower bed. All the leaves and wonky bushes and baby/teenager trees growing in random places where they were never planted overwhelmed me.īut in a moment of desperation, I realized: And lately, I’d noticed how bad it was and would grimace every time my brain registered how it looked.īut, not being a “yard person” I didn’t even know where to start. My yard had been on my “we really need to” list for years. Working in the yard is helping me stay sane. That’s a phrase that sounds normal coming out of someone else’s mouth, but it doesn’t feel normal coming from me. “I’ve been working in my yard a lot lately.” When you’re decluttering, taking a “before picture” is so helpful. ![]()
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