Life Shouldn’t Be Like A Junk Drawer

Today, it hit me that navigating life is like how you handle your “junk drawer”. That crazy mess of a place you keep tossing all the odd and misfit things into because it is convenient. And 1 day you will get to cleaning it out.

Right now we are in an extremely stressful time. We have lived most 1 year of the “PANI”, it is such a part of our life we now give it comedic labels to cope. Add to that the hate and political mess during 2/3 of the time, with a side of natural disasters including TX freezing over last week.

Now is not the time to surrender and give into a junk drawer that can’t even close anymore.

Below are a few tips to clean up the JUNK:

1. Take 5 or 10 minutes a day to start cleaning up the mess. Add it to your shower time or dental care routine. Use those precious minutes in the “REST ROOM” to actually REST and focus on finding inner peace and happiness.
2. Try taking the trash out 1 or 2 times a day to the can outside. The extra steps and breaks add up. If you don’t have actual trash, take out pretend trash. There are lots of Tik Tok videos cruelly giving dogs pretend treat for laughs, skip teasing the dog and take out your “Pretend” trash. Except your pretend trash isn’t really PRETEND, it will be REAL TRASH in your mind.
3. Write a JUNK list, and then break it down into smaller do-able steps, and start tackling it. Go old school with the list and write it down or type it out in an email, use Word or notes in an already existing app on your computer, tablet or phone. DON’T be tempted to get a digital planner, pretty book, stickers, etc. to start working on the JUNK. Those are stall tactics and waste time and money. If your budget is overflowing, then still save the money and make a donation to a charity or do a PAY IT FORWARD. The key is momentum and avoiding starting.
4. Make a small bit of time each day to do the classes you bought this year, last year or years ago. I personally logged back into on-line programs I bought almost 2 years ago, some even longer ago and never did …….. I am now doing those classes and learning a lot. Even if you figure some stuff out on your own, go back and take the lessons. You will clear the money wasted thoughts from your brain, and you will also get access to someone else’s ideas and insight into thinking and doing. That important human connection may just be the light bulb aha thing for you in many ways. At the very least, you can lessen any guilty feelings you may have by telling your family you have school if that is what you need to set a boundary and schedule some YOU time.
5. Don’t toss more junk into to the drawer that can’t already close. The extra weight may be the one thing that is going to make the drawer break and crash down to the ground spilling the stuff everywhere.

Yesterday, I started cleaning the physical junk in the house. Kitchen reno part 2 is starting in 2 weeks so we need to empty everything out. And I needed to help my mom clean out her closets. In the 3 hours I devoted to cleaning out the junk, I registered 13,000 steps on my smart watch, we found $150, found stuff we couldn’t find in a long time and kept buying more of the same stuff which got buried and a lot of people benefitted form the items I dropped off for donation.

Challenge yourself and start cleaning!

xo, Tracy