1-a-day

I threw out this 1 thing and it made me feel better.

Do you ever feel like you’re just not keeping up? Like your house or apartment is a mess and overloaded? Like you are falling behind on emails, on phones, on bills ….. ever feel like it’s just too much?

I was feeling the same way. Just couldn’t seem to get it together. Everything felt like work- from putting away the dishes to making plans with friends.

Today I found myself wandering around the house, not really looking for anything but dissatisfied with everything I found. Every cupboard and closet I opened felt full. Trinkets, article clippings and receipts occupied drawers and counter space. Sure, somethings have important meaning- like those flamingo coasters that …. hmm, who gave those to me again??

That made me realize I was just overwhelmed with ‘stuff‘. Clutter was just taking up room and sucking up my energy.

An idea hit me to throw something out. Anything. Just something that was taking up room. I instinctively walked up to the guest bathroom and opened the drawer where I keep all those things that either:
a. are little samples of soaps, potions and lotion that I might try some day.
~or~
b. things from various hotels (because some day a guest might want a hotel sewing kit!)
~or~
c. didn’t fit in the drawers in the master bathroom.

Sound familiar? In this crazy time capsule I found, among other things, 10 empty boxes of trial contacts, 2 head tinglers (did I really even need 1???) and a bottle of nylon cleaner from the 1990’s. Seriously?

The moment I opened the drawer one thing called to me- it was a no-name chapstick that was given to me as a marketing piece. I’ll NEVER use this. But I put it in that drawer, again, in case someone comes to the house and needs chapstick even though I make my own and have a handful of those available too. I’ve had it over a year so far and no takers yet. This little tube just caught my eye as it lay there in the middle of the mess.

I picked it up and threw it away.

Yup, and it felt good. It actually felt great! And it made me want to do more. A flurry of things I could throw away swirled in my head. But I didn’t really have time right then to Marie Kondo the place, so an idea was born.

What if I threw away one thing every day for ONE YEAR?

Seemed pretty simple. The little negative-Nelly voice chimed in about how it won’t really make a difference. But solid reasoning won out- sure, maybe not so much in the beginning, but imagine 365 items from now. I got a little nervous wondering if there would be anything left!? <Insert ridiculous chuckle here.>

Throw away 1-a-day.

So that’s what I’m doing. Starting today- Friday, September 13, 2019. Comment below if you want to join in or better yet, follow along on our Happy Eats Healthy Facebook page!
Doesn’t matter if you didn’t start on the same day. Let’s clean up our clutter and regain our energy together.