The Junk Drawer

Everyone has a junk drawer. It's usually overflowing with a bunch of things we think we might need someday, things we haven't found a place for, or things that are important but we can't remember why. Sometimes the junk drawer is so full that we have trouble even opening or closing it. Have you ever tried to find something in your junk drawer? It's like going back in time. You can find gadgets, missing pieces, old pens, etc., that you've had for YEARS. 

I recently found myself in a scavenger hunt to find something I was sure was in my junk drawer. Of course, it wasn't. I started looking at the items in the drawer. An old flip switch, a dried out marker, old batteries, varying "missing" pieces, tools, scissors, tape, rubber bands, twist-ties, and some old keys. I decided, that day, to do a "Junk Drawer Makeover." I took everything out of the drawer and looked at each item. If it was something I really did need, I found a more appropriate place for it, such as tools going in the tool chest. If it was something I didn't need, I threw it out. If it was a piece to something that I couldn't remember what it was for, I threw that out too. If I didn't need it all these years, I certainly didn't need it now. Surprisingly, I had very little left to keep. I wiped the drawer clean and lined it with shelf liner. I even bought a couple of drawer organizers to fit the remaining items in. What a difference it made! I could even open and close the drawer with ease!

If you're like me, you also have a personal junk drawer. This is the junk drawer where we tuck things away, like past hurts or memories, that we don't know what to do with and tell ourselves that we will "deal with them later." Sometimes we put things in the junk drawer we wish would just disappear. The trouble with a junk drawer, though, is it just gets more and more cluttered. Things don't disappear, they just pile up.

Maybe it's time we really look at what's in our personal "junk drawer" and see if there are some things that we could get rid of so we don't "carry" them around anymore. Sometimes it helps to really take a look at those things. We might see something that might have been important a long time ago, but isn't anymore. We might see something that when we take it out and look at it, we might be surprised we're still hanging onto it. We also might see some things that still hurt us, that we don't know if we're ready to discard. It's alright to keep some things in your junk drawer...for a specific period of time. You might need to make a plan to look at those items again so your drawer doesn't start getting cluttered again.

I don't know about you, but when I've taken the time to really look at the clutter in the junk drawers of my life and clean things out, it gives me a brighter outlook on life. I'm no longer hanging onto things I don't need. I have to make room for all the new things and experiences yet to come!

What about you? Do you need to do a "Junk Drawer Makeover" today?