Minus 10 Clutter Filled Minutes

The First Challenge.

Go to your junk drawer. It might be a drawer in the kitchen, or a cabinet, or a spot in your bedroom. Wherever it is, go to it.

Now open it. Keep it open. And look at it. Really look at it. Take it all in.

How did it get like this?

On the surface it's just a drawer that masks its contents just like every other drawer in the room. The reality is this is a place where you shove all the things you don't want to deal with. If you don't know where something goes, you throw it in there. Or if you don't feel like dealing with something you toss it in, go about your business, and try to forget that it's there. Waiting. Waiting for you to deal with it.

In my junk drawer I tend to house a lot of manuals and printed directions for items I've purchased. There's nothing stopping me from creating a file for manuals, except for the fact that I would have to walk downstairs, pull out an empty folder and write "MANUALS" on it. Hey, that may not sound like a lot, but that's huge. (Especially for someone who's inherently lazy. I've got to walk down the stairs, people. And come back up!)

The other thing that tends to accumulate in my junk drawer is tools, nails, screws, pliers... really anything that was removed from the toolbox. The motivation to get the tools is easy... hang a new picture, fix a leaky faucet; the motivation to return the items is nonexistant. This tells me the toolbox is in the wrong spot. I keep it in the garage, which is obviously way too far away for me to put anything back into it.

My junk drawer has taught me something: the problem isn't the drawer. It's not even the tools or manuals that accumulate inside. The problem is that the location of the toolbox and the files simply does not work for me. The long term solution isn't going to be cleaning the drawer, it's going to be to honestly figure out why things get dumped inside. Nothing really stops me from moving the toolbox into the closet, or in the pantry, or to a place other than the one that currently doesn't work. Perhaps no one else I know keeps their toolbox in their food pantry, but that might be the place that works best for me. And that is okay. It just needs to be properly addressed. This challenge will force me to address the changes necessary to de-clutter a portion of my home. Not just take the time to finally put something back; but to really implement the changes necessary to ensure I am doing the best thing for me.

Our lives can get like this: cluttered. We tend to shove things we don't want to deal with into a deep dark spot: an insensitive in-law, a destructive dog, an ex with an attitude - and shut the door. If we were honest with ourselves we would admit that we walk by this spot multiple times a day and just pretend it doesn't exist, until that one day when we explode over it, cursing the mess created. Just like our junk drawer in our homes, the places in our selves that collect clutter do nothing to promote balance, ease, and clarity.

Today I challange you to tackle that junk drawer for just ten minutes. Set the timer and deal with it. Bring the hammer back to the tool box and then put the tool box in a place that makes sense to you to get the tools in and out of. Put the manuals in a file that's kept upstairs instead of in the basement. Whatever you get done in ten minutes is enough for today, as long as you're honestly working towards dealing with the actual problem once and for all.

Minus 10 minutes of clutter filled time... replace it with 10 minutes of clarity.