Is there anything more humbling than cleaning out the junk?

Proverbially and literally.

Today I’m deep cleaning. Literally. Under beds. Under dressers. Behind sofas. With four kids, it’s really futile because the tiny pieces and parts will return to their hidden, dusty resting spots almost immediately. Multiplying and absorbing more and more of my time.

That’s kind of what life can be if we let it.

At least for me.

I find and focus on these small pieces and parts. These tiny, cast off items from another project long discarded. Many people would simply trash them, ridding themselves of the single puzzle piece, random doll shoe and lone dice.

My husband can do this. He has an amazing ability to throw away without regard for what else it connects to or where it ‘might’ belong. It used to irritate me so I would collect the zillion random pieces and take time to connect them with their long lost set. More often than not, they went into a small box or bag and sat, just accumulating more junk. It’s as if they reproduced at night. Like Gremlins.

Today, as we worked, I thought about his style of cleaning and the differences in our personalities. Neither is right or wrong, better or worse (although he’d tell you I normally argue that point differently!) but I think of the freedom he has in letting that junk go. Proverbially and literally.

Casting it off. 

It’s not that these items, whether old puzzle pieces or life struggles, are unimportant. In truth they always have value. However, the value is nominal and he has the keen ability to discern his time and sanity as more valuable. This realization (which took me 18 years in a relationship with this man to recognize because I’m a slow learner….) made me wonder what other areas in my life I might be digging in and holding on to broken pieces, disconnected items once linked to parts of me that are long gone. Or simply don’t have a place or purpose.

Career desires that no longer fit my life? ‘Important’ daily goals that won’t ultimately lead me to my hope for our family legacy? Expectations on my kids that simply don’t matter? Trivial tasks that seem urgent because of someone else’s expectations?

I need to work in reverse, laying out my big goals, then backing out to determine what can stay and what can go. Using some decent judgement to figure out which pieces get the time and effort to be reconnected to their whole and which are headed straight to the trash bin.

Deep thoughts for a summer day but you just never know what cleaning under beds will do for your mindset. Petrified apple cores apparently bring out my reflective side.

What areas are you holding onto that just need to be discarded versus pouring more effort into them? Where do you get hung up and cling versus trashing and moving on? I’d love to hear what areas you all have been able to simply set aside or discard altogether!

Let’s purge the junk together.

Emily