Meg Evans

My past blog entries about clutter never featured a photo of the old shelves in the garage, but not because it wasn’t deserved. The shelves, left behind by the previous owners when my family moved into our starter house in 1993, probably had been there for many years already. When we bought our current house, we moved the shelves without thinking much about it. Just one more thing to replace eventually.

After that, we didn’t think much about the old shelves, except that sometimes when we walked past them we noticed the obvious fact that they had seen better days. But they weren’t falling down yet, so there was always something else that got our attention instead.

On Monday afternoon, when it was so cold and rainy that we didn’t feel like going anywhere, my husband decided that it would be a good time to put together some new shelves. Not only are they sturdier than the old creaky ones, they’re also larger and hold a lot more stuff, letting us organize things in the garage much better. There was so much difference, it left us saying “Wow!”
 

And garbage pickup was the next morning, which was good because there definitely wasn’t anything worth salvaging in the old shelves! When we took them apart, one of the screws wouldn’t turn because of all the rust, and just had to be broken loose with a kick.

Sometimes a little more structure goes a long way—not only as to the shelves, but also making sure to replace old worn-out stuff when it needs to be done!

* Good Things is a weekly series featuring the many unexpected joyful things that show up when clutter and stagnation have been cleared away. It’s meant as a reminder that life is always full of happy little surprises, when there’s enough space for them!

One of my Clutter Comedy posts featured the shower caddy with a bottle of men’s shampoo, which become completely useless several years ago when my husband decided to shave his head. All that time, I had been putting my shampoo and conditioner next to it without paying attention. I tried a few different kinds, but nothing seemed to be quite right for my hair, and I was getting frustrated. On my bad hair days, it has an unfortunate tendency to stick out on the sides and make “wings” around my ears. Last week I bought this “calming” shampoo and conditioner by Nature’s Gate:
 

My husband thought that “calming” was a funny thing to call shampoo and conditioner, but they really did help to settle my hair into nice calm waves, rather than wildly sticking out all over. And they are sulfate-free and made with healthy herbs, so they’re better for my scalp than the other stuff I had been using. So, I give them a big yay. And, if the shower caddy hadn’t been decluttered last year, it’s likely I would not have found them. I wouldn’t have been as adventurous in trying new hair products because clutter subconsciously makes people expect that things won’t change.

* Good Things is a weekly series featuring the many unexpected joyful things that show up when clutter and stagnation have been cleared away. It’s meant as a reminder that life is always full of happy little surprises, when there’s enough space for them!

My daughter drove down from Cleveland with her dog on Friday night and spent the weekend here. We enjoyed her visit and were glad she took the time out of a busy schedule to come and see us. All too soon, she packed up her car to leave this morning. Here’s a photo of the dog eating breakfast just before getting on the road, already wearing the little harness that attaches to the doggie car seat.
 

At first I wasn’t sure if I should write about a family visit in a Good Things post, as it was not unexpected. Also, how did it fit into the theme of good stuff replacing clutter and stagnation? Although there was indeed some physical clutter when dog and daughter were living here, my husband often reminded me (when I stepped on a chew toy or something and got cranky about it) that I should appreciate the moment because they would be gone soon enough, and all we’d have would be occasional visits.

So, I would say that what I cleared away to make space for good family visits was not the physical clutter. Rather, it was the bad habit of letting myself get annoyed about stuff that really didn’t matter. That’s all too easy to do; and in truth, it is just mental garbage taking up space where good things could go instead!

* Good Things is a weekly series featuring the many unexpected joyful things that show up when clutter and stagnation have been cleared away. It’s meant as a reminder that life is always full of happy little surprises, when there’s enough space for them!

One of my kitchen cabinets always seemed like it filled up with new freebie water bottles faster than I got rid of old ones—there’s a photo in this post. Recently my husband went through them again and pitched most of the water bottles at the back of the cabinet. He pointed out that they hadn’t gotten any use at all since our daughter moved to Cleveland, and she hadn’t used them much anyway.

Then he bought some Polar Bottles, two of which are shown here:
 

Much better—the Polar Bottles are very well insulated. When we put ice water in them before we go rowing, the ice melts so slowly that there is still some ice left when we get home, even on a warm and sunny afternoon. Even though water bottles are just everyday consumer items and not expensive, they’re a great reminder that the modern world is full of “cool” new stuff to appreciate!

* Good Things is a weekly series featuring the many unexpected joyful things that show up when clutter and stagnation have been cleared away. It’s meant as a reminder that life is always full of happy little surprises, when there’s enough space for them!