In my quest to find a workable philosophy of the simple life, I went to my neighboring library (much larger than my own) and looked at books. One I came across that I couldn’t resist bringing home was Throw Out Fifty Things by Gail Blanke. She talked about going to her kitchen junk drawer and tossing everything--saving only a puppy collar which she hung on a corner of the puppy’s picture. Everything else--tubes of dried-out Krazy glue, expired fishing licenses, batteries, rubber bands, golf tees etc--was tossed.
Thus inspired, I headed for my “miscellaneous” kitchen drawer and did something similar. What I kept were potholders, a box of matches, unused birthday candles, a lamp timer, and a box of toothpicks. What went were mystery keys, souvenir matchbooks, a Chinese take-out menu, two old pet medications, a non-working digital meat thermometer and little bits of other stuff. My focus was on keeping what I need now, not on whether anything else might be “usable.”
The drawer looks half-empty and makes me happy. I think I’ll buy it some new potholders.
Thus inspired, I headed for my “miscellaneous” kitchen drawer and did something similar. What I kept were potholders, a box of matches, unused birthday candles, a lamp timer, and a box of toothpicks. What went were mystery keys, souvenir matchbooks, a Chinese take-out menu, two old pet medications, a non-working digital meat thermometer and little bits of other stuff. My focus was on keeping what I need now, not on whether anything else might be “usable.”
The drawer looks half-empty and makes me happy. I think I’ll buy it some new potholders.
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