From the Decluttering Trenches: Celebrate the Small Wins

Celebrate it all. In fact, especially the small stuff.

Where do they come from? I haven’t taken a hotel shampoo bottle in years. I used to think, “Oh, they’ll be handy when we travel.” But when we traveled, we:

1. Forgot to bring them,
2. Couldn’t find them,
3. Didn’t want to bring them,
4. Brought them, but the hotel had more, so we … brought them back home.

It’s a tragedy, I know.

I needed some lotion and there was some left in this tiny bottle I found in our cabinet. It wasn’t that empty, but I lathered it on good and thick just to be able to celebrate the victory or throwing away something. The lotion even felt better. I think it helps your skin even more if it’s the last part in the bottle (research still out on that).

I thanked the lotion for all of its work over the years that it’s been with us, wished it farewell and laid it to rest in the recycling.

This is also a post about how accountability and challenges can work. Darcey Rojas (of The Compassionate Home) has inspired me to be in a constant state of declutter. I also recently read Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, but Darcey is a real person I know and it’s her passion. Darcey even has a 2015 Fall Decluttering Challenge if you need a little nudge to clean out that closet, reorganize the office or … throw out a tiny bottle of hotel lotion.