The Dang Junk Drawer

"It's in the dang junk drawer."  

Please tell me EVERYONE has at least one junk drawer.  You just thought about your drawer, right?  The one that doesn't always close?  The one where every random item in your house disappears and breeds to create more random messy chaos.
Here's where I may loose a few of you.... Do you ever feel like you are changing your life when you maintain an organized junk drawer?   Does a clean drawer make you feel.... complete?
Still with me?
I have two random item breeding drawers.  They started out as harmless places to hold things we needed often, but didn't have special containers for.  They quickly, and often turn into drawer sized pits of despair.  Too dramatic?  It feels that way to me.  You can easily tell how in control of my life I feel by the state of these drawers.  I have one that holds pens, tape, sticky notes, matches, random 3m things, and a lot of those kind of useful everyday items.  I have another that holds all of the measuring and serving spoons, and other fun kitchen gadgets.  You have those drawers, right?  Right?  See...

Cleaning those drawers and being able to open them and find EXACTLY what I am looking for without having to dig.... heaven.  That kind of order brings me all kinds of joy.
My life is kind of like that.  Sometimes I let so many junky things pile up, I can't seem to find myself underneath it all.  I forget the important things, and can't focus on what I need to.  I become easily distracted by one mess or another.  We all have times like that.  We feel like we are in a fog, as if life keeps happening around us, but not to us.  Sometimes we just need to dump everything out and start again.  Taking the time to empty the junk out and to keep the important things in order is important.  It is worth the time.
My first year here at Ft. Hood wasn't so awesome.  I was depressed, insecure, and hopeless.  It has taken almost a year to pull myself back together.  I had to sort through a lot of things in my life in order to put the important things in the forefront.  I had to deal with a lot of things that have been messing with me for decades.

 I am not done figuring things out yet.  

In the middle of my mid-life clean out, I figured out I had no idea who I really was.  How does one get to be um... older than 29... *cough* and not have a CLUE what their passions/hobbies/preferences are?  I'm figuring it out.  Things are falling into place.  I can finally SEE exactly what I need to see.
I cleaned out the junk drawers today.  Organizing makes me happy.  Order is important to me, because it makes my home more peaceful.  Creating a peaceful, organized, happy home is a passion of mine.  I learned that this past year.  Want to see how I feel about my life these days?

Busy. Full. Organized. Useful. Purposeful. Blessed.
Clean out your junk drawers... it just might help you figure out a bit more about yourself.

Blessings,
Mandy