When Everything is Cluttered, Just Throw it in the Trash!

Welcome to my very first blog! I admit I am very much an amateur at this kind of thing so I am going to go ahead of lean right into that discomfort like Brene Brown convicts us all to do and just give it a go! I was sitting in the living room chatting with my husband who I might add was very distracted watching my favorite show American Pickers (insert sarcasm). My husband is an amazing social worker and I thought he might have some great ideas for me, so I asked him what he thought I should do my first blog post on. His response…” When everything is cluttered, just throw it in the trash!” We both laughed hilariously and knew exactly what was being said at that moment. So the moment of truth, some pretty difficult self-disclosure for me…I am a bit of a clean freak! This is particularly interesting mixed with my husband who is a highly disorganized, very relaxed goofball of a human. I have this habit of letting my family’s clutter add up, then getting overwhelmed with it and simply donating everything I own or throwing a bunch of things in the trash. (Not always the best way of dealing with disorganization FYI) So my husband and I actually balance each other out beautifully, but this got me thinking about John and Julie Gottman’s idea of “turning towards rather than away”. The Gottman’s explain that a major aspect of what makes relationships successful are these simple moments where we decide to simply connect and turn towards our partners, whether that is simply paying attention and joining them in looking at the sunset they are pointing out or the cool old beat-up guitar they picked up at the second-hand store, or just engaging in some humor about what the heck a person might write about on their first blog post. I think about how often we are so distracted in life whether it’s by social media, little toddlers requesting a million beverages before bedtime, cleaning, or just not being present that we miss these crucial moments to turn towards our partners. It’s these simple moments that truly make the difference!