We all have our household junk drawers. Probably in the laundry room or kitchen. There are two classes of “junk” in our junk drawers. Useful stuff and not-so-useful stuff.

The useful stuff consists of things like a pair of pliers, a couple of screwdrivers, maybe a flashlight, and a partial roll of duct tape and you know why that stuff is there. Then there are the other things. You have no idea why they are there when they got there, or even where they came from.

The not-so-useful stuff probably consists of things like a bent paper clip, a bobby pin, an assortment of batteries of questionable strength, a roll of string, a scrap of sandpaper, and a few screws, nuts, and bolts. There are usually a couple of thingies that you don’t even know what they are.

From time to time we need to clean out the junk drawer and toss the not-so-useful items.

Then there is the other junk drawer. The one in the mind. Oh yes, we all have them and they too have both useful and not-so-useful items in them. The useful items consist of happy memories of people, places, and events. They hold the glow from successes and good decisions.

These junk drawers of the mind also hold memories of disappointments, failures, hurts, failed relationships, and poor decisions.

Like the household junk drawer, the junk drawer of the mind needs to be cleaned out from time to time. Trash the bad and hurtful items. These are the things that spoil our peace of mind, impact our happiness, and can even lead to depression. Cleaning this one is harder than the one in the laundry room, but practice will make it easier.

How long has it been since you cleaned out your two junk drawers?