🐾Dog Toys in the Utensil Crock (and Other Discomfort Data) 🐾

Mar 24, 2026

📌to your Pinterest board or 📌the blog Pinterest board

🔘Audio Version

Dog ball throwers, clean counters, and real life

So…How’s the Discomfort Going?

Quick check-in.

Which team are you on?

Team Clear the Counters
Team Declutter Three Things a Day
Team This is Not Enough Action to Make a Dent

Take a moment to notice how it feels to be in week four of practicing discomfort.

How many times have you cleared the counter, left the room for five minutes, and come back to find something placed right in the middle of your beautiful clean space?

(Deep breath.)

Or maybe you’re decluttering three items and suddenly notice your daughter’s clothes scattered across the floor and wonder why you’re bothering.

(More breathing.)

You could make it mean this isn’t working or you could notice that discomfort doesn’t always give you the best data. Discomfort can be loud, but it’s not always accurate.

Subscribe now

Here’s my own discomfort around what I’ll call the “Utensil Crock Incident.” During a particularly ruthless decluttering of my own counters, I decided to experiment with living without my utensil crock on my counter. I had already decluttered some utensils and moved the rest into a drawer. I hadn’t decluttered the crock because I wasn’t convinced I could live without it. (Translation: it felt uncomfortable. 😉)

At this exact time, puppy-version of Birdie entered our lives.

Her favorite things were a green puppy-sized ball thrower and a wooden spoon smeared with peanut butter for teaching her to heel. They lived in a bin on top of her crate when not in use.

One weekend, both kids were home. There was extra ball throwing, extra wooden spoon peanut butter heeling, and a very happy puppy.

Monday morning, I realized both items were gone and I had a very sad puppy. I checked the logical places: the yard, the porch, the crate. I checked with the kids to see if they had put them in a puppy proof location. I’d decided I would have to repurchase them. It was a few days before I got around to doing it. (Poor Birdie, right?)

I was clearing my counters when I found them.

In the utensil crock.

Back to the breathing as I began to have some uncomfortable thoughts...Ew...dog toys in the utensil crock? Had they been loaded into the dishwasher and washed? Have they been there the whole time? Did anyone visit and come into the kitchen to see this???? Or had someone just decided that they should live there. In defense of who ever put them there, the green ball thrower does have a suspicious soup-ladle shape.

I snapped a picture and set it to the kids. We laughed, but I was still having thoughts and feelings and they were not comfortable…

Who puts a ball thrower in the crock?
That’s just gross.
I can’t do anything right.
There is something so wrong with my life.

All these thoughts and feelings were available, and believable and multiplying the discomfort. I think they would have taken control if I hadn’t had the picture.

It was the picture that made me realize...someone tried to help. They tried to put it away. They did what made sense to them...and ultimately, it was a great idea since I wasn’t using the crock for utensils...right?

That’s probably how it became such a funny memory.
“Anyone know where the ball thrower is?”
“Check the utensil crock!” followed by laughter

If you’re feeling discouraged as you practice discomfort, if you’re thinking, How will I ever get comfortable with this? I get it.

Here’s my invitation: soften the story.

Discomfort from action like decluttering, clearing counters, or changing habits is real. But discomfort from the stories we create is optional. Dog ball throwers in the utensil crock are funny…unless we decide they mean something else. We can create our own discomfort by focusing on irritation and frustration, or we can snap a picture, grab the ball thrower and enjoy being a puppy’s hero for finding her favorite toy.

As you move through this week, try asking yourself:

Am I creating discomfort because of the meaning I’m giving this?

Or is the action truly uncomfortable?

They aren’t the same thing.