The Portable Procrastination Basket

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I’ve been reading Elisabeth Sharp McKetta’s Edit Your Life, so I’ve been looking for ways I’m living my “first-choice life” and ways I’m not. I was picking up a friend who needed a ride, which is definitely part of my first-choice life. Helping people I love? That’s the kind of woman I want to be.

Before she got in the car, I was doing the frantic tidy-up shuffle. Dog toys, receipts, dress bags, leashes. As I shoved them into the back seat, there it was again.  

The thing.

This item doesn’t even belong to me. It belongs to the one who called me Mom second. She moved a year ago. A whole year, and this relic has been riding around with me through four seasons like a loyal postal worker: rain, sleet, snow, road trips, and grocery hauls. She’s getting ready to move again, which means if I keep something in my car long enough, the original owner eventually comes back for it. New decluttering model, anyone?

The truth, however, is that every time I opened the back of my car, I saw it. Every single time, I made a choice not to take it in, not to unload it. That tiny choice cost me energy…the mental space it takes to notice, ignore, and carry on.

During my mad stash clean-up before my friend arrived, I realized the thing had actually become…useful. It made a perfect catchall basket for the random car clutter. Receipts, pens, napkins…all tucked inside. Maybe I’ve invented something by accident: the Portable Procrastination Basket. Patent pending.

I can laugh about it to keep the shame spiral at bay, but my first-choice life does not involve things rolling around in my car for a year. My first choice life does not involve frantic car clean-ups to feel presentable enough to offer someone a ride. 

I’m pretty sure these two things are connected. I trained my brain it was okay to leave that thing in the car and before long, I was leaving everything else, too…receipts, dog leashes, sweaters, the whole mess. It seemed harmless until I realized that even while I was doing a first-choice thing (helping a friend), I felt the consequences of what I’d been ignoring.

The second-choice things of our lives siphon energy. That backseat relic had been stealing mine for twelve months.

Learn from me on this one. Unload your car. Clear the clutter. Choose the energy-giving path.

For  October, that’s my commitment: to clean out the car.  It won’t involve a full detail or pulling out the vacuum, just the little daily freshening after use. Taking things out. Putting things away. Noticing what I’m leaving behind instead of stepping out and shutting the door.

That tiny burst of energy it takes to act? It pays dividends. It creates energy instead of draining it. The same seconds I spend deciding not to deal with it are the very seconds I could spend unloading, clearing, and restoring a little order. Same amount of time…monumentally different dividends.

At the end of October, I’ll see what my car looks like and how my energy feels as I get in the car. It’s not really about the car at all. It’s about choosing again and again to take the actions that lead to living my first-choice life.  

Who knows, maybe next month I’ll even get around to filling the gas tank before the light comes on. 😉

I’ll be cheering you on, even if my arms are full of things I’m bringing in from the car.

You can buy the book here...(Amazon Affiliate link) 

Edit Your Life: A Handbook for Living with Intention in a Messy World

Here's my book...✨Practicing Enough  

Here's my other book...✨Staying True 

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