Knowing When It’s Time to Let Go of a Misbehavin’ Storage Bowl

Knowing that you should purge an item when it’s no longer useful and actually letting the item go are two different things. When it comes to letting go, it’s always the ridiculous things that are the hardest for me to part with.

I’ve had this set of storage bowls for several years. These bowls were casino freebies given to me by my parents. I should have absolutely no reason to hang on to them. But…. I really like them. I like the way they look (I know it sounds silly) and they store nicely stacked inside each other (sounds rational).

The bowls work perfectly… all but one of them. The lid on that one doesn’t fit right. He’s quite tricky about hiding his “lid fit” problem. The lid fits perfectly well at room temp. But the next day when I pick that little guy up out of the fridge, whoosh, the lid no longer fits and I end up with a mess.

It took me over a year to figure out what was going. When I tested the lid after cleaning up the mess, the lid would fit just fine (dun dun dun dun) until the next time it went into the fridge. The plastic lid on that one bowl contracts just enough in the cold refrigerator to pop off the edge of the bowl.

When I finally figured out what was going on last week, I should have immediately thrown the lid away and either found another use for the bowl or donated it. But no-o-ooo. For some reason that trickster bowl continues to sit on my counter with its lid fitting perfectly (at room temp); silently pleading its case to stay because he promises to behave next time. I just can’t seem to bring myself to let the little guy go.

I realize this is absolutely ridiculous. Decluttering “rules” say to get rid of a thing when it doesn’t work, you don’t use it, you don’t need it and you don’t love it. My little trickster bowl doesn’t work, so I don’t use it. It doesn’t work so I don’t need it. It doesn’t work so I shouldn’t love it. I know that it’s time to let that little rascal go, but it’s still hard to say good-bye.

Sigh. Good-bye bowl that doesn’t work and I don’t need. Off to the donate box you go, minus your troublemaker lid.

(Luckily, I still have 3 others that are cute AND work perfectly.)

Susan

I’m a mom of 3, a veteran and military spouse. I’ve moved into 20+ homes all around the world. My passion is helping busy people make the space and time for what’s really important to them.

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