My wife gave me that look last night when I got home late. I do not care how busy you are, I do not care how tired you are, but sometimes you just have to take the trash out. Sure enough, the kitchen can was overflowing and the overflow bin just inside the garage door was full too.
She was right. Time to take out the trash.
I woke up this morning thinking about my late evening trash hauling, and I realized this same thing happens in almost everything we do. The buildup is slow. You ignore it because other things feel more urgent. Then one day someone points it out, or you finally notice, and you cannot avoid it anymore.
Even in software development there is a garbage collection process. Systems need it or they slow down and eventually fail. My Slack environment is full of dead and inactive channels. My hard drive is full of stuff I have not touched in years. My Dropbox, Google Drive, Evernote, and Notion repositories are even worse. My bank account has not been reconciled in decades. My closet is full of clothes that I am not sure even Goodwill would take.
Then there are the processes, procedures, and projects lying dormant and unattended. Things I started with good intentions that now just sit there, taking up mental space even when I am not looking at them directly.
When I was young, my mom would often do a spring cleaning. She would pick something messy and completely clean it. You would get a sense of accomplishment when you opened the pantry afterward and everything was organized and clearly marked. All the old and discarded items were thrown away. It felt lighter. It felt possible to find what you needed.
I sit here in my office now looking at my inbox, the Chrome tabs still open from three days ago, the bookshelf with papers stacked in front of the books, the pile of bills in a bin that I keep meaning to sort. And then I see the empty trash can beside my desk. That fills me with hope. At least the garbage is empty.
“The buildup is slow, you ignore it because other things feel more urgent, then one day you cannot avoid it anymore.”
Maybe the lesson is not complicated. Maybe it is just this. You have to take out the trash. Not once, but regularly. Not because it is inspiring or strategic, but because it needs doing. Because when you let it pile up, it weighs on you in ways you do not always notice until it is gone.
The trash does not take itself out. The Slack channels do not archive themselves. The old files do not delete themselves. The projects you are never going to finish do not close themselves. Someone has to do it, and that someone is you.
So today I am going to pick one thing. Maybe it is the inbox. Maybe it is the bin of bills. Maybe it is just the actual trash can again. But I am going to take something out, clear something away, and make a little more room for what matters.
Because sometimes the most important thing you can do is not add something new. Sometimes it is just taking out the trash.
