I kind of flipped out yesterday and threw out all of my pens. Not actually ALL of them, but all of the ones that I hated — you know, the ones that don’t write immediately, and you’re sitting there scratching at the paper, and then you lick the tip in the hopes that that helps (OK, well I lick the tip). I went on a rampage at my office and chucked all of them. Specifically, I chucked all of one type because they were driving me crazy, and I was armed with 6 boxes of new, I-know-these-work-great-from-prior-experience pens from Office Max.

Naturally, I posted on Facebook some comment about my quality of life improving because of this and got a bunch of comments back, people laughing about it, saying they were going to do the same thing, and one person saying she does this periodically with her underwear.

Which I’ve also done, I might add. Everyone should.

Then a patient said it had sparked a conversation among all the teachers in her grade, with them all brainstorming what they’re putting up with that would be so easy to fix. They’d walk by each other in the halls and say, “Spice bottles!” or “My pots!”

I did this a few months ago when I came back from a trip. I woke up the next morning in my bed, got up and groaned — the hotel bed had been awesome and now I felt like crap in my own. The very next day, Will and I went out and got another mattress and gel-top and I’ve felt better ever since.

With all the parts of our lives that are out of control (because I don’t need to be reminded by a gargantuan earthquake in Haiti that I have a very tenuous hold on things in my life), what better way get a small grip on your life? Get rid of the crappy pens, throw out the hangers that let your clothes fall anyway, junk the underwear with holes and that gives you wedgies, get some of those over-the-door hooks so you can get some of your crap off the floor. How about the socks that always slip down? Or your dull knives?

Or the tooth floss that always frays and breaks? Your earrings and jewelry all jumbled together in some messy bowl on your bureau?

Never mind clothing – that’s a whole topic unto itself ;-)

What little annoyance or irritation are you putting up with that would be oh-so-easy to change?