We bought a new refrigerator, and in preparation for its arrival we sorted through all the food in our old fridge, throwing out moldy cheese and dried-up fruit and caramel dip we've had since our first year of marriage. Okay actually, Rob insisted we keep the caramel. "Because that stuff is so good!" Yes, and also old enough to go to kindergarten. Blech.

The new fridge was delivered yesterday and as I was filling it with all our food, in a very organized fashion, I thought to myself how a new refrigerator is a lot like a new year. You get the chance to sort through the stuff that filled the last one and make choices about what to bring into the new one. It's an excuse to toss all the bad stuff you've been hanging onto, and an opportunity to finally figure out what is causing that orange sticky puddle. It's good to have a reason to sort and purge and simplify.

And it's easy to make promises about doing things right this time around, to swear you'll only bring in things that are good for you and take time regularly to rid yourself of the stuff that is crowding your space or stinking everything up. Most likely, those pledges will soon be forgotten. But somehow it's almost enough that for a moment there was a clean slate, a day of seeing things clearly, a whole week without moldy cheese.