The Road Less Traveled Can Be More Fun

It’s pretty easy to fall into a routine. It helps eliminate confusion. It gives us order amid the disorder of constant little interruptions, like kids or phones or missing socks or worse, those “stupid” drivers. You surely have a long list of your own! Order becomes a sought after luxury… up to a point, or it controls us.  How does that happen?

When we’re driving we tend to take the same route… it’s predictable. In the kitchen, everything must be in its place and easy to find. We have laundry buckets for laundry, and sock drawers for socks… order vs disorder. And when we find a solution we stick to it, rarely thinking twice about it again. It works. Done! Next!

And yet, sometimes it makes sense to re-think it. Is there a better and easier way? We’ve gotten used to our routines and long past reasons for those solutions. We could be missing newer and better ideas simply because we failed to keep our eyes open. We failed to look for “the road less traveled”.

Have you ever tried googling an alternate route to your regular drive, whether it be school or work or even the grocery store? One time I had to, due to road construction and discovered a quicker and easier route that I never would have looked for. Now I regularly use it during peak traffic… it’s technically longer by a mile maybe, but actually faster and more relaxing. Who would’a thought it?

For years, my kids and I always measured out cookie dough for our chocolate chip cookies with two teaspoons, working to ensure they were about the same size so they’d cook evenly. Recently I decided to splurge and try a cookie scooper. OMG! It was so much faster and easier. What’s more, all the cookies were evenly cooked and shaped. I thought they looked just like those glamorous recipe site photos do! That was a genuine thrill! The “whim” of “let’s try something different” turned out to be a great idea and time saver.

Sometimes you just have to be creative at handling something that has been annoying you or slowing you down. For example, recently I took a large binder clip and strung all the charging chords through the loop so they stay in one neat bundle by the outlet, clipped to the table edge. I added a small laundry basket next to the large one just for socks. And best of all, my new silicone lids are an awesome kitchen addition to eliminate that plastic wrap I hate fighting with. (Don’t we all?) Just like my cookie scooper, they make cooking so much easier and more fun!

The point is when you see a little something that annoys you or is taking too much time, wonder what you could do about it. Look around.  Necessity may be the Mother of Invention, but you are the Boss! Explore the possibilities and try some roads less traveled. You’re sure to have some fun with the results!