The $40 Junk Drawer Illusion (And Why Travelers Pack It Too)

We lug our worst habits across oceans, terrified of a "someday" that never arrives. Here is how to finally drop the weight.

The What-Ifs of Travel Weigh You Down

How do you handle them at home?

Open up your junk drawer. The one in the kitchen.

I bet you have the following items in there. Or, if you’re a full-time traveler, what did you have in there?

• A tangle of rubber bands

• Scissors and a roll of half-peeled tape

• Two rogue paper clips and a couple of tacks

• A lonely birthday candle

• A fistful of pens (how many actually work?)

• Scraps of paper, old receipts, and matches

Why do these things live rent-free in our kitchens?

This was my actual junk drawer before we downsized. Looking at it now, my heart races!

A Fire in Your House

Imagine there’s a fire in your house. You have to grab what matters. None of those items make the cut. Or imagine a garage sale: you might get fifty cents for the scissors, or you could bundle the whole mess into a “grab bag” for a dollar.

Let’s be honest: the total value of that drawer is under a dollar. Yet you probably spent $40 over the years acquiring those fractional leftovers: a whole pack of tacks because you needed two; a fresh pack of batteries because you couldn’t find the old ones.

You keep them because someday you might need a tack, a battery, or a candle. You don’t know when, just someday when a what-if scenario actually strikes, you’ll be ready.

Except “someday” isn’t a date on the calendar.

Packing the What-Ifs

When we left home with just two carry-ons and two backpacks, those what-if fears loomed large. Even after scaling down from a sprawling house and a three-car garage, we still felt the desperate urge to pack our what-ifs.

• What if I can’t find my exact brand of bra?

• What if they don’t sell Hoka shoes or Osprey packs where we’re going?

• What if I need checks?

• What if the world doesn’t have Colgate, Herbal Essences, or Advil?

We were terrified of getting stranded without our creature comforts, possilby paying $4 instead of $1 for a replacement. So, we stuffed our bags with backups for our backups.

And then reality hit.

What-Ifs Weigh Too Much

The physical weight of carrying all those “someday” items dragged us down, literally pushing our carry-ons over the weight limits and costing us fees. Ironically, the baggage fees we paid could have easily bought the items fresh if we’d ever actually needed them.

We quickly learned a liberating truth: the rest of the world has the exact same problems we do. They just solve them differently, or sometimes the exact same way.

So, we shed the extra tape, the spare batteries, the extra bras, socks, underwear, and jackets. We learned to adapt and solve our problems the way the locals do. As they came up. With the resources at hand.

Now, we shop in local markets instead of Costco; neighborhood bodegas instead of chain supermarkets. If there is truly an American specialty we can’t live without, we simply save buying it for our annual visit back to the States.

We no longer carry the weight of “someday.”

What’s in Your Drawer?

So, I have to ask: what’s sitting in your junk drawer right now? And how are the what-ifs attached to those items keeping you from living your actual life?

Or from circling your date on the calendar to leave.

Because if you’re living for someday, wondering about the what-ifs, your someday never turns into to today.

It’s only when you finally circle a date that “someday” turns into today.

PS Join me on Thursday for a live Substack about Nomad Life Launching tips. Sign up here https://yournomadlife.kit.com/aug-20-nomad-life-community-meetup