Life Lessons From a Pair of Underwear

My utility sink overflowed.

Again.

It does that more often than I’d like to admit, because we have a setup where the washing machine’s hose empties directly into the utility sink. Sometimes it overflows because the sink strainer gets filled with lint.

That happened a week ago so I cleaned it out and resolved to check the drain more regularly.

Just a few days later I walked into the laundry room and the floor was covered in water and the utility sink was filled to the brim.

“What?!?” I thought, “There is no way the strainer got clogged up again in such a short time!”

I stuck my hand into the full sink and felt a piece of…cloth.

Grabbing the cloth and pulling it out I discovered the cause of the problem: a pair of my son's underwear.

Ewwww. Thankfully they were clean. Ish.

They had been in the sink and at some point had moved over to cover the drain, completely blocking it.

Removing the underwear got the sink draining again, but I still had to deal with a floor covered in water.

Why was his underwear in the utility sink? I have no idea.

But the important part of this story is this: 

I actually knew this pair of underwear was in the sink, because they had been there for days.

Every time I went to do some laundry I saw them in there and thought to myself, “why are those underwear in the sink?”

It didn’t really matter. I could have just thrown them in the washing machine and been done with it. Instead I “yes, butted” and thought, “I’ll deal with it later.”

Before “later” came, disaster struck and a tiny task became a huge problem.

Tiny “Yes, Ands” vs. Huge “Yes, Buts”

The thing is, this same sort of thing happens over and over again in our lives. There’s a small problem - in our homes, our cars, our relationships, at work, with a customer, with an employee - but because it’s small we say, “I’ll deal with it later.”

But before “later” comes, disaster strikes, and suddenly we have a crisis on our hands.

One small “Yes, And” now can prevent us from having to deal with a giant “yes, but” later.

What small “Yes, And” can you act on today that you have been putting off? Take action now and prevent it from becoming a giant problem in the future. Throw those underwear in the washer!