A friend of mine often used to say “Clean up your house, clean up your life.” What she meant was that, when things feel out of control, do something you can control, do something that will leave you with a sense of accomplishment.

I find that days when I clean out closets, fill bags to donate, empty cupboards and reorganize, are days that help to both soothe and satisfy me. Especially when I am wrestling with stresses and unknowns and far too many intangibles.

When I can, as I did today, climb into our crawl space (a good sized area under the eaves, finished and inside a bedroom) and end up discarding a number of items, it helps me to find (at least a little) peace.

Today, in the crawl space, I found one of my children’s yearbooks from middle school through college. I found elementary school projects and baskets of holiday gift bags and tissue paper. I found no shortage of extra pillows and a lot of baby equipment, from a port-a-crib to toddler blow up beds and sleeping bags, to high chairs and tiny outdoor beach chairs. All of it things that we will not have call to use again, all of it now ready for a donation pickup this week.

I even went through the linen closet and, once again, organized the sheets according to which size bed they fit. Why I feel compelled to buy all white sheets is a mystery I am sure I will never unravel but at least, for now, they are in an order that makes sense.

Last weekend, it was my closet. I emptied out things I thought I “might use” and things with price tags that were on a sale “too good to pass up” and yet never made it to the “actually wearing it” rotation. I helped all of my (way too many) black shoes to find their partners and wondered why I have so many pairs of white sneakers (something I feel a need to acquire every spring).

At the end of my cleaning, and even for a few weeks afterward, I can open that closet or crawl space door and feel a sense of not just accomplishment but peace. It is one place in my life where everything is where I want it to be and it is all concrete, no unanswered questions or uncertainties.

Our lives are filled with things we cannot control, outcomes that we cannot predict. Life hands us surprises that we don’t expect, some of them positive and some distressing, most unanticipated. We imagine that we are on a straight path, personally and professionally, but the journey is always filled with unexpected twist and turns. How we handle those sharp curves, potholes and road hazards determines , in many ways, the course of our lives.

So do the things that help you to manage, to find peace, to create moments of satisfaction, even if brief. Finding what comforts us also helps us as we fill our full hearts.