Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.

As a kid, I was a minimalist before I even knew what that word meant. I liked my space clean, simple, and free of anything that felt “extra.” One day I decided my room needed a full reset, not a deep clean, but a purge. I started small: a stack of old clothes, a blanket I never used, a few knick knacks I was suddenly over. It felt good, lighter. So naturally, I took it a step further… and set my sights on my couch.

That’s when my mom stepped in. She took one look at me trying to shove a piece of furniture out of my bedroom and hit me with one of her classic lines: “Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.” I argued, of course. I was convinced it had to go. It didn’t match my “vision,” and I had fully committed to the clean-slate lifestyle. My sister, who could live happily in a room full of cozy clutter, immediately backed my mom. To them, I’d clearly lost the plot.

Looking back, I can see what my mom was really saying. Sometimes when one thing feels off, it’s tempting to scrap everything around it. But not every problem calls for a full reset. Just because one part of something isn’t working doesn’t mean the whole thing is broken. Whether it’s a room, a project, a plan, or even a relationship, it’s easy to take things too far in the name of “fixing.” That day, I was ready to toss the couch over a few old blankets. But now I try to catch myself before I let one small issue convince me the whole thing has to go. Because most of the time, the baby, like the couch, is worth keeping.