u/Omnitool77

My bathroom cabinet has annoyed me for probably two years.

Every time I opened it, something fell over. Half-empty bottles behind other half-empty bottles, hotel shampoos, skincare I tried twice and hated, three nearly identical hair products, random samples I kept because "maybe someday."

Today I pulled everything out and made one rule: if I actively avoid using it, it doesn't get to live here anymore.

That was apparently the permission I needed.

I threw out the dried-up stuff, emptied products that were basically finished, put unopened things I won't use into a donation box, wiped the shelves and only put back what I actually reach for.

Took 32 minutes.

The cabinet isn't Pinterest pretty. I didn't buy organizers or matching containers. There's just... space now. I can see everything without moving six bottles first.

I've opened it four times since cleaning it for absolutely no reason.

Tiny unfucking, huge satisfaction.

I had a completely free Saturday this week. No call, no studying I absolutely had to do, no errands that couldn't wait.

And I somehow spent half the day feeling guilty because I wasn't "using it well."

I slept late, made breakfast, played a game for a while and watched two episodes of something. By 2 PM my brain had already started listing all the things I could be doing instead. Read a paper. Meal prep. Clean the apartment. Work out. Answer emails. Be a more functional adult.

It hit me that residency has trained me to treat free time like another resource that needs to be optimized.

A day where I do nothing useful should feel amazing. Instead there's this stupid background feeling that I'm wasting an opportunity because I don't know when I'll get another one.

Does anyone else have this? Did it get better later in residency, or do you have to actively relearn how to be off?