Why aren’t you making the tacos?

Love the things you love. Show off the things you value. Take pleasure in the things that make your life special.

Raise your hand if you are one of the 45 billion people alive on the planet today who loves tacos.

Mmm hmm.

It is no secret that a couple of tacos and an icy cold margarita are my idea of an 8.5 out of 10 stars night.

Throw in a few episodes of Yellowstone and I don’t know what I’d do, but I can tell you that all of my sentences will probably end with “Rip, we ride at dawn!”

So why is there a package of taco seasoning mix crumbling to dust in the back of my cupboard?

I’ll tell you why.

Because it is precious.

Too precious to actually open and let it rain all over my cooked ground beef where it will miraculously transform what are clearly humdrum cow parts into a glorious spicy goodness that I will shove into a flour tortilla before shoving it into my mouth.

This sounds ridiculous, right? It’s a 59 cent package of Old El Paso. How can that be precious?

I’ll tell you how.

Because we like to attach value to things we bring into our homes.

Some things have sentimental value.

Some things have “Good Lord I spent a lot of money on that” value.

Some things have “This is brand new and I don’t want to ruin it” value.

And some things (like my taco seasoning) have “This is rare and therefore special” value.

I can’t just zip down to the taco store here in Portugal. Mexican restaurants are few and far between. And really good Mexican restaurants? I found one. But it’s a solid 3 hours away from my house. And requires a bus, a metro, and about 20 minutes of hoofing it to get there.

Which is why there is a part of me that feels like it’s perfectly logical to save this packet of spices in the back of my cupboard for a special occasion.

Like the Cinco de Mayo party I’m maybe going to throw in May.

Although let’s be honest—I am not doing that. I am the only person I know in this town who drinks margaritas.

You know what this means?

If that taco seasoning in my cupboard is ever going to be used and enjoyed, I’m gonna have to use and enjoy it.

Otherwise, why do I have it in my house?

Same goes for all the sentimental things.

And butt-load of money things.

And brand new things that we’re afraid we’re gonna spill wine on or shrink in the wash after we wear them. So we don’t wear them.

The thing is: if we’re not going to use and enjoy these things? They’re just taking up space in our cupboards for no reason.

And that? Will. Not. Do.

Don’t worry, I know you know that I’m a professional organizer by trade and I know that as a profession, we get a bad rap for separating people from the things they hold most dear.

But that’s not how I work in my client’s homes. Because that’s not how it works in my home.

I’m not about to suggest you throw away all of your sentimental or expensive or carefully wrapped in moth resistant tissue paper, never-worn cashmere sweaters because they’re clogging up your closets.

Nope. No sir. That is not my style.

If something is truly valuable to you, I respect that.

What I am going to suggest is this: Rip off the top, sprinkle that taco seasoning all over your minced meat, and eat the heck out of it.

• Use the monogrammed stationary your grandmother gave you for your 21st birthday.

• Frame the raggedy t-shirt from the Bon Jovi concert where you had your first kiss. Hang that thing on the wall next to the weirdly good, abstract, finger painting your daughter did in kindergarten.

• Put your high school yearbooks on your bookshelf and pull them out once a month to laugh at your super large permanent waved mullet hair and thank gawd you grew up in an era when phones were connected to the wall by a really long curly cord and did not take photos of anything.

• And for the love of the Taco Bell chihuahua, please wear the heirloom necklace. Every. Dang. Day.

Stop tucking away in a corner of your heart closet the things that you love so much that you can’t imagine your life home without them.

Your mission: Pull out something you love that you’ve been keeping in a box or on a shelf in the closet or behind the 24 pack of toilet paper in the back of your cupboard. And find a way to display it. Or use it. And enjoy it.

Let me know what it is and what you’re gonna do with it.👇🏼

We ride at dawn.

Your favorite taco enthusiast,
Vivian