I have a business trip on Wednesday, for which it would be helpful if I did not look quite as unkempt as I usually do. I looked at myself in the mirror and did not like what I saw.

Here is a photo of the latest state of my mane. Try not to be distracted by the small child and notice that I am not fit for client viewing.

Usually, Robbi cuts my hair. But, as has been well-documented, she is too busy dallying on the far coast to tend to my grooming needs.

So I took matters into my own hands and headed to the barber shop. The results were encouraging .

Inspired by the ease with which I had been able to tackle my life’s disorder, I loaded Alden to the car and headed to the carwash. The floor of our van was littered with a winter’s worth of gravel, cheerios, pine needles from our Christmas tree, and sundry other bits of unmentionable debris. I wish I had thought to take “before” photos.

But after Alden did her thing…

…the car was restored to a condition approaching respectability.

Really, I’m not sure Robbi will recognize it when she gets home.

Even more inspired now, I asked myself what other spiritual roadblocks remained in my life. What else could Alden and I clean up before the day was through? I knew the answer right away.

But first: a sidebar. I have always admired my friends Christian and Emily for their spectacularly well-organized refrigerator. My favorite part of any visit to their home is a visit to the fridge. I spend several moments gazing blissfully at the neatly stacked tupperwares of non-spoiled food, the condiments in neat rows, the crisper full of fresh, wholesome vegetables. And their fridge is always clean. No spills, no splatters, no crumbs, no mold.

The same cannot be said of our fridge. With trepidation, I removed the food and had a closer look. What I found was distressing.

Our shelves needed a good scrub. A really good scrub.

The real problem was revealed when I removed the drawers.

I remember one point when we might have spilled something, oyster sauce or the like, but had decided to take an “out of sight, out of mind” approach to the problem.

But then I looked inside the drawers. There, at the bottom of the vegetable crisper, I located the long lost bits of zucchini, ginger, and something else I could not identify.

I was stunned by the discovery, demoralized, paralyzed. I did not know what to do.

Fortunately, Alden was undeterred.

After sponging what she could, she set to the heavy lifting with a bowl of warm water and a scrub brush.

Slowly, but surely, order was restored.

No don’t get me wrong, our fridge still doesn’t deserve to be mentioned in the same breath as Christian and Emily’s, but I did go to bed last night feeling that we had, at least, taken one small step toward respectability.

It was a good day. A productive day. Perhaps we should try to have days like this more often.