Realtor Leigh Thomas Brown raised a baby rooster in her garage until she realized comfort had masked a problem: the bird needed a proper flock, and the space needed clearing. She uses the story to argue that habit can hide what's actually broken, and that decluttering your life matters even when things feel fine.
As a realtor, I get to see people's houses all the time, and I always tell them I'm not judging because truly I'm not. I've seen things that nobody should see, but then sometimes I don't look around my own house because it's not on the market, and then I stop and I put on the outsider's pair of glasses and I realize I need to take care of some things. So today we gave away Little Roo. So let me tell you about Little Roo. So I have chickens, for those of y'all that know, we love our chickens and wanted to have some grand chickens. We wanted some babies of our own not coming out of an incubator or out of any kind of a commercial operation, but, you know, the way the Lord intended— rooster and hen and babies. And we have 5 that made it, and we set up a nursery right here in the garage because, if you didn't know, baby chicks in an existing flock doesn't always turn out to be anything less than Lord of the Flies. And so we brought them up here, and Vicki looked after her babies. Now, we had a couple of baby hens and a couple of baby cocks found a home for 4 of them, but we had one left. We had a little Roo, because nobody really wants a rooster. Pretty little guy, a nice brown Leghorn. Loved him. In fact, we just got used to him being in the garage. And as the chickens get bigger, they got out of the nursery bin and started walking all over. And you can see the remnants of Roo all over my garage. And in fact, he was sleeping in the recycle bin. I had gotten to where I enjoyed coming out in the morning, having that little head pop up over the edge and talking a little roo. He'd talk back. We'd give him some worms, and he thought living in the garage was normal. Y'all, it's not normal. And sometimes things that you get used to aren't the way they should be. Because as much as I liked having Little Roo around, he needed to be with other chickens. He needed to have some hens so he could do his rooster thing. He needs to be outside in the grass and hunting around for the things that chickens are supposed to eat, not just being hand-fed the grains and the worms that we brought to him. So today I took Little Roo to his new home. I took him over to my cousin's house who had a bunch of hens and needed a rooster, and now he's going to be in charge completely, which is what he's made to do. And my garage is going to have to be cleaned. We're going to have to go through all the corners and clean up all the mess and all the hidey-holes so we can put the cars back in here again where they're supposed to be. And then when we have friends over, I won't have to tell them they can't come through the garage because you'd have to walk through a minefield. And I can get back to remembering that just because something got comfortable and a little bit fun didn't mean it was good for the house, good for us, or good for Roo. And frankly, it's just a good reminder in your business or in your life, you can get used to a lot. Humans are made definitely to be resilient and to be adaptive, but just because you can make it through it doesn't mean it's the way you're supposed to be. So maybe if you see something that needs to be changed, you go ahead and change it even if you don't want to, because it's the best thing for you, it's the best thing for your house, and it's the best thing for the other party involved, even if it's Lil Roo, because he'll be fine in his new home. In fact, he's not going to be fine, he's going to thrive because he's where he's supposed to be. And then we can use the garage again as we get close to winter, and that's as it should be too. So clean your house and clean your life. It's never too late.
