Learning to Purge

11/12/2015

Just a warning, this purging has nothing, absolutely nothing, to do with food.  It does, however, have everything to do with paper(s).  

In our house, we have two filing cabinets that are filled with papers of all sorts.  There is the paid bills file, the files for each car we own, or in some cases owned, medical bills, insurance documents going back to a company that we no longer have a policy with, receipts for major purchases (some times I have held onto receipts and/or brochures for things we no longer have!

There are tax files, files for each dog, as well as the social security, birth certificate, passport file.  I have a folder labeled "Marriott" which holds my latest resume from oh 12 or 13 years ago, as well as my annual reviews.  Why do I keep hanging on to these documents?  It's not like somebody is going to ever ask to see my annual reviews, and yet I can't just quite let them go.  My working career is over.  I know this.  My short term memory was a hindrance to the volunteer jobs I had after retiring in 2014. Maybe I hang on to these reviews, so that I can sit back and remember the me I once was.

I have a file for our vacation rentals in the Outer Banks.  We haven't vacationed at the Outer Banks since Benjamin was a toddler.  For a number of years, we would go for two weeks with the boys and one of their friends.  We had an amazing amount of fun, and then life just got in the way.  It seems unlikely that we will vacation at the Outer Banks anytime soon, so saving the rental forms is just another memory for me.

Why do I keep paid bills dating back as far as 2012?  Um, lazy I think.  There is no particular reason why a person would want to look at an electric bill from 2012 or earlier.  If you never take any papers out of the filing cabinets, you will run out of space and need another filing cabinet!

And because we live in the age of increased security issues, I need to shred paid bills, receipts and anything else that has our name and/or address on it.  Well that pretty much covers everything!  We have a shredder, but if I was to shred everything that needs shredding, I'd probably also have to buy a new shredder!



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