They've been piling up in my home office since the filing cabinet reached its maximum capacity and I think its messing with the office mojo I've worked so hard to achieve. Maybe the chi or feng shui or something clever and Eastern is all outta whack, but either way, it is definitely affecting my ability to work amongst the clutter. For many reasons, no good one to call out specifically, I decided to do something about it tonight.
To do this I had to face the fact that I am a document hoarder. If you asked to see a Walgreen's receipt for cough medicine from 2002, I probably have it. Who even knows if I could locate it, but I have it. I've fully admitted to myself that I'm stashing documents that no one will ever care about. To remedy this I have my little shredder working harder than investment banking companies heading into a Senate Hearing (lets all pretend that analogy was funny and made sense.) The poor thing is actually overheated and so we both - the shredder and I - decided to call it a night.
Before beginning my take-no-prisoners 2012 Spring Clean, I did a bit of online research as to what should be kept and what is best used a gerbil bedding. Fortunately, it seems many people have this packrat gene when it comes to financial documentation, so the advice was free flowing:
- What to keep and what to shred
- What to shred immediately
- Turn your documents into paper logs instead of shredding (or just burn them the old fashioned way)
- Compost your shredded paper
- Stop retail catalogs from being mailed to you (you choose which ones)
So, goodbye 2002 Walgreen's receipt, you will not be missed. I feel lighter already.
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