Shredding the Past

I haven't been able to see the surface of our desk at home in quite some time. Neither of us uses that computer (or desk) very often - usually just me, entering our financial data once a week or so. It is an older PC desktop computer. Both of us have newer computers that we use every day. When I do use the computer to access Quicken, I usually just add the paperwork to the pile when I am finished, to be filed later. Well, it is a lot later, and a lot of stuff hasn't been filed. And the files we had have been overstuffed. This weekend, I snapped and finally decided to do something about it.

Several hours later, I had a bunch of piles: file, recycle, or shred. I also went into my "archives", where I had financial statements dating back to 1995, all neatly arranged and sorted into folders by year. Real estate records should be retained forever. I also keep tax records forever. But billing statements for utilities and credit cards, and vehicle records for cars I no longer own... I don't need to keep all that crap forever.

It felt pretty good to feed all of that stuff to the shredder. Not quite cathartic, but the "schtuff" I was dealing with is pretty old and I was pretty much over it years ago. I was particularly happy to rid myself of certain years that should have been good, but weren't. Buh-bye, 1995 and 1996. So long, 1997 - 1998. See ya, 1999 - 2000. And 2001. You're outta here!