Memo to Me

Having sifted through about ten boxes full of paperwork, I cannot emphasize this point enough: go paperless! When my kids were growing up there was never enough hours in the day to efficiently organize my paperwork.  Yes, now there is online bill paying, and electronic transfers, but 20 years ago (not even that long) we received paper bills, and paid those bills by writing checks (if you ask what those are, I may have to slap you).  Then, to keep a record, we wrote the check number and the date on the bill and filed it away. Well, that's what I did. My intention was that later on, I would go through the bills and throw out/shred them once they were a few years old. Unfortunately, that part of the process failed. My files would get too full so I'd get the ones from the year before and pack them up. Then, they would magically travel to outer space where they were sucked into the Black Hole.   

Sadly, mixed in with the needless paperwork are a few important items I need to find. Space exploration is imperative.

Yay. 😑

So what have I learned? 

A. Not all receipts need to be saved. Groceries will be eaten, toilet paper used, etc. Unless the receipt had a television set or an iPad (or something else I might actually return) throw it out.

B.  All that extra correspondence that comes along with my credit card bills, you know, the special deals I can only get with that particular card...that stuff does not need to be saved either.

C. Not every item of homework or artwork that my child brought home needed to be saved. Of course I knew I couldn't just throw it away in front of them at the time. I never knew if that one work of art was their magnum opus. Even now I feel a little bad throwing out their "masterpieces". Some I take pictures of, some I offer to the one who created it. Homework? Oh, that goes. 

D. Make it a ritual to purge old paperwork at the end of each year. 

Most of these points of course, are moot at this point since so much of the billing these days is moving toward paperless.  There are some exceptions, such as medical bills, which tend to be solely on paper. Some don't even have an option to pay online. (Imagine!) I suppose once I've paid those paper bills I could scan it into my computer, store it online, and shred the original. There you go. Most credit card companies, banks, utilities and such send email payment notifications. 

Not only will I be making my future life easier, but I might manage to save a few trees in the process.  One can hope.