Getting Ready to Move On

The last few days I've been doing a lot of shredding. This is overdue. I've had all these papers and financial records in my garage, going back over a decade. Since one is only required to keep records for five years, I'm way behind on getting rid of them.

So I'm shredding. I have my shredder, moved out into the middle of the room, along with the boxes of papers and a large garbage bag half-full of shredded paper. While I'm watching the news, I sit there with my staple remover, going through the papers and deciding which need to go in the shredder (i.e. they have my name and address or social security number on them), removing the staples and putting them into a box to await shredding. Then, at various times of the day, I pick up a handful or two and feed them into the shredder. This cannot be done during the news. It's too noisy.

It feels good to get rid of this stuff. Like I'm making a clean slate of things. Shredding my past, at least the financial part.

It's a good step but it's not the only one. I also have some hours of sorting ahead of me, and I will be making more than one trip to the Salvation Army with some of the junk I need to rid myself of. The goal is to pare down my belongings to the minimum.

I really like this work. Getting rid of all the excess stuff makes me feel good!