MetaChat - Fifteen years of paper. What a relief!

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18 February 2006

Fifteen years of paper. What a relief! →[More:]
A relief, in that we chucked 90% of it out.

Why on earth did we keep paycheque receipts from 1987? Why did we keep a receipt for a bottle of shampoo that was purchased in 1994? Auto insurance for the first car we had (we're on number three now)?

Answer: probably 'cause we have four legal-sized, deep filing cabinets, and it has been far easier to pitch it in there and forget it than it was to clean it out.

Thank goodness for "Getting Things Done." That's a lot of clutter gone.

Next up: dealing with the masses of clutter that aren't paper-based. Do I really need a that 386 mobo? The two-thirds-dead LCD? A proprietary data cable for a product I no longer own? I think not!

And then there are the wife's sewing materials. Backpacking gear that she'll never be able to use again (injury problems). Old board games that were topical a decade ago Cartons of pennies inherited from granny. And on and on and on...

post by: Five Fresh Fish at: 16:29 | 6 comments

ebay!

posted by amberglow 18 February | 16:49

Way up above the clouds
A green teapot, a pair of boots
A broken pocketwatch and chain
A born dead baby pig
Lying, pure white - bloodless
Soft and smooth as a gloved lady's hand
A spinning wheel, a billhook
An umbrella, empty bottles, a tin bath
A hatstand and a slate-grey pillbox hat
Sailed past his grabbing hands
And were gone...gone like the swallows

posted by Smart Dalek 18 February | 22:52

Catharsis, fff. There's no feeling so lightening as throwing shit out.

posted by Miko 19 February | 02:23

Throwing shit out is why I figure I really ought to move every five years. Just sell the place lock, stock, and barrel. Walk away with absolutely nothing, start fresh.

posted by Five Fresh Fish 19 February | 02:57

I have moved sooooo much! Every kind of moving there is, pretty much: within the same country, within the same town/city, within the same neighborhood, within the same building... then, of course, transcontinental - within the same planet. (oh, my! What might be next?! O_o)

In some ways, yes - it's kind of great to be forced to pare things down to the mostly-essential so often. On the other hand, you do end up feeling like you've kind of left bits of yourself scattered all around, and sort of lost your history.

posted by taz 19 February | 04:29

I keep my history in my head.

Which, you know, would work all the better if I wasn't developing large holes in my brain. I sometimes wonder if I've got some beri-beri...

posted by Five Fresh Fish 19 February | 12:32

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