Hmm. What to tackle next in my Kingdom O' Clutter?
First I cleaned out my vacuum cleaner's cylinder and filter. It included a combination dust-and-hair ball the size of a large cantaloupe. I remember wanting to go for a bagless vacuum at the time, figuring that finding bags for certain models of vacuum cleaners would get harder and harder as time went on. But geez, I'm wishing I had gone with a bagged one. Oh well. At least it still works.
Next I moved on to some of the empty boxes lying around my kitchen. Why did I keep this skinny one? Oh that's right. This is the perfect size to house my old bank statements. And where were the rest of those old bank statements? This brings me to the forbidden file cabinet.
Now some of you might remember that after cleaning up the pile in front of the computer in my last adventure, I also added a 3-level shelf to house my scanner and what not. Unfortunately this partially blocked the 2-drawer file cabinet next to the computer. But I've since managed to reposition things so that the file cabinet can open.
Yet...what lurked within this dark cabinet? It's only purpose over the last several years has been to be a table for my lamp and printer, and be a storage of "stuff". What stuff? Filed paper stuff: old utility bills, pay stubs from work, and that sort of stuff.
A couple of years back I bought a two-drawer plastic file cabinet from Staples which I put in my living room. I figured this one was full and the other would fill up soon too. Though after cleaning this one out, I'm realizing that I could probably cram everything into just ONE of these drawers.
So I've spent the day sorting and shredding. Shredding and sorting. Sorting and shredding. Also picking up other stuff that should have been filed a while ago, like the folder containing the severance package info from a job I was laid off from in 2007. It had been sitting near the doorway my bedroom, propped up next to my laundry bag, for the past two years.
Some odd discoveries:
- Receipts from Network Solutions. Remember back in the '90s when it used to cost $70 to register a domain name? Or maybe that was for two years. Regardless, we know how to do it cheaply these days. Into the shredder you go.
- Back in '99 I was invited to my college alma mater to give a talk to visiting high school students about math majors and careers. My photo was in the paper. And apparently I also got $100 from the school for doing the event, because I found the payment stub. Hmm, I wonder if they need any more alumni visits...
- I found some more paper work confirming that last month marked 10 years of me wearing contact lenses.
- An unopened package of Sweettarts too. Ewww!
- I got several raises back in the day. Remember those? In the days before the "dot com crash"? When they would just give you a raise and a bonus at the end of the year, and you didn't even have to ask for it? Magical times.
- Also among the saved mess were letters and envelopes from people I did bootleg trading with, some 10 or more years ago.
- Pearl Drum catalog. Why did I have this? I'm not even a drummer.
- Membership cards from health insurance plans I'm no longer on. Good though my shredder does credit cards too.
- Monthly statements from my old calling card. I used to use this back when I was still living at my parents' place, so that they wouldn't freak out about me calling my friends outside of the area code. It was amusing seeing phone logs from ex-girlfriends and the like. Yes, nation-wide plans were virtually non-existence at the time. And I'm sure younger folks will read this and think "Why didn't he just get a cell phone?" Not many folks had those at the time either. And if you think reception is bad now, I won't even try to describe cell phone reliability in those days.
I've gotten a lot done today, but this is clearly not going to be a one-day project. Besides organizing the paper stuff, I'm also seeing more and more of my kitchen floor, and have another batch of stuff ready for the thrift stores. So...to be continued.