This is some (not all) of the paper I went through.
If you tidy only one of Marie Kondo's categories, let it be paper. Do it for your own sake and for whoever will go through your papers when you die. Please. You and that person will be glad.
Last February I made the final push and finished going through every piece of paper in my house that was my responsibility and here's what I learned.
Much of it was mundane - especially my mother's 15 plus years of bank statements, all in their envelopes. I had to take each statement out, remove checks and copies of checks to shred and tear up the rest. These filled several garbage bags. Please don't keep these things. Especially the envelopes.
Some papers are far from mundane and can be harder to go through. Some mark nodal points in our lives - births, graduations and other achievements, marriages, work contracts, divorces and deaths plus anything involving the legal or insurance systems - the fire we had in 2016, the accident I had back in 2017 that took forever to resolve.
Last February I made the final push and finished going through every piece of paper in my house that was my responsibility and here's what I learned.
Much of it was mundane - especially my mother's 15 plus years of bank statements, all in their envelopes. I had to take each statement out, remove checks and copies of checks to shred and tear up the rest. These filled several garbage bags. Please don't keep these things. Especially the envelopes.
Some papers are far from mundane and can be harder to go through. Some mark nodal points in our lives - births, graduations and other achievements, marriages, work contracts, divorces and deaths plus anything involving the legal or insurance systems - the fire we had in 2016, the accident I had back in 2017 that took forever to resolve.
Months later I cannot remember what else I was going to write about paper. Some of it has crept back but now I know how to deal with - get rid of it - except for the bare essentials. It will make your life better. Open your mail over the recycling bin, and dump stuff in there right away. Don't let it pile up. And if you really think you might need something, scan it into an electronic file and back that up. Really. You'll feel better.
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