With dollar bills pasted to their faces, and squeegees in their hands

[psipsy]

Big Cleanup BEGINS. Granted, there will be stops and starts, and I do have more Christmas shopping to do (all days up to and including the 24th are valid shopping days for me) as well as another day or two of work. But after Christmas I will have more time on my hands, and once I get cooking, I tend not to stop. The iPod is also handy for this, what with several weeks worth of non-stop music on it. Kicking it off with a stream of I've Trance!

Stage 1 of ???: Tackling a cluster of plastic tubs full of random stuff dating back into the '90s. So far I've gone through 4 of them, and have compressed them down to 2. Since the number of tubs numbers into the dozens, I have my work cut out for me.

Oh, so much paper to go off to recycling. So much. Old bills, ATM slips, other crap. Loan statements for yamikochan. (All this time, and I never mailed in a single payment on that loan.) Stuff I simply tossed into tubs purely for the sake of getting it out of the way, or making sure it didn't fall into the wrong hands, or outright archiving (which is why it didn't get compressed down any further).

And this trip down Memory Lane reminds me of how reciepts would show a full credit card number, or how places would stamp social security numbers on any shred of correspondence, whether or not I did so much as a penny's worth of transaction. No wonder there's so much identity theft. No wonder I've been such a packrat. I am seriously looking into a commercial shredding service for when all is said and done as I am unsure my little shredder will survive. Or if someone is looking for fireplace fodder. At least now it's a bit easier because most of the credit card numbers I'm finding are defunct.

All that being said, I'm still a believer in clear plastic tubs for organizing stuff, or in my case, keeping it out of the way. Yet a single glance will indicate their contents without opening the thing up.

Right then, a bit more strip mining and off to bed for me.

Comments

[resonant.livejournal.com]

Questions to ask:

1. Do you love it?
2. Do you need it?

If the answer to either is "no", throw it in the "donate" pile, or in the "shred/trash" pile.

The go through the piles again:

1. If you love it, or it's emotionally important to you, would a photograph be enough to keep? Souvenirs, gifts from long ago, books that you loved ... often all you need is a photograph of the item to bring back the memories, and don't really need the item itself. Often the item can be found on eBay or elsewhere if you really need it.

2. If you need it, do you need to own it? Rarely-used reference books are often at the library. You can give other items to friends who use things more frequently than you, and borrow it back when necessary. Maybe renting is an option, or buying a small quantity as required.

[psipsy.livejournal.com]

Eloquently put, thank you.

It describes the process I'm using rather well.

[rubian77.livejournal.com]

Oh, hey! We'll be in on 12/27 for gifts and stuff. Be there or be square!!