|
Last year: Yeah. Excited. I'm wearing a glow-in-the-dark ghost sticker on my chest today. |
For years now, I've saved bank statements and bills and receipts. The theory was that I would file them, each in their own special folder. For a long time, that's what I did. Power bills. Credit card statements. Phone bills. Each in its own folder, each folder organized chronologically. Every so often (like about once every two years) I'd go through the folders and throw out all the statements more than a year old.
I started letting things lapse between filings, though. I'd get a two or three inch stack of documents that needed to be filed before I'd sit down and do it. The size of the stack has intimidated me into not doing it. Too much hassle. And now there are multiple stacks.
There's an enormous stack on top of the filing cabinet in the computer room. I think most of that is Matt's, but I'm sure at least some of it is mine. There are two stacks on the bill desk in the bedroom, both of titanic proportions. Another stack on the floor in the bedroom. And a haphazard scattering of papers that would amount to a medium-sized stack on the dining room table, which is where we actually open our mail and pay the bills.
It seems the "dining table as bill desk" habit cannot be broken. (When it became obvious that the bill desk upstairs wasn't going to work out, I tried moving mail to the bar in the kitchen, only a few steps from the dining table. No dice.)
So here's the idea I had this morning in the shower, and what I think I'm going to do: Instead of filing things by what they are, I'm going to file them by when they are. I'll go to Staples or Target and get a big stack of those big brown envelopes with the string closures. I'll write the month and year on the flap, and each month's statements, bills, check carbons, and other assorted mess that should be kept in case I need it will be put in there. At the end of the month, the envelope will be put in the file cabinet.
Or maybe not. Maybe I'll acquire a stack of envelopes. But I'm willing to bet that a stack of envelopes isn't as messy-looking as a stack of papers. And since they don't need to be filed, just dropped in the file cabinet, it won't intimidate me when I contemplate the stack. I can just pick them up and move them.
If you're wondering why I don't just throw all that stuff out, the answer is that while I don't need it very often, I have needed it in the past. And when you need it, it's usually pretty important. If you're wondering how I'm ever going to find anything if it's all jumbled up in an envelope, the answer is that it can't possibly be harder than going through the loose stacks we've got now.
All in all, I think it's a good plan. Now I just have to do it.
Tonight, I'm going to be domestic. I didn't exactly plan it that way, but that's the way it turned out. I'm not entirely displeased by this turn of events, either - I sortof enjoy puttering around doing domestic things every so often. I just didn't really plan it.
The Ultimate Frisbee gang (I can't in all rights call us a "team") is playing the William and Mary girl's team tonight. I by no means feel comfortable enough to actually play a game, even though "real" games are timed in two 24-minute blocks, so I could probably play for a full half, at least. Maybe next time, or in the spring.
Tonight, while Matt's gone, I'm going to:
- carve my new pumpkin (I can't believe I found the perfect pumpkin for the pattern I want to do. It's a little small, but that's all right.)
- make meringue ghosts for K.T.'s party (I need to stop at the store on my way home for chocolate chips.)
- possibly, depending on how long it takes me to clean out my pumpkin, make pumpkin bread
- work on the Christmas stocking
Word of the Day: titanic - having great magnitude or force; colossal
News of the Weird: Man breaks into library, gets trapped, calls 911
-- A man was arrested Tuesday after allegedly breaking into a library then calling 911 when he found himself trapped inside.
Police said that while wandering through the library, after breaking a windowpane to gain entry, the man got caught between the outer and inner doors of the foyer. He then used the pay phone in the foyer to call for help.
- nothing
Current Projects:
- Couple of Christmas stockings
| Previous Reflection |
Current Reflections Reflect Back |
Next Reflection |