A few years ago I scored myself a filing cabinet. It’s 2 drawers wide (although the 2 drawers are combined in to one wide drawer) and 2 drawers high. Until I came into possession of this filing cabinet, I was subsisting on a 1 drawer by 2 drawer jobby, which was constantly full to bursting.

Now I am a bit of an organised girlie, so I try to religiously file all my paid accounts and miscellaneous paperwork on a regular basis and as a result, over the years, I have collected quite a bit of CRAP.

Of course, it had gotten to the point that the filing cabinet was so full of crap that it became difficult to actually file something. I mean I had to practically call the police rescue department for the Jaws of Life to prize another piece of paper into a file pocket!

I decided that I HAD to get rid of some of the stuff and make some damn room!


Then came the next dilemma, throwing stuff out that was loaded with personal identifying information. “I need a paper shredder”, I thought. So to eBay I went (after sensibly researching retail pricing) and scored myself a decent shredder for a decent price. One that can take 8 sheets of paper at once, and has a nice sized bin, so I don’t have to empty it every 5 minutes!

Anyhow, while I was on holidays from work, I decided that the one tedious task I could tackle would be the filing cabinet.

Well readers, let me tell you this: pruning stuff from your overstuffed filing cabinet is very much like deciding to sort through your old box of photos and place them in albums. You end up staring into space wistfully on a trip down memory lane as you absently hold onto that random bit of paper that sparked the memory.

There’s that David Bowie, Glass Spiders tour book that you bought at the concert in 1987, and oh man, you were so close to the stage that you could see the stitching on his red leather pants… There! I’m doing it again!

Then there’s the nemesis of all people who attempt the task of filing cabinet organising. The dreaded “G” pouch!
“G” is for guarantee. This is the folder where you toss all the cash register receipts for everything you EVER bought since 1990, in the smug knowledge, that if it breaks within 12 months, you’re covered!

Well I am guessing that NOTHING ON THIS EARTH (well at least nothing that comes with a cash register docket) is guaranteed for 15 years, so you can imagine, the “G” folder took some clearing.

Once you’ve gotten over the trauma (and 2 hours) of handling “G”, you find that “I” follows soon after.

“I” is for Instructions. This is where you fondly tuck the instruction manual for every single electrical item you ever bought. Now I think myself a bit of a geek girl, with just about every electric appliance and electronic gadget invented by (wo)man, so as you can imagine, my “I” folder was just as choked-up as “G”.

I don’t know about you, but I have NO IDEA why I felt the need to keep the instruction manual for the electric kettle I bought in 1994. Did we even have electricity back then? “I” is also the home of “insurance”, but after “instructions” my heart wasn’t in it, so decided to give up and go watch movies on my newly modded X-Box.

Hmmm… I must remember to stick the receipt for the X-Box and the modding into “G” and the instruction manual into “I”…

:wink_wp:

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