Stuff Adds Up

The more space you have the more the above statement is true.

When I moved back to the desert 12 years ago, I had already had my own freelance business for 10 years. It had morphed from artist to artist/art gallery owner to artist/graphic designer, however I had a business license, I made income and I paid taxes so therefore I kept receipts and client records. When I moved from San Francisco I brought all of that paperwork with me in boxes. You only need to keep tax records for 7 years legally. I vowed that once I got settled I would reduce my boxes of paperwork and stay on top of that project.

When I got here there was already years and years and years of paperwork left here by my parents. Not just memories but receipts and pay stubs from the 1960’s! I did manage to sort all of that and get it shredded. But I guess I forgot about all of my own paperwork. So now that I am clearing and purging, guess what I found!
Paperwork… 😦 😦 😦

I inquired around and found a place locally that would shred it for me and they charge by the pound and I have many, many pounds. I also happen to have a very good cross-cut shredder and so I decided it would be more efficient of me to shred it myself at least until my shredder died. So that is what I have been doing, and so far I have made a huge dent it the project. Confetti anyone?

Everyday for about an hour at a time, I shred. When my shredder gets hot it stops and it seems that this is the right amount of time for my attention span to handle as well.

Over the weekend I would let the shredder rest a couple of hours and then I would go back to shredding. I made a lot of progress and my office is almost cleared out. So far the shredder is holding up. And if I eventually have to go to having it done commercially it won’t be a big deal.

One of the interesting things about doing this myself, is that as I go through each years worth of stuff, I am reminded of what I was doing and the many awesome projects and people I have known over the years. Many of them still friends and many of them gone. The memories have been sweet and my life has been full.

So even though this has not been a fun task, it has been a positive one in that I am reminded of the various lives I have lived and the people and places I have loved and that has been a very positive thing.

And now that I am getting this task under control, I hope that it will remind me to stay on top of this process in the future. If you have a shredder, I recommend you plug it in and use it daily!

And that is it for today.

Have a happy day!
Cheryl