Today found me chucking more paper in the recycling and shredding bags. Two decent-sized plastic filing boxes are now empty and ready to be filled with, let’s face it, yarn or fabric. What finally made it possible to toss all this paper that’s been dogging me for years is that at last I made peace with the idea of just letting myself off the hook. It was only me who ever put myself on that hook in the first place, so it’s only right that I should be the one to finally let myself off it.
Most of the papers were financial in nature, and I have decided to try being current in my relationship with money. I don’t want to dissect or analyze or examine the relationship I had with money 4 or 5 years ago; I want to look at where I am right now. No need to comb through years of old receipts to collect data on my spending habits. I know what I spend money on: food and books and movies and craft supplies. Eating out with friends and my sweetie. The mortgage on my house. Classes and workshops. Gas for the car. Car repairs. Utilities and insurance. Stuff from the office supply store, the pharmacy or the hardware store. I spend money on the stuff I use for living my life. I know it sounds simplistic, but I think there was a part of me that wanted to try to make it more complicated than that, have some sense of how I spend money that involved pie charts and line graphs. That part is going to be denied, and the rest of me is okay with that.
So if I want to know more about how I spend my money, that’s going to start with today, not with 2005. And let’s please note, part of myself that is disappointed in not getting line graphs, know more does not equal be obsessive. I’m going to observe and pay attention, and that does not mean saving every scrap of paper related to any and all spending that comes into my world.
I already tossed the packing slip that came with an order of weaving yarns I received today. I logged the yarn into my Ravelry stash database, and I flipped that paper straight into the recycle bin. There’s an electronic record of the transaction on my computer: the email confirmation of my order, not to mention that it will show up on my bank statement. That paper was just going to become 2015’s clutter if I kept it around.
There are still a few more stacks of paper lurking, but this letting go of the past jag is picking up steam. I’m digging it.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I feel your energy through this post…keep going and reporting on your progress; it’s quite inspiring.
The last post plus this post are helping me shift my approach to clutter barnacles. I have things I think I should keep but don’t have a file for them, so they go in a stack. The stack becomes a monument to my indecision and laziness and anything else I can harangue myself about.
Each year I take the things I need to keep for income tax records and store them in a box and toss out the other — important distinction — filed stuff. The old stack hangs around. Pretty weird, huh?
So now I’ll have a “keep it until I can chuck it at the end of the year” stack and either shove it unfiled into the annual box or recycle it. One more important step to fewer barnacles. Thanks!
Money habits change over time so old data wouldn’t tell you much. Track spending for just one month and you’ll have a lot of answers — if that’ still important. But none of that matters much unless you want to structure a budget and commit to following it. That turns out to be a pretty serious commitment, so don’t take it on lightly.
Steve
Steve´s last blog ..Godin 05-07-10: The Future of Media
You go, girl! Cheers, cheers, cheers!!! I’m feeling the need to purge, as well. I’m not as partial to keeping receipts; it’s other things. I’m so tired of the clutter, and tired of beating myself up for being tired of the clutter and not doing anything about it because I’m exhausted from the clutter and beating up and…and…and…What a vicious cycle!
So, you’re on your way! Yay!!! It may feel like a baby step, but it seems like a giant step to me, a gutsy step. Woo!!
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