06 July 2004

Filing Purging Shredding Frenzy

So a few weeks ago, I realized I had completely lost my T4. My worst fear was that perhaps I shredded it (we got a shredder about 2 months ago) and I was all bent out of shape because taxes don't do themselves... and I knew I had shredded most of my 2003 payslips because I had a T4. Argh!

So that got me started. I got out my favourite Organizing book and opened it to the chapter on file systems. Then I built a new one around the author's suggestions. Since then, our humble home has been a flurry of paper.

I still haven't found my original T4 (I got a new one issued, though, and the taxes are filed. Phew) but I did find a tax refund cheque from 1992 for $2.79 ... guessing I can't cash that though.

Considering my inner-packrat, it feels really good to shred/recycle/purge years of accumulated ephemera. Aside from the above cheque (Which I am keeping. For the hell of it.) I found instructions for replacing the alternator for 3 or 4 vehicles ago; a good inch worth of faxes on thermal paper that constituted the back and forth parts of negotiating our home purchase; and coffee-stained photocopied pages from a book about making the most of your liberal arts education.... and I have only just been going through the "current" files. I have two full boxes and another file drawer of "reference files." ACK!

Maybe in a past life, I was an archivist. A very disorganized one.

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