Two days ago I began a long delayed records management project. The oldest records I found were 9 years old. About 90% of all this crap is getting shredded. Already one shredder has fallen. It gave me a whole decade of destruction, though. My fiance helped me recycle bags and bags of debris down the street.
It has been a nostalgic blast of my life in documents. The variety of records has been fun and sometimes really, really weird. I came across all sorts of old bills and receipts, keeping only a few. My August 2005 credit card bill had only one charge: "Beck." That was a great show. I was reminded of when I lived in Dearborn and traveled to Chicago. Loan documents were kept. Tax records were kept. Fading check stubs - shredded. There was a 2005 job application for a job at Wayne State for an office assistant. I didn't get that job. I found five other rejection letters. I applied for many more that I never heard from. I found another letter that reminded me of a colleague that killed himself while I was in grad school. What a trip.
There is something therapeutic about shedding all this material. The only problem is that these piles just keep appearing. I think I consolidate and I'm really not. C'est la vie.
I suppose the moral of the story is to manage your records more often than every nine years. That did not work out for me. I'll keep on it after this mess though.
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