Stop calling, we have a winner for the most boring Project ever.
• • •
Welp, I’m back.
And living in a house that has not one, but two, electric paper shredders in it.
Try not to be jealous.
You see, last week when the ungodly hot and humid heat wave hit our region, I was in need of a project to keep me entertained + cool. Zen-Den had the week off so he was wandering around the house, in need of something to do.
Hence it came to be that we decided to go into our unfinished, but cold, basement and start doing something we should have done
yearsdecades ago. Yes, we bravely opened the drawers in the many filing cabinets down there and sorted through the documents contained therein.
Meaning that we found: bills and checks and insurance documents and warranty information and furniture sales receipts dating back to the early ’90s and… in what was the biggest surprise to me… all of my late mother’s federal and state income tax filings going back to 1984.
[She’s been gone 22 years. I was executrix of her estate. I thought I’d destroyed all of her documents before we moved here in ’99, but obviously I had not.]
Anyhoo, in the process of going through all of these documents we decided to invest in a second shredder so that Zen-Den could sort through files while I shredded the paper, feeding both shredders simultaneously like a champ, to keep things moving along at a fast pace.
And to keep life interesting.
Or as interesting as it can be, under the circumstances, while sitting in a dusty basement being responsible adults, shredding our past, for hours on end.
• • •
Question of the Day
Wasn’t that boring with you in the room. Were one of us to do that solo, then that would have been really painful.
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Zen-Den, good point. Togetherness and all that makes any project better. ❤️ But you gotta admit that… really… it was an incredibly unexpectedly involved activity that took days [not hours as anticipated] to finish.
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I did the same thing about 6 months ago- I loved doing it.. the process of knowing I would rid the basement of tax returns from 1978- yes, really- (my husband is a CPA) it was great!
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Daily Musings, you’re right. There’s an incredible high that comes from getting rid of this paper stuff. You got us beat with your 1978 tax returns. Why did we keep this stuff to begin with? 🤷♀️
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Wow. I find it strange to see this post just as I am right in the middle of doing the same thing, although for a slightly different reason. I’m moving and thought it time to shed and shred and lighten the psychic load of all that potentially negative Feng Shui. Weird, though, that apparently my life was undocumented for the first thirty years, as I found nothing older than 1980. I guess it was a simpler time.
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Roy, maybe it’s the time of year when shredding our past is the thing to do! There’s something uplifting about getting rid of a past that doesn’t serve you now– both in a psychological and practical way. The thing about this project was that I knew we needed to do this for a long time, but put it off thinking it’d be emotionally sad. BUT IT WASN’T SAD AT ALL. I’m happier now, having lived through the boring process.
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Very familiar territory, this paper shredding business. My aunt’s attic had so much paper we had to rent a dumpster, commercial grade size.
Do you feel lighter, more virtuous now shredding all this paper? Hope so!
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marian, about halfway through this process I mentioned to Z-D that maybe we should have hired a company to do this shredding for us. But being the frugal people that we are we continued on for days until all the papers were toast [so to speak].
AND YES, I FEEL VIRTUOUS AND LIGHT NOW. Like an organizing angel of goodness.
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We have that task looming in our future. I feel your pain.
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Dan, pain was involved. Just wait until you hover over & near a shredder for hours on end. Achey joints? I got ’em. 😣
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I love to shred, donate, clear the clutter. When I get in the mood…watch out!
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Jill, I’m slowly realizing that I, too, enjoy these *getting rid of stuff* projects. I was raised in a *waste not, want not* world so saving things was programmed into me. But now as a grown-up free to do what I want, I want to have less stuff around me. Thus, I shred.
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I like projects actually, and have undertaken shredding such as this in the past. That task gets old fast but it was satisfying to get rid of all that paper. I did burn out a shredder or two during the process though.
Not having my own home anymore makes me long for projects. I see so many things that I would love to tackle in this little apartment complex, but it’s not mine. Like the large space in our laundry room that would be perfect for some storage spaces designed for each apartment… or all those shrubs that could stand some pruning that the owner’s wife claimed she “enjoys working on” and who I have never seen here doing any of that…
Oh well, I guess that’s why I rearrange my furniture a lot
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Deb, I’m surprised that our older shredder’s motor didn’t burn out. It overheated, but kept going once it cooled down. You’re right about the sense of satisfaction that comes with a project like this one. Boring to do, wonderful to have done.
I can imagine that after being responsible for the upkeep of this house, if I moved into an apartment I’d notice all sorts of improvements around the place. It’d drive me slightly bonkers, as I have a mindset geared to creativity and usefulness.
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Oh that does sound boring. And I feel like I’ve had boring projects, but next to your I can’t think of any at the moment!
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Lacey, I’m pleased that we shredded the files, but sitting in a dusty basement… without any music because we couldn’t hear it over the shredder noise… was about as bored as I’ve ever been when intentionally deciding to do something at home. 😴
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I’m laughing, but I feel sorry for you too. I can’t imagine.
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If there’s a moral to this story it is: keep your records current. For us, it’s a lesson learned and the beginning of a new yearly plan based on our newfound love of shredding.
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Been there! As soon as I retired years ago, I tackled Boring Projects that had been put off necessarily. Stuffed file cabinets was one of the first. Rather than burn out a shredder, however, I put boxes of old docs aside to use as firestarter that winter. It all worked out.
A hugely boring project awaits Rick and me as soon as we get a cooler weekend (and we don’t go anyplace), and that’s a big garage cleanout. For once, BOTH of us are anxious to throw out pretty much everything in there.
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nance, I like your firestarter idea. It’d be fun to see these old papers go up in smoke. However, we became shred-heads and obsessed ones at that. I’m glad that we did what we did and considering the terrible heat outside, being inside in a cool basement had an appeal.
Our garage is a cluttered mess right now, too. I’m impressed that you both want to get rid of stuff– as we both know, that alone is an accomplishment. 🙄
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We did that at the last heat wave. Now my husband can’t find something. The simple explanation seems to be that I shred it. I didn’t. However our income tax returns from the 90s are history!
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Kate, there’s something about the summer heat that seems to put people in the mood to shred. I’m happy to know that you’ve lightened your paper load, and am sure that you shredded exactly what needed to be shredded. Your husband is just confused! 😊
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Good project done. And other than slothing through movies on the couch, a good way to spend insanely hot days inside. I can’t think of a boring project that I’ve done (or am putting off). I try not to let chores like that get ahead of me. Two shredders was genius. Good on ya!
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Tara, at first the idea of two shredders seemed wack-o to me, but considering how many hours we put into destroying our past using two shredders I’m glad that we bought a second one. Without it I’d probably still be sitting in the basement shredding stuff.
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Every summer I update my sons’ scrapbooks up until the age of 18 and high school graduation. I always put it off but eventually get to it before the next summer. Now that my youngest graduated high school in May, this is the last time I have to do it. And I fear it’ll be months before I get to it.
Now that you’re so good at sorting and shredding, I’ve got a few projects I could use you for at my place. 😁
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Carrie, yes, I do feel like we could market ourselves as Professional Paper Evaluators & Shredders. I can’t even explain why we kept it for so long…
I’m impressed by your ability to keep you sons’ scrapbooks up-to-date, even if that means sometime within a year. That’s much better than opening a file cabinet drawer and seeing a decade of paper staring up at you.
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Ha, I suppose that’s true. 😄
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Very scary seeing all that paper… just waiting… for you to do something. Lesson learned with this project.
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In the last year, I have shredded our old tax returns (1980 – 2011), shredded old college, law school, and job related paraphernalia (evaluations, resumes, cover letters, recommendations, internal memos, etc.), eliminated old drafts of writing projects (including novels that did not put me on the New York Times bestseller list), divvied up my parents photo albums and scrapbooks (1978 – 2012) between me and my 3 siblings, parceled out letters and poems and stories written by my grandparents and parents (dating back to the Korean War) to my 3 siblings, etc.
As they say in Flashdance ~> “What A Feeling!”
Like Jill, “I love to shred, donate, clear the clutter. When I get in the mood…watch out!” 😀
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nancy, I’m right there with you. I’m still dealing with the family photos and momentos I talked about in the winter, so getting rid of the basement paper clutter has been invigorating. Boring, but finished. Now I need to turn my attention to the all of my college + work paraphernalia AND lots of furniture that needs to go somewhere.
I, too, agree with what I’m going to call the Jill Mantra: “Shred. Donate. Clear.” The woman has it figured out.
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I was saving so much for a year and then shredding on my little shredder. Now I’m realizing there are only certain things you should keep for a specific period of time. Most can be tossed. I’ve got boxes of old pics and negatives that I keep putting off. Zen-Den is right! It’s so much nicer when you have someone to go through ‘stuff’ with. 🙂
http://www.meinthemiddlewrites.com
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Mary Lou, I’m becoming more aware of when we need to shred things while not letting them pile-up, in a tidy way, in our file cabinets. Once those drawers are closed, I tend to never look inside again. BIG MISTAKE. I agree with Z-D, too. By myself I’d never have made it through this mess, but together we did it. Now onto the next sources of clutter around here…
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Oh boy, the basement is still on my list….some day!
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Lynn, and when you get to it I hope you feel the same sense of lightness about having gone through your papers as we did. A mess, but better now.
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I hate shredding…like it is the worst job I can imagine doing…and right now I have a very large bag of paper that needs to be shredded…and I’m too lazy to do it…it might stay here till I bring it to your house…
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LA, by using two shredders at once I did turn the process into a little game. Sort of. However, never again will we let paper files linger around the house for so long. Oy vey.
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This is worst my paper situation has ever gotten! I feel like a crazy person who keeps moving the bag around the house so I don’t see it….cause then it doesn’t exist if I can’t see it
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I get the *if I don’t see it* approach to paper management. That’s how our file cabinets in the basement ended up in the state they were in. You lives, you learns, eh?
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So true….off now…must move a big bag of paper…
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After my husband died, my mother-in-law and stepdad helped me clear up his hoard by spending weeks (yes, weeks!!!) shredding the documents he had kept over the years. We also employed multiple shredders (one big and 2 household type) and even still could only work for a few hours at a time before we had to let the shredders cool down. We only shredded the confidential stuff – the rest I hauled in multiple car loads to the Humane Society’s paper recycling bins (which I filled up a couple of times). I keep very little paper around the house now. Most of my stuff is electronic-only and kept in the cloud. My kids will thank me, I think.
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Deb, that’s incredible. Weeks! What an amazing amount of paper you had to deal with. You are a strong woman. I cannot even begin to fathom that amount of mess and I just came through 23 [30 lbs] bags of shredding– which almost did me in. I agree with you, in the future we’re going to be more electronic about our bills. Too much paper is not a good thing, nor anything I want to repeat.
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It took filling 7 14-yard dumpsters and many bags of garbage to the curb every week, and a full year of working every night and on weekends to clean up my home (to be sold) and the large building I live in now. Thank goodness for friends and family helping me out. I don’t know how I did it, looking back. “When you are going through hell, keep going” was my mantra at that time. Now the city has a 2 bag limit for garbage pickup every other week…I try not to feel somewhat responsible for this. 😉
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You have an amazing story. What the heck was your husband keeping? I thought we were out of control with the paper in our basement file cabinets, but I see now that our shred-fest was a nothing burger compared to yours.
Yes, I’m sure that I’d wonder, too, about the rationale behind the new 2 bag limit. It does lend itself to speculation.
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He suffered from OCD, which can also be expressed with hoarding behaviour. He kept everything, including a lot of secrets from me.
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I didn’t know that OCD could manifest in hoarding behavior, but now that you write that it makes sense. How difficult for you to deal with all of this after he was gone. I’m sorry you went through such a thing.
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Thanks, Ally. It was much more difficult to deal with while he was alive. Cleaning it up was cathartic. It’s how you birth a badass Widow, so I am grateful actually, for everything I had to deal with.
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I like your take on how things worked out for you. A good life is all in how you put the narrative together, I believe.
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Cleaning up my bonus room has been agonizing. The next step is to clean off the computer table, then get rid of the ancient computer, monitor and printer up there. Bad weather and boredom force me into these mundane tasks. I bet you’re glad you got all of that done though. Boring as it was.
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Margaret, if you figure out what to do with your old computer+ I’d love to know. We have shelves of techie stuff I don’t know what to do with. I am pleased that we shredded as much as we did, but I won’t lie– it was boring work. And dusty, too.
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Ally ~ Staples accepts LOTS of techie stuff for recycling. No charge. Just drop it off.
Also, we took our old monitor, mouse, and keyboard to Habitat for Humanity and they accepted it for resale. BFF drilled through the hard drive and we tossed it.
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Thanks, nancy. I didn’t know about any of this. I don’t want money for the stuff, I just don’t want the stuff.
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Staples even accepts old shredders! 😀
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Oh the irony!
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Shred and shed – sounds good to me Ally Bean. My husband has been doing this for the last several weeks, and found it quite freeing. Sometimes the papers were used to make a bonfire – something quite exciting about that as well!!! Good luck for ongoing shedding et al …. 10 out of 10 🙂
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Susan, how wonderful that your husband is doing this. I understand that freedom feeling and now that we’re finished shredding the papers in the basement, I plan on never letting this happen again. 😳
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I have to shred a lot for my work since I am typing medical information so I have a shredder next to my desk all the time. Shredding our personal stuff is a different issue though. I am not so good about going through things either, but I don’t think I’m as far behind as you! I did start taking batches of things to Office Depot and had them shredded there as my little shredder will only do so much at a time. It’s worth the couple of dollars to me to have them do it as opposed to buying another shredder. The family that shreds together stays together? Sounds like a good catchphrase to me.
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Janet, we let this project go too long before we got to it. I figure that our first shredder, that is over 10 years old, is bound to give up the ghost, so the second one will soon be an only shredder. I didn’t know about Office Depot, but will keep that in mind… although I plan on never letting this situation happen again. I like the catchphrase. Quite… wait for it… catchy! ☺️
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Ally, you can publish this or no, but this post reminded me of a post I once did at my own blog when I had to catch up on shredding. It reminded me of a similar task I had to do, microfilming documents. Why they ever entrusted that to an 18-year old, I’ll never know. Here is the link.
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nance, I love your post. Shredding might not have changed since you wrote it, but microfilming… now there’s a flashback. Thanks for sharing it here.
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Last time the weather kept me inside I organized my spice rack alphabetically! In my defense I have a lot of spices.. (lasted perhaps a day and then it was back to its usual disorder.
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Jan, I don’t know that I could ever keep spices in alphabetical order so the fact that you kept them that way for a whole day is impressive. And a tribute to how far a person will go to be entertained when weather keeps you inside!
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You’ve just completed the project I need to do. Let’s see. Cool, dusty basement. Check. Extreme heatwave. Check. Second shredder………… That’s it! We need a second shredder to make our dreaded project dreams come true. And maybe to hire you and the fella! Funny story, Ally.
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Elen, I’m a frugal woman so the idea of a second shredder seemed excessive to me, but it turned out to be a great idea. It allowed us to keep things moving along. Lickety-split. If not for the second shredder I’m sure I’d still be in the basement feeding paper into our old one. And muttering about it all.
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I’m feeling too intimidated to be blog friends with someone who has TWO paper shredders. Not sure I’m worthy.
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Betsy, I assure you’re worthy. And undoubtedly smarter than we were about letting all this paper stuff accumulate in the basement. Considering shredder #1 is over 10 years old, I’m thinking that we’ll be down to a one shredder household in a year or so. The old one is on its last leg, overheating much too often now.
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I can assure you that you’re right, as we live in an area of the country where basements don’t exist due to earthquakes. 🙂
It sure would be nice to have one, though.
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Laughing here. Excellent point. Good logic. I’ve lived in homes without basements and the thing is, if you have one stuff moves into it and you forget about the stuff because… basement. Who cares? ‘Tis a trap, I’m sure.
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Stuff is like a gas, it moves in to fill the space.
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Exactly. Well said. And I’m Tums trying to get the gas out. 😉
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LOL! Gross. I like it!
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Thank your for this. I am behind on sorting and shredding papers, but not 19 years behind, so I feel so much better about myself right now.
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Akilah, I do what I can to encourage all people to think better of themselves. Yes, I am a healer with the power to make your foibles seem insignificant when compared with mine. It’s a gift. 😀
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Sounds like the perfect indoor project. We did this a few months ago and managed to clear out several filing cabinet drawers. We didn’t buy another shredder, though. We paid $5 a paper box at a commercial shredder. Seemed like a good deal at the time.
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Janis, when we started this project neither one of us realized how involved it was going to be. Then by the time we did, we felt like we needed to see it through. In retrospect a commercial shredding company might have been a good idea. 🤷♀️
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I have some shredding you could do, you know, while you’re in the groove.
I don’t know if you should have shredded those tax returns from 1984. They’re valuable antiques!
I’m really good at avoiding the boring tasks until they are crashing down on me. Sometimes literally. Like cleaning out closets, for example.
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Isa-Lee, the old tax returns were trippy and involved lots of staples. Old, super sturdy staples attaching important little documents to the big handwritten tax form. Nothing like our way of doing things today.
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WOW. Could you imagine?? I feel like the software makes it so much easier…though who really knows.
Still how awesome you got all of that stuff out!
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If nothing else the software makes our tax returns less smudgy and bulky. Mailing all that paper around to people and the IRS must have cost quite a bit, even at the postal prices back then.
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Well, good for you! 🙂
As you know, I cannot abide the clutter and paper is my nemesis. Not really, I looooove paper, but like, bound and in boxes. I am a shred as I go kinda gal. In truth, Moo is the one who shreds most of our papers. She has not yet outgrown the fascination, so I take advantage of that.
Our filing cabinet had a breakdown shortly after we moved here. I kept saying I’d buy a new filing cabinet, but I did not.
As for dull projects, I tend to think of it as quality married people time! We did tree-chopping last. He hates it, I love it — and when we’re done, we both stand there and marvel at the results. Can it really be dull if he uses a chainsaw?
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joey, in the future we’ll be more diligent about shredding papers on a timely basis. We’re going to donate a few of our ratty file cabinets to Goodwill, just so we won’t be tempted to put off the shredding of the docs. You’re lucky to have Moo [for many reasons] who likes to shred. Does she do free lance shredding?
I agree dull projects can become interesting marital bonding experiences. We did spend a lot of time together this last week and had fun along the way. No chain saw was involved, but there is one in our garage waiting for us to cut down a few trees out back… later this summer.
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It will help not to have someone else’s lifetime of papers ❤
Donation of the cabinets is an excellent idea. Moo would totally shred your piles in exchange for anything shiny. lol
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Gotta love this kid!
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Wow! Two shredders! Wish we had a video of your feeding skills!
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Anne, I was awkward at first BUT did manage to get in a nice groove along the way while I was doing my shredder thing.
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I’ll bet you were awesome and could win a shredding contest with your eyes closed.
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Thanks for my laugh of the day. In truth, I’d be scared to go near a shredder with my eyes closed. All. Those. Sharp. Blades. 😳
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Understood! It wasn’t such a sharp idea.
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Good one. ❤️
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You are not alone. In my household, my husband and I have a shredder each…
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camparigirl, another two shredder home! I was skeptical about having two, but it helped us get through this project. Now how long the old one lasts after this workout, I dunno. But bless its heart for hanging in there last week.
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Nothing quite as therapeutic (or tidying!) as a good shred. I believe there was a time when I was headed down the path of becoming a professional shredder. My mother used to say there was nothing that entertained me more as a child than sitting for hours ripping magazine pages into confetti. Nice going on the documents clean up Ally – and how clever of you to steer clear of the sweltering heat.
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Deborah, you’re right. The whole process was therapeutic. Our basement is still unfinished and dusty, but there’s less stuff down there collecting more dust now. I’m sorry you didn’t get the opportunity to follow your professional shredder inclinations. But sometimes real life gets in the way. 😉
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I was home sick last week and did the same thing!
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Susan, great minds think alike, eh? Hope you’re feeling better now and that you’ve been able to get rid of your bags [boxes?] of shredded paper.
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Oh man! I could use your shredder! But here’s your award for the most boring task! I usually put off cleaning out my bedroom closet for a decade or so. I have clothes in there i can’t fit or were out of style for at least eight years. I might let them marinate a bit longer. 🙂
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L. Marie, I hear ‘ya. I’m not much for cleaning out my clothes closet, either. I always have clothes in there that don’t fit because I harbor an illusion that they’ll fit again someday. Plus if I get rid of the clothes I have I’ll have to go shopping for more clothes– and I despise doing that.
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Two shredders going simultaneously? Whoa…living “the dream”!
Slow down there Tiger. Remember: speed kills 😉
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Norm, I remember that ad campaign slogan! Being a notorious klutz it was exhilarating to finally find a “sport” in which I excelled. Suppose I could get it added to the Olympics? Summer or winter, doesn’t matter to me.
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I bet we have a few to shred in our basement! Wow, what a project.
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susie, it was a BORING project, but one that needed to be done. Never again, says I, will I ever let the papers pile up this much.
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I was just looking at the massive pile of papers/bill stubs/junk I have piled up in the cubbyholes of my desk and thinking I need to take one of these days I’m off this week to declutter them. Not to shred them, of course…. no. To box them, because…. hoarder. One day when I am old and senile, I will get some kind of great joy in knowing exactly how much my electric bill cost in October 2012….
BTW, the dog in my photo today would love to take a stab at all that trash in the picture!
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evilsquirrel13, we got a kick out of seeing some of our old bills. Especially the credit card ones that showed charges from restaurants that we liked back then, but now are out of business. The electric bills were much less thrilling. And sales receipts for furniture we bought decades ago seemed quaint, but pointless. The furniture was donated to St. Vincent de Paul years ago.
You’re right about your dog and our trash bags. I hadn’t thought of that when I commented over on your blog, but so true.
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This is *so* my kind of project. Especially on a ridiculously hot and muggy day.
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katie, being in the basement doing something during the heatwave was better than sitting around upstairs and grumbling about the heat. It was a big project, boring, but so nice to have it completed now. 😊
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My husband loves doing the paper shredding. He does ours every couple of months, so he’d be in hog heaven if he saw your pile!
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Erika, I’m going to follow your husband’s example and start shredding our papers every few months. Never again will we have to tackle as much as we did last week, memorable as it was. 🙄
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I had parents who were pack rats and because of it, I didn’t become one too. Clutter makes me crazy so I’m in constant purge mode. If I’m in a closet or drawer and see something that I question why it’s there – it’s gone – and that includes the filing cabinet.
… but it still amazes me how much stuff has a way of accumulating while I’m not paying attention.
There is a certain ‘fun factor’ in doing this kind of activity with someone. There is the inevitable ‘surfing the past’ that creeps in 🙂 … not to mention the incredible feeling of lightness afterwards!!
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Joanne, I grew up in a *waste not, want not* environment so I was programmed to keep things, even if I had no particular use for them. These last few years I’ve been slowly getting rid of stuff that is clearly of no value to me– and boy-oh-boy were these papers in the filing cabinets of no value. 🙄
You’re right, of course– there was some fun involved in this project. We talked about places we used to live in and places we went of vacays. But the real reward is the light feeling afterwards. And my commitment to never let this much paper clutter happen again.
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I think there is a secret property to paper that causes it to self-multiply when left unattended 😉
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Yes! I’m sure you’re right.
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