All I can say is . . . I hope today is better than the last few. It was one hell of a weekend! It started Thursday when our weather dipped to zero, and the cold water line to the kitchen froze. Of course, I didn’t worry too much about it because it has happened before. However, I woke to a note from my husband (lets just call him Mr. Stodgy which has been his unofficial nickname for many years) that the pipe was froze. He came home early from work and started working in the basement to unthaw the pipe. Now here is where my problem comes in. Over the years the girls have put their unused junk in the old laundry room. I also had some boxes of old paperwork in there that I pulled out of storage and never did anything with. Of course for him to get to the pipe, he had to move some of this stuff. Not thinking I told him to bring up those boxes of paperwork and I would start shredding it.
Saturday morning Mr. Stodgy started his chore. He crawled under the deck to get to the air leak, insulated the pipes, cleaned the old laundry room and the workshop. Bags and bags of junk were carried up and out to the garbage . . . something that we have needed to do for years.
I started my chore of shredding. Oh my BADness! 30 years of accumulated paperwork from old bank statements (when they actually returned the checks to you) to our lease to our apartment when we moved to Lexington, KY in 1983. I would work as long as the shredder didn’t overheat and then would have 30 minutes to sit and wait. During those 30 minutes I found many things to get involved in . . . and none of them were stamping related. I cleaned the front closet tossing out old worn our tennis shoes, jackets no one wore anymore, just more junk! I think I shredded up until about 9:30 on Saturday night and still had more to do.
Sunday morning I was awoken by the dogs running in and then Mr. Stodgy making the announcement that we had more problems. For pity sake . . . could I not even have a cup of coffee! The water line in the garage to the outside faucet burst and the garage floor was covered with water. Have you ever paid the hourly rate that plumbers get for emergencies? Of course, we had to shut the water off at the main and then wait. We waited until mid-afternoon for the plumber to get here. He is such a great guy that we didn’t mind too much. He kept calling us letting us know his time schedule and that he kept getting calls that were slightly more important than ours. I took the plumber all of 15 minutes to cap off the line, which is all we needed done at this time of year. We discussed the problems we had been having in the garage with water leaking, and all decided that he would come back in the spring to put a shut off for me at the joint, and fix the mess that was initially put in when the garage was built.
In the meantime, I was still shredding. In all, Mr. Stodgy carried out two 39 gallon bags, four large kitchen bags, and I think five 30 gallon bags. Yes, my shredder still works only now lacks a few parts that fell off. It was a very productive weekend here!
I still have more paperwork I now want to go through. I find it pointless to keep some of this stuff around any longer and actually feel a little lighter and a tad more organized. I know that buried in the well closet is another box from 1978 to maybe 1983. When I finally get the Christmas decorations put away, I’ll pull that box out!
Needless to say, I never ventured into the studio all weekend, but I do have a few more ideas for altered projects now!
Oh and it’s snowing! A pretty, wet snow. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to get some great pictures later today.
As soon as you shred something, you will need it, beleive me. Especially if its tax related. I scan everything with a special receipt scanner and archive it. the irs says this is acceptable for any audits. I am anal about saving warranties and stuff. But in the long run, it’s saved my butt a few times. Our bathroom on the north side always freezes but oddly not this year. Probably saving up to crasp on us now that sofa slug has retired.
Hi Sherry! I can totally relate to all the shredding ~ I think it’s going on all over the world! I have been helping my Mom go through drawers and books of old bank statements and bills, since my Father’s passing, and now she gets a kick out of doing it and I’ve started to tease her by asking how her “hobby” is coming along. LOL
But now I too have decided to purge all the stuff I’ve been holding onto for years upon years. Sorry I think if it’s more then 4-5 years old (as in Income Tax Returns, VISA bills, bank statements/info) there is absolutely no reason to keep it, esp. if you have an accountant who does your returns, or you do your own online. There is only so much paper, crap and garbage I can handle around me.
My DH and I live in a large home with three bathrooms, a sunroom, a full self-functioning apartment in the basement (my DH’s Man Cave HA) and five bedrooms. Ohhh and I’m sorry, I can’t forget the four-car garage and drive-way. There are just the two of us and our Boston Terrier living in this home, so why is it I can’t park MY car in the garage, or find room in the basement wine cellar to store some of my things? I’ll give you one hint …. his online nickname is “DH” 🙂 My husband loves tools and has everyone there is to have, along with two 1931 Dodge Coupes that he’s restoring, ohh and let’s not forget a Go-Kart, a riding lawn mower and geesh like every good Canadian boy, a snowmobile & trailor. Now you see why I never hear a PEEP about all my rubber crap and paper. But maybe you can also understand as to why I want to just get a dump truck to back up to the front of the house and have them just clear everything & anything that isn’t attached to the house in the garbage !!!! !!!!! Ohhh that would be a GOOD day 🙂
How does this relate to shredding papers? I had about 5 bags of shredded bills, bank statments, income tax stuff, etc. and put it out for our recycling pick-up. DH looks at me like I have a third head or something, asking me where all this “paper crap” is coming from?!? Seriously, how much paper junk can I have? Haaa I just laughed stating he better get his areas of crap cleaned up soon or else the 1-800-Have-You-Got-Junk Men are coming for a visit while DH is at work 🙂
I think that is a fair, don’t you? :o)
This is exactly what I need to do!!!!
My list includes:
The kids rooms
The closets
Kitchen and Laundry room junk drawers
Upstairs storage room
Garage closet
sigh….
Please, please, PRETTY PLEASE come to my house and do the same!!!
Oh, my goodness, Sherry! I can’t even imagine! As soon as a new statement comes in, the old one goes out. I keep five years of tax stuff and only the bare essentials of the most important papers. I just don’t have room! I recently went through a big scaling down process, too. There were days at a time I didn’t set foot in my stamp room. Well, at least it sounds like nothing got ruined from water damage. That’s a good thing. And it must feel good to do all that purging. Good luck with the rest of it!
Wow sounds like a productive weekend but what a bummer about all that water, oh my if that happened in our garage alot would be ruined. I too need to get to old papers and get them shredded, maybe I will work at it a little at a time, just so I don’t blow out my shredder 🙂
Wow… in spite of all your obstacles you got a lot done. I bet you feel great! You’re awesome!
Congrats on all that you have done! Sorry though to hear about the pipes bursting.
Well, now, aren’t you the busy bee!!! When you finish all that you can come help me purge….hummmm, don’t know if I can stand to get rid of my paycheck stubs from highscool….might need them some day…bwahaahaahaa!!!