How much paper does one person need?

I've been trying . . . and trying . . . and trying to weed things out of my personal files and there are so many things we seem to need to keep that it's becoming impossible to keep this paper tiger tamed. And when Jason came into the picture, the paperwork just doubled. Of course, if I left it to him all of the paper would be dumped immediately but it makes sense to keep SOME records: tax returns, bank statements, pay stubs, medical and dental records, credit reports, things related to the house . . . the list goes on and on. But the stuff I was holding on to was getting ridiculous. A lot of it I just hadn't really looked at in a long time and I didn't realize it was still in there, but -- I am sitting here looking at old traffic tickets from 1990, 1991 and 1992 (yes, all banner years for me; apparently, I had a way of catching the cops' eyes in July every year) and though I've looked at them before and intentionally kept them for posterity, I think 13-15 years is long enough to finally let go. Christ, a few years ago I finally dumped about 10-12 YEARS worth of bank statements (had them all the way back to when I opened my account at 17 years old!). Now I only keep 3 years' worth. Tonight I shredded my tax returns from 1988 to 1997 (keeping 7 years' worth). I don't know what was more sad: that in 1988, at age 16, I made something like $6,500 for the year -- or that after everything was said and done, I still had to PAY $296 in taxes! Hisssssss.

So I'm sitting here shredding the last of it, and this after having a big solo shredding party just a few days ago and shredding other stuff not too long ago, and I have this *ginormous* bag of shredded junk sitting next to me. Where does it end? We had about 5 years' worth of Jason's WEEKLY pay stubs . . . no wonder I can't fit all my crap in my files! I've decided we only need to keep current year stubs until the taxes are done. Since our 2004 taxes are done, 2004 pay stubs went into the shredder with all the rest. Feels good. Now, if I could just get the stuff that's left organized . . .

I need a file cabinet! This house has no storage. This file thing has been plaguing me for probably 10 years now! I keep trying to make do with plastic bins, even ones made for hanging files. They're not cuttin' it. I still have to lug them around and have no place to put them. I don't want to look at them anymore! Must . . . buy . . . file . . . cabinet. Seems simple enough, but I don't want one of those stupid metal ones or one made of pressed sawdust. Nope, not me . . . gotta go to Kendall's and get me a real wood one and have it stained whatever color I want. Maybe I'd be more enthusiastic about doing my filing then. Or not. But it'd look pretty.

I need to get all our real important docs copied and into a safe deposit box, too. Then I might finally feel like I'm organized. Maybe. Possibly. Potentially.

Ah, well, clearly nothing exciting going on now so I guess I'll finish my shredding, vacuum up the little shreds of paper I've been tracking from my desk to the dining room and go catch up on Oprah, Queer Eye for the Straight Guy and Inside the Actor's Studio. Somebody stop me before I overdose on excitement! Well, it sounds like enough fun for me for what's left of my night.