I am incredulous at the sheer amount of paperwork we have managed to accrue in the almost 10 years we’ve been married. It’s horrifying – mostly because I feel like we do a pretty decent job of staying on top of it. Apparently not.

Well, I should correct myself. We are pretty good at staying on top of the paperwork NOW – however, we had stacks in my office from years ago that we have never, ever, ever had to go back into to get something. Why save it? No clue. I always fear I’ll need something and not have it. (I know. Sounds like I am well on my way to be featured on Hoarders.)

This past weekend we spent about 4 hours sorting, filing and shredding paperwork. Woo hoo! Such fun.

Some favorites:

• An entire set of bills from 2003. These might have come in handy on those Saturday nights when Kenny and I were watching a movie. We could have pulled these babies out and done a month-by-month comparison of how much our electric has gone up 2003 – present.
• All paystubs from 2001 – 2005 (before employers got smart and moved this stuff online).  That’s 260 pieces of paper right there alone.
• Manuals for appliances, electronics, products we don’t even own anymore, and / or have replaced. Sometimes twice. Oh, and toy manuals. If a toy needs a manual for pre-schoolers to operate, I am questioning whether it should even BE a pre-schooler toy. But don’t worry, I saved them. Just in case the On/Off switch was hard to find.
• Our marriage certificate. Yes, folks. It’s official. And we have a paper to show the world.

It’s very freeing to whittle down your papers. Five trash bags later and we now have a few small, well-organized folders with stuff we know we actually need vs. just ‘might need’.

The shredders and some shrapnel

And…the output. That’s a LOT of paper.