Organizing Struggles

One of the hardest things we have to do has to do with organizing.  We all have those places where we stick papers and such that we need to keep.  Bills, Property Tax statements, old tax returns.  Much of it needs to be stored until we need it.  But how to do that?  

For a while, I had a series of binders that I organized -- one for taxes, one for bills, one for money management -- and then the fun ones, like a journal.  But at some point, we all need to get rid of some of it -- out with the old, so there's room for the new.

That's how I spent my afternoon, going through all the paperwork that has stacked up, filed the more recent 1040s in my binder and got rid of some of the old ones.  I don't want to have to burden my daughter at some point in the future with deciding what's needed, and what's not.  

But isn't odd -- all of the papers were stored in my cabinet, and now that things are organized, I have them back in the cabinet, and much in the waste basket, but there are always "leftovers".  Like the papers I got when I quit work and may need the info when the time comes.   Another binder??

And then, another question:  Can you be TOO organized??  In addition to the binders and stuff stored in the cabinet, I also have three?  Yikes!! I have 4 accordion files under my desk that I haven't gone through. *sigh*  Yes, too organized.  I have lived in my house for 15 years.  Do I really need to keep the HOA printed rules??  *shrug*  Maybe.  I suppose car repair receipts on a car I no longer own can go.  hahaha

And on top of all the papers I need to keep, I have an obsession with journals or notebooks.  I have several... or more than several!  I like the composition books for jotting things when I'm researching genealogy but most of the notes go no where, so eventually they can be tossed out. I also like nice blank notebooks -- I don't log in notebooks any longer, but I like the fact that I *can*.  

I can't be the only one who struggles with this!!!  Mom had a 4 drawer file cabinet for paperwork. She didn't struggle, she just stuffed more in and went on.  lol  

Now that I feel more organized, I can let it go for a while. Until it's time to organize again!