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| Papers! |
After many years of struggling with depression, I had been caught in the same basic cycle:
- Get depressed and fall behind on the house work.
- See the clutter piling up and feel more depressed.
- Finally have a day when I feel mentally well enough to clean and make progress for a few hours or a few days.
- Feel overwhelmed by the task and fall behind again.
This was only compounded if there were other challenges, like stress at work or large changes in my personal life and the anxiety that comes with that.
The cool thing about the KonMari method so far is that it is so structured that I can't go wrong. I didn't feel overwhelmed because Kondo is essentially as neurotic as I need her to be in guiding the process, detailing exactly how I should go about it.
And the first two categories are fun to go through! It feels great to say goodbye to clothes I've never worn, but felt a weird obligation to. It feels good to let those books go, essentially dreams I've never embraced, and move on to new focus.
But then we get to the 3rd category: Papers. Which don't include sentimental writings, like letters or personal journals, but bills, warranties, contracts, statements, etc.
Y'all, there is nothing fun or exciting in my experience about sorting through papers. This is drudgery, plain and simple. Papers are something I try to sort through about once a year anyway; throwing out old bills and random printouts, and trying to file necessary records. But as I found out during the process this week, there was a lot more to be parted with!
Truthfully, I started the process on Monday evening last week by collecting all the papers in the living room and grabbing a box to sort the discards into, but quickly ran out of steam. Thanks to my mom for texting me Saturday morning while I was sitting on the couch staring at those boxes, asking, "What are you cleaning today?" That got me off my ass and back to work!
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| Papers to sort. |
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| Papers done sorted! |
I had so much to get rid of! Everything from pay stubs from 6 years ago to pay stubs that belonged to ex's. Bills that had been paid years ago. Statements for credit cards and accounts that don't exist anymore. Privacy policies and warranties for devices I no longer own. Random print outs of articles that I intended to... Paste in a memory book? I have no idea.
I created two smaller piles: Papers to deal with right away, and papers to keep.
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| Always fun to find bills you missed because you didn't already have a system this simple! |
Along the way, I began to think that this is the drudgery of adulthood that most of us would rather avoid, and so we allow the papers to accumulate into drifts that obscure the responsibilities we're ignoring. Then you find an old toll bill you missed that has $15 worth of late fees, and realize your car's registration expired two months ago, and think, yeah, I could be doing better.
This system is so simple, it will definitely be better! Kondo recommends getting rid of basically everything because in her perspective, "...they will never inspire joy, no matter how carefully you keep them."
According to Kondo, the only thing we need to keep are papers that are:
- Currently in use.
- Needed for a limited period of time.
- Must be kept indefinitely.
That leaves out a lot of papers that most of us hold onto for no reason, especially since the majority of these papers are redundant. We can obtain copies easily on the internet. This last week I was so frustrated with the number of papers I had piled up that I went through my accounts turning off paper statements. I've had personal bank accounts and credit cards for over a decade now, and I have not once needed those statements. Not one time. I've never needed the warranty paperwork for a device. The only time I've needed pay stubs was for rental or loan application purposes, and then you only need the two most recent stubs. It was time to stop hanging on to that stuff. I figure that if it wouldn't matter to the IRS, then it doesn't matter to me!
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| The old way. |
My old filing system was just as complicated and unhelpful as most people's. It was subdivided into a couple dozen categories, when I only really needed two: Tax records and everything else. I recycled the folders along with the majority of the papers in them.
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| It won't take me long to find my important files in the future! |
What I was left with was a small, manageable stack of tax documents, only one manual (my complicated washing machine), one copy of each major bill for the purpose of having the account number easily on hand, a copy of our lease, a copy of our insurance provider agreements, and some miscellaneous records (my dog's vet records, medical records, voter's registration, etc.)
Even with the complex filing system I used in the past, when I felt mentally well enough to keep up with it, it still required a significant amount of time to sort through everything. It takes about five minutes to survey everything I have left now. I can get rid of that giant, ugly file box and find a smaller, attractive one now!
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| Mom's trusty helper! |
I was sitting on a cushion on the floor while I sorted, and I honestly can't tell you when my dog, Kaiser, pushed his way onto the pillow. At some point I realized, wait, I'm sitting on the hard floor and there's a little dog where I once was!
Once I finished storing the papers I need to keep, I went through the pile of papers I needed to address. This included everything from bills, to activating accounts, to storing coupon codes instead of holding onto the paper rewards that are helpfully mailed from my Loft account. Once I was done, I was left with only three papers that couldn't be taken care of right away. Much better than the huge drift I had before!
When the mailman arrived yesterday, I tried out my new method: Check the mail right away, recycle the junk, and take care of the necessary stuff. There's a bowl by the front door where we can leave important documents that need to be taken are of as soon as possible, and there are only three papers there. Nothing compared to the dozens of envelopes I found stacked on our kitchen table before getting started!
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| Into the recycling bin you go! |
Even though it was tough to get started, I felt rewarded in the end by my sorting. Papers are boring and burdensome, which is why I'm relieved to feel the ability to just get rid of them.
The next category I have to go through is what the Japanese call Komono, or essentially miscellaneous items. These are things that tend to pile up, accumulating randomly about the house, whether they are necessary or no. Kondo has a set order they need to be sorted in, of course, which is why I love her:
1. CDs, DVDs
2. Skin care products
3. Makeup
4. Accessories
5. Valuables (passports, credit cards, etc.)
6. Electrical equipment and appliances
7. Household equipment (stationary and writing materials, sewing kits, etc.)
8. Household supplies (expendables like medicine, detergents, tissues, etc.)
9. Kitchen goods/food supplies (spatulas, pots, blenders, etc.)
10. Other (spare change, figurines, etc.)
I'm most excited about going through the kitchen stuff, so I'm trying to use that to hype up the other categories. My goal is to see how many I can get through in the next week. It's cleaning time at my house!
See you all next time!
So glad to be of service. You can come spend a week at my house. We will send Larry somewhere.
ReplyDeleteWe would have to, he won't let us throw anything away!
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