Shredding Old Memories

Am I shredding old memories or just reclaiming a cubic foot of space in the closet? I am shredding a whole file box full of old Discover and bank statements, from the 90s and early 200s. The whole credit card number is still on the individual receipts in this batch of papers - I wonder when they stopped listing the whole number? Right after the beginnings of identity theft! All those purchases! Lots of carbon copies of checks. Just saw a listing for Southern Rubber, where we bought tire inner tubes to use as tubes for our swimming pool. How many times I patched those things! Loved using them in the pool.

There were checks to one daughter's middle school cafeteria and checks to one daughter's intermediate school. Long-ago stuff. One of the payments we regularly made in the 80s was to AOL Games. "You've Got Mail!" Checks to Geno and Kristi for euphonium and oboe lessons, checks to Food World and Bruno's in Birmingham, and checks from my editing job. All reminding me of times past, happy mostly!

The shredder only takes care of about 3 inches of papers before I have to empty it. So I have all these plastic bags full of shreds of paper. What if I poured them all into the big recycling bin? How long would neighbors be picking shreds off their lawns? Well, I did decide to recycle the shreds. I put them into boxes. I have lots of boxes in the garage and attic...all part of my too much stuff. The boxes can help deal with the stuff!

Christmas Is a Time for Adding Stuff

With a husband and children on vacation, I am by default on vacation, too! It is all I can do to get the boxes and those semiprecious puffy packing materials (that will be useful for mailing out things I sell) put away in the garage and attic. Boxes have been added to our collection this year. Not by me, of course. By others who bought things, mostly mail order. I wrapped my gifts in used (recycled) boxes from our collections in the garage and attic, and I will put those boxes back to be used again. Maybe I will throw away a few of the more common, less potentially* useful boxes.

*Potentially - a word that is loaded with implications for saving things. Boxes from mail order gifts this year have potential to be useful for wrapping things in next year. It is much easier to wrap something and keep it around under the tree for a week or two if it's in a box than if it has no box. Things of odd shapes, such as items with a cardboard backing and a plastic bubble are hard to wrap neatly; and wrapping paper is fragile and likely to rip on these oddly shaped packages when they are shaken or moved to let a newly wrapped package onto the table under the tree. Clothing wrapped without a box is easily identified through wrapping paper, thus ruining the surprise.

So, I will have to find room for a few more boxes.

I received a USB phonograph. I plan to use it to convert my old record albums to MP3 files. Then I can get rid of the old records! Yay! I will not set up a permanent table next to my computer for the phonograph...

Resolved: (1) I will set it up on a space I will clear on or near my desk; a temporary setup.
(2) I will get the records converted within a limited time frame. Oh dear - I don't think I'm ready to commit to a specific time frame yet. But I will scope the project and set it up and get it done without starting too many? any? other projects, so it will get done quickly.
3) I will dispose of the phonograph and the records, hopefully selling them for a price that both the buyer and I feel good about.