I’ve been chewing through old boxes of papers untouched in ages.  Literally chewing through them.  With a paper shredder.

Why do I have old boxes of papers lurking around the musty, dusty corners of my residence?

Delegation of authority, mainly.  Most of the paperwork I’m uncovering is old receipts, bank statements, etc.  Things my ex-wife was managing while I was at work in our home city or abroad.

Part of the reason I still have the paperwork is lack of time due to decisions made in a rush. Never really sat down and actually LOOKED at what we were moving from place to place.  As a result, some items just got stuffed in boxes labelled “office papers” with the intent of sorting through them once we got “there”…

Well, “There” came and went.  Repeatedly.  Eventually, I became the only one “there”.

So here at last are we.  Me, to be precise.

And what do we find?

I find loads of junk mail issued to a younger me, unopened, from thirteen to seventeen years ago.  And even more unopened bank statements, utility bills, various offers for credit and etc.  For every one piece of paper that has actual relevant content that may have been worth saving, there is easily 5 or 6 times the weight of things that could have been recycled over a decade ago.

Things like:

the mailing envelope itself

the return envelope (for mailing back payments)

adverts

accompanying pages of info

etc.

I also find little treasures like love notes from the kids, from the pre-ex-wife, from the parents.  So, simply tossing everything in a pile and setting fire to it isn’t the best option.

I also find things that are better left undisturbed, like the receipt for the $900 black evening dress I’ve never seen in my life.  One of a few shockers.

All in all, I’m guessing we’ve carried – and paid for carriage of – about 200 pounds of paper weight we didn’t need to drag along with us.  From our home in the States, to storage for months while the fam was overseas with me, back to a new place in the States, back in storage for a few more months, across the Atlantic to some city called London (two moves), back to the States for about two MORE moves until it made its way to my compost bin and the local recycle bin.

It’ll be a long time – if not ever – before I’ll delegate the paperwork review to anyone again.