Let It Fly

Recently my husband and I emptied our enormous family home, put it up for sale, and moved into our RV. We’ve been married almost 39 years and have raised four children. I’m a veteran cook, baker, seamstress, quilter, embroiderer—I sew and hostess like crazy. My husband is a life-long bibliophile and lover of power tools.

We have stuff. Yet what to do with all that stuff was an easy fix. We gave it to the kids, donated to charities, and hauled the useless junk to the dump—I’m embarrassed to say how many trips my husband made in our pickup. Truly, we are ready for the simple life.

But letting go of the paper was like pulling teeth. It. Is. So. Hard. For. Me. To. Let. Go. Of. Documentation. I am the family secretary, accountant, and historian. Into storage went more than two four-drawer filing cabinets filled just with family photos, and that doesn’t count all the digital ones on memory sticks and CDs strewn all over my office nor the dozens of hard-copy albums that go back years and years. Warranties, manuals, and receipts for every major item we’ve purchased in decades, some of which we no longer own. All of the children’s records, including school work and hand prints and greetings cards all the way back to kindergarten. Copies of monthly bills back generations (so it seems). Photocopies of credit cards, in case they are ever stolen, even many that have been long since compromised by hackers. Wills, trusts, medical and life insurance statements. Tax statements so far back even the IRS isn’t interested. Paper in my office, in the storage closet, in the attic. Tons of paper.

What is behind this super glue-like attachment to paper? I’ve thought about this a lot. I think I fear I’ll be called upon to dredge up some old record and won’t be able to. Or maybe it’s just my ego, wanting to be admired for being so organized. Smug but snowed under.

But I’m changing. Recently my son commented that he no longer keeps paper. That is, he knows that anything important regarding his accounts he can retrieve online, so he doesn’t keep a copy of every little thing. That got me thinking. Other than one-of-a-kind items that must be in original format, such as birth certificates, or critical items necessary for a (God forbid) tax audit, nearly everything I’m hoarding in filing cabinets I can obtain online. Equipment manual? Just google it. A year’s worth of utility invoices or bank statements? Download them from the respective Web sites.

So do I really need to keep a copy of everything?

I assert: I do not. Recently I purchased an iPhone app that enables me to aim, shoot, and create a PDF in two seconds. I’ve begun making PDFs of every new large-ticket receipt, warranty, operations manual, etc.—all that stuff I used to file away—and backing it up to my laptop and the cloud. Then I throw away the paper copy. I’m managing our home with just one file drawer, and it’s only half-full. Let the mountain of paper fly. I’m not worried.

It feels ... wonderful.