Overcoming the Paper Monster

I am sure I'm not the only one who has a big ol' paper pile. Not the neat kind, with everything organized in labeled hanging-folders (though I have that, too). I mean the shopping bag full of accumulated mail, magazines, and random papers that you don't want to throw away, but you haven't quite gotten around to filing. Every so often you find yourself needing something from the bag, and you rummage through it, thinking "I really should file this stuff." Please tell me I'm not the only one.

Well, today I went through the whole bag and filed things, created new hanging folders, threw away stuff I don't need anymore, and consolidated a much smaller, much more innocuous, "file later" bag (which I'll get to in, I don't know, about a year maybe . . . )

I have to do this at least once a year. Because tax season rolls around, and my accountant is coming tomorrow, and, despite the neatly-labeled hanging file folder for "Taxes 2005" which I created over a year ago, I still have to make sure that no pay stubs or W2's ended up in that bag.

Passover, and tax season. Two great neatness motivators if ever there were any. Too bad they come around the same time of year, or my paper monster would never get more intimidating than Grover.