Home » Home & Style » Household Organization » The Black Hole In My Filing Cabinet

The Black Hole In My Filing Cabinet

© Janet Kitto

A few years ago, with some extra money, I bought myself a four-drawer vertical filing cabinet. Finally, all those pieces of paper in those boxes would have a home. I'm looking at it now and I realize that it's full and I still have boxes filled with paper to file. What did I do wrong? For starters, I keep everything: pages torn out of magazines, my child's artwork, letters from family, income tax papers, credit card receipts, Christmas and birthday cards, outdated resumes, even some poetry I wrote in high school. My files have never been purged. Everything is thrown together in hanging folders. Nothing is labeled or organized. I'm exhausted just thinking about it!

I never meant to make my life so complicated. I just figured I would need it all one day. If it's true that 80% of it will never be looked at again, why then do I need it? I'll never find anything in there, with all the papers so tightly crammed in.

When I began this journey to control the clutter in my life, I didn't expect to find such chaos. I had no idea that I was spending so much mental and physical energy on "stuff". What do I get in return for organizing, stacking, filing, and dusting? I've never bothered to ask myself that question before. What is it that I feel when I look at the my filing cabinet? Is it guilt that I hoard? Or shame that friends might see what's hidden behind drawer #1? Just how are these things enriching my life?

The moment of freedom came when I realized it was time to start purging and stop feeling bad. I didn't have to keep it just because one long day ago I had filed it, and given it some sort of significance. Values change, and what I once thought I needed, I could now recognize as unnecessary clutter. I enjoyed going through the old greeting cards, letting the sentiments touch me again, but those Christmas cards can't love me back. It was uplifting to see the spark of writing ability I had in high school, but the poems are just words on paper. I had to separate my feelings from these objects. Then it hit me. The answer I had been searching for. I didn't need those pieces of my life in a metal box. There will always be room in my heart for the memories.

The copyright of the article The Black Hole In My Filing Cabinet in Household Organization is owned by . Permission to republish The Black Hole In My Filing Cabinet in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.