Paperwork

I had a couple of days between editing projects this week and one of my tasks was cleaning out junk. I was appalled to find that I still had stacks of financial records and receipts dating back to 2001 -- no wonder I can never find enough desk space! So I spent a full afternoon shredding documents, and it was a fascinating look back into what seems like a different era, before Facebook and before stinkbugs.
I used to pay FOUR different phone bills: my landline, my cell phone (and back then it was not a smart phone), my long-distance carrier and a carrier specifically for calls to Delaware. The bills listed each call and its duration.
My credit-card bills from a dozen years ago showed that a tank of gas at Landhope cost less than $30. Most of the merchandise that I purchased was from brick-and-mortar stores, no Amazon or eBay charges.
And my bank statements listed only deposits, checks and ATM withdrawals, no automatic or online payments like we have today. And they used to send back your actual cancelled checks, not a digital image (banks charge for even that service now). I was surprised how many checks I used to write: now I pay most of my bills online.
I jammed the poor shredder several times (it's supposed to take only three sheets of paper at a time) but eventually filled up a large packing box and several tote bags. I'm happy to announce that I now have a lot more shelf space.