I am a procrastinator. I do leave things for the last minute and am I prone to put off things indefinitely that do not need to be done by a certain time. This explains the three 18" stacks of paper on top of my filing cabinet in our closet. All paid bills, medical records, receipts, warranty information, credit card offers, credit card cheques, etc. that needed to either be shredded or filed in the cabinet instead just sat there, getting higher and higher each month.

Today, I tackled the piles.

For 4 and a half hours, I sorted by bill type and receipt type. I put the "to be shredded" stuff in one pile and I shredded it all (I almost wore out the poor motor of our shredder - which had not seen any action in over two years - and I had to clear paper jams about 10 times!). Then I filed it all. I did not spend the time to put everything in date order but just jammed the items in the corresponding hanging file.

What I have not yet filed are the receipts from the insurance company that we get for every doctor's visit/service we receive. That pile is about 8" high itself. Stephen says I should just toss it all (well, I would shred it but I think it would kill the shredder). Going through all that information too was kind of a throw back. Cars' birth (yes, I was *that* far behind on my filing!!), Cars' emergency room visit for bronchitis when he was just 3 months old, Dex's speech evaluations and speech therapy sessions, tons'o'allergists visits for Jax (including the notes I took at one when the doctor said he will *not* outgrow his allergy), Stephen's sinus surgery, my breast biopsy and subsequent f/u mammograms). How can I throw all that out?! Do I throw it out? Do I keep it? What do I do with it?!

And I vow to file my bills/receipts at least once a month. I wish I could say I would do it weekly (or better yet - daily!) but I know better than to set myself up to fail. :)