NEW BEGINNINGS

I spent two full days cleaning out a small personal filing cabinet. You wouldn't believe all the junk I've saved. Crammed so much in there the handle broke.

Now I know the value of paperless statements and am on a mission to make sure any account I have is paperless. Have tons of statements for accounts I closed years ago.

Here's what I found out. Gary's braces cost $3,380 which we paid over three years. I've saved every birthday, Mother's Day, Father's Day card imaginable (I keep the cards the kids give my hubby because he doesn't). Saved tons of school projects and Kindergarten/middle school graduation programs. Never used up the little wallet sized school photo's each year and have random photo's all over the place. Found Jake's 1st class picture (3 Year Olds-Friendly Fish). Found the portrait of my mother's family when she was young. Have been keeping two useless change purses with random quarters, pennies and safety pins. Have also been keeping a luggage name tag holder, because, yes one day I may need it.

Diploma's from Chinese school. We used to have a Toys R Us credit card and found the day we went on Splash Mountain. Found the hotel bill in Boston on our first college visit there along with the restaurant (Teramina) we went to with Veronica. Real estate taxes have gone up $9,000 since we moved here.

Found a picture of my mother at Long Beach that one of my Aunt's scotch taped to a Hallmark Card. Found copies of stock certificates with my name on it (too good to be true), have no idea if these are really mine or if the companies still exist.

Found my offer letter from J&J in 1996 and a welcome letter from the CEO, Ralph Larsen (personally signed).

For some reason my father instilled in me a need to keep every electric and heat bill. He insisted we see these bills before we bought any house to make sure the monthly bills wouldn't be extraordinarily high.

Got sick of going through all the statements and finally just put them in the shred pile. Have two gigantic shopping bags to shred and 2 for recycling. What a pain in the neck, don't want anyone to steal my identity. Clean cabinets, its a new beginning.