Ever since my last move, I’ve been obsessed with the idea of getting rid of things I don’t need anymore. Over the weekend, I bought a cheap paper shredder. I had no idea how much fun it would be…

I sat down Saturday morning and started going through my filing cabinet. Anything that wasn’t a tax return or a credit card statement was fair game. Do I really need an electric bill from May 1997? Do I want the cruel reminders of what my 401(k) was once worth? (I actually had old phone bills from Nynex. Nynex! That was Verizon two name changes ago…) All of it in the shredder.

Before I knew it, I had filled up a large trash bag with paper shreds (I actually had to turn the shredder off and let it cool down a few times). When I dumped the bulging bag out into the recycling bin, the shredded remnants expanded to about three times the volume of the trash bag. It was as if the paper had been set free.

I can’t wait to make a second pass through my old files. Hours of entertainment.