Well, gang, I know you'll think I am just chiming-in....but, I know what you are going through: I, too, am cleaning out my current home of all unnecessary items....particularly the two different attics, the garage, all the bedrooms, and, worst of all, my 32 years of Engineering files! The files are the killer! I have to go through them draw by drawer and folder by folder and page by page: utterly excruciating! I am blind at the end of each bout with doing this...and it is a fight with MYSELF! I don't want to throw any of it but I must....so I have to scan through them and make sure they aren't relevant in some sort of way! There are three 20" X 48" file "lockers" and five four drawer filing cabinets and untold banker boxes of files. My wife and I are downsizing and moving to another state.

Vac, I can imagine it is really tough. I experienced somewhat the same thing when I retired from education.

Well aren't we all just one big happy family now!!

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Originally Posted by Vacuum7

Well, gang, I know you'll think I am just chiming-in....but, I know what you are going through: I, too, am cleaning out my current home of all unnecessary items....particularly the two different attics, the garage, all the bedrooms, and, worst of all, my 32 years of Engineering files! The files are the killer! I have to go through them draw by drawer and folder by folder and page by page: utterly excruciating! I am blind at the end of each bout with doing this...and it is a fight with MYSELF! I don't want to throw any of it but I must....so I have to scan through them and make sure they aren't relevant in some sort of way! There are three 20" X 48" file "lockers" and five four drawer filing cabinets and untold banker boxes of files. My wife and I are downsizing and moving to another state.

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be practical, if you haven't used it in the last couple of years then it might be time to throw it away, buy a shredder and do it in small chunks because you might have an emotional attachment

Paraclete: Oh, so you're the guy whose been telling my wife this approach! What you said is exactly what she has been telling me the last 3 months! And, I finally got the shredder and I am doing it in "chunks" as you say. And you are so correct in the part about emotional attachment, too, albeit to a darn bunch of documents! I grab a bunch and end up reading a report from way back when I was 20 something, before the world got so heavy when I truly believed all things were possible, and it just makes it so hard to get rid of it.....but there are no Time Machines, we have to move forward.....Growing up is hell on a man.....I don't think I made it there until I was 40.

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Originally Posted by Vacuum7

Paraclete: Oh, so you're the guy whose been telling my wife this approach! What you said is exactly what she has been telling me the last 3 months! And, I finally got the shredder and I am doing it in "chunks" as you say. And you are so correct in the part about emotional attachment, too, albeit to a darn bunch of documents! I grab a bunch and end up reading a report from way back when I was 20 something, before the world got so heavy when I truly believed all things were possible, and it just makes it so hard to get rid of it.....but there are no Time Machines, we have to move forward.....Growing up is hell on a man.....I don't think I made it there until I was 40.

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Hey man bin there done that, and still more to do, these are chunks of your life, may only mean something to you and I suggest a big bon fire

Paraclete: Excellent idea....I can feel weight lifting off my shoulders with the volume I've done so far....I'll end up weighing in the negatives by the time I'm through!

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Originally Posted by Vacuum7

My wife and I are downsizing and moving to another state.

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Sounds like retirement. Go for it! You earned it after 32 years. How old are you?

Come to Mississippi!!

Paraclete & jlisenbe: It will be a while before I retire....too many kids and too many bad investments along the way....and, I think I would drive my wife as insane as I am if we were in constant contact with one another!

I am 54...won't be too long before I turn 55.

Love Mississippi: Been all over that state! Especially around Laurel & Hattiesburg as well as Monticello, Sandy Hook, New Augusta, Meridian, Vicksburg, Natchez, and a lot up around Iuka and Corinth....Great state! Oh, and Grenada! But I live in S.E. S.C. and I am moving to N.E. Florida.

If you aren't retiring then is this a career move, 2nd job type thing?

Talaniman: No, just a move inside the company I work for, changing a position.