From Phylameana lila Desy,
Your Guide to Holistic Healing.
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Have you ever counted the "junk drawers" in your house? I have a dresser drawer in the laundry room full of odd socks, three drawers in a desk in the my kitchen full of odds and ends, and an old buffet cabinet in the basement with two drawers full of stuff that could only be categorized as JUNK. Aside from junk drawers how many of you have attics and garages full of stuff?

For the past couple of weeks I have been making a deliberate and time consuming effort to tackle the many stacks of paper that have been accumulating in our household. My first step was to clear out an old file cabinet I had stored in the basement and drag it upstairs where I could put it to work for me. I soon discovered that this cabinet is where I had stashed my children's grade school photos, crayon drawings, and the many handicrafts their wee hands created. Well, needless to say I got distracted from my plan to get organized as I sat down and carefully handled each cherished piece that first afternoon. But the next morning I had arranged three boxes side by side with my children's name on the lids and had everything organized efficiently. Sometimes you find things you cannot let go of. At least I got them sorted out before I might have forgotten whose stuff was whose.

By afternoon I drove out to Staples and purchased one of those handy home/office paper shredders, a box of file folders, and an expandable folder to organize all our warranty booklets scattered about the house. Every appliance from our refrigerator to a battery operated lint remover (that never worked the way it was advertised on TV) came with an operating manual that I've tossed in one of my better-hold-onto-this-for-awhile paper stacks.

My husband couldn't believe how excited I was about buying a paper shredder.

I guess I was feeling a bit "giddy" just thinking about freeing myself of old stuff. I had several old bank statements, canceled checks, and aged tax forms that went directly into that "paper eating machine"...it felt really great watching that stuff get torn into bits. About an hour afterwards irrational words (Oh my God why ever did I get rid of that stuff? What ever were you thinking you idiot.) crept through my head. I even joking told someone that I might hold onto the shredded paper for a while. Afterall, scotch tape would put everything back together, right? Well, this morning the recycle truck picked up the shredded paper... no turning back on this now. But that's okay...after my initial panic I'm feeling pretty good about the whole thing.

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