Decluttering Paper - not so easy

The next thing on Kondo's list of decluttering is paper.  I don't know why, but paper is the hardest thing for me to get rid of.  Papers (mostly) are what fill my boxes that are just sitting in my parents' attic.  I read a quote somewhere (I forget where) in which a person said they were saving things as though someday someone would erect a museum in their honor!  It really struck home for me as I am (slowly) realizing how ridiculous it is some of the things that I keep. 

Yesterday I went through a lot of the paper items that we have in our office/guest room.  I had a bag of old receipts I had been saving for almost a year with plans to shred them.  We don't have a shredder, and it was on my to-do list to find someone with a shredder and shred those receipts.  However, I realized that perhaps they don't all need to be shredded.  After all, who cares about a McDonald's receipt from 2013?  And before you go telling me that I'm ridiculous for not throwing that receipt away the day I get it, I keep paper receipts because it is the only way I can keep track of our finances.  We predominantly use cash here, because a lot of places don't accept cards, and it is easier for me to keep all paper receipts and then total them at the end of the month.  I categorize the receipts and total them to see how we used our money the previous month, and if we are in the positive or negative for the month and year.  It's a bit cumbersome, but in a cash-dominant culture, it is the easiest method for me to keep track of our finances.  I'm not good with the Dave Ramsey envelope system, because our months differ in structure and are slightly difficult to predict. Now that I've defended my receipt-keeping, I realized last January that it had gotten out of hand.  I keep the receipts in an expanded plastic envelope folder by category.  It fits pretty well that by the end of the year, the folder is full.  Last January, when I was considering buying a new folder, I realized it would be much easier to just empty out an old folder - after all, I really don't need all those receipts from 2012 when we first moved here.  I decided that I would just keep one year, because I do occasionally have to refer back to them (such as when my organization asked what were our average utility costs for the previous year).  So, I emptied out that folder and put all the receipts into a plastic bag "to be shredded."  It sat in the floor for a while until we finally had someone over and I put the whole bag in the closet.  And there it sat for almost a year "to be shredded."  I looked through them yesterday, and only a few bills actually needed to be shredded, so I just cut our name and address off and into little pieces with scissors.  It took some time, but it feels so good to finally be rid of all that paper!  I also threw away some other unnecessary papers and better organized three shelves in our closet, consolidating them into two shelves and making room for my husbands shoes. 

This is the after picture.  (The top shelf is extra sheets/bedding for the guest bed.)  One thing I realized is that I had not taken good advantage of the vertical space, so I stacked some books vertically, which helped.  I also decided to get rid of my language flash cards.  I've been making vocabulary/grammar flash cards since we got here in Oct. 2012 (and I even made some before we moved), so I had hundreds of flash cards.  Since we passed our language exam in June 2015 (yay!), I haven't looked at my flash cards once.  I decided that, even though I still don't know all the words/grammar rules written on the cards (I have a pile still labeled "need practice"), my learning style has changed.  I can talk to people and ask questions, use google translate, and conjugate words online.  While my method for conjugating a verb used to be looking through my verb flashcards, now I just use the dictionary online.  Also, I have so many flash cards that it is overwhelming to think about looking through all of them just to find one word. And even though I could still look through the flash cards to practice, I just don't do it anymore.  I talk to people, read articles online, read the subtitles on movies, listen to music, etc., but I don't sit around practicing my flash cards anymore.

This is a picture of me studying for my exam from June 2015.

One thing I've read in multiple places is that if you are having trouble getting rid of something, take a picture of it.  Even though that advice is primarily for sentimental items, it helps me get rid of my flashcards just having the above picture to chronicle the hours and hours I spent making and studying them. 

I find it really ironic that the thing I have the most trouble getting rid of - paper - is what Kondo is the most adamant about getting rid of.  She says that paper never "sparks joy," and that the default should be to just throw it away (unless it is absolutely necessary to keep it, like a rental agreement or tax documents).  I still couldn't bring myself to get rid of the workbooks and notebooks from language learning.  I don't know why.  It's like I feel like I have to have some sort of physical evidence to prove that something happened.  Like I couldn't just talk to someone in my new language for them to know that I studied.  Maybe it comes from a feeling that I have to prove myself - that I worked hard or something.  I really don't know.  I hope that whenever I visit my parents, I can declutter at least some of my childhood papers that are just sitting in boxes in the attic.  I can't just throw a box away without looking at it, because I think it's nice to keep a little.  It's harder that way and it takes longer, but it's the only way I can have piece of mind.  The trick is knowing what to keep and what to throw away.