My wife, a while ago, took on the daunting task of creating a space for a gas fitter to come in and work on a new project in our house. Our back room in our basement was a mess. There was no way anyone could get anywhere safely. My wife took on the task of attempt to declutter the chaos.
I came home and was very impressed with the work done and the amount that was being thrown out. The area was very clean.
My wife was not impressed when the workman finally showed up and was able to do all the work needed on the main floor of our house and went nowhere near the basement.
Was this a waste of time? NO! That kind of de-cluttering is a good thing for many reasons:
- Safety: that mess was going to injure someone. It was a fire hazard.
- DeClutter: the amount of crap that we were never going to use again is now reduced by 9.75% now. This means we only have 90% of it still to clean up (but still a good start)
- Security issues: although it might be possible for an Al-Qaeda cell to hide out in that mess, I did not mean that exactly. We found a whole set of banking records for an organization my wife no longer works for, and those records have now been destroyed. That kind of security is very important.
Do you have a lot of old financial records hidden in the clutter of your “secret stash” (be it in your basement or in that closet you just never open)? Maybe it’s time to at least find all the old credit cards, banking cards, pass books, cheque books and bank agreements that you no longer need and destroy them. Leaving that kind of stuff around is just asking for problems later in life.
What To Do ?
If you destroy it now, you know it no longer exists, if you simply “leave it”, do you know if there are records hanging around that can easily be used for identity theft? Maybe it’s time to go clean up a bit? Before you destroy those credit cards, make sure the accounts aren’t still active, as well.
