The Purge

I've been organizing my life in preparation to start nursing school. So much junk has been thrown away. Bags have been packed and taken to Goodwill. My desk has been cleared and dusted. Years worth of paperwork that I have been neglecting has been sorted and filed. I realized that I have been running short on room in my filing cabinet. There was one folder that was packed particularly densely. The tax folder. I pulled it out, and discovered that my records go back to 2002. I googled: How long do I need to keep my tax returns? And, straight from the IRS website, I got the answer three years (there are reasons to keep them longer, but I don't have any of those reasons). Why have I been holding onto all this junk?

My family encountered some financial drama when I was a kid. Even though I am an adult, and I'm perfectly aware of how much money I have in my account, I still get a nervous feeling whenever I swipe my card at the grocery store. I just know it's going to decline my card. I know I'm going to have to leave all my groceries melting in their bags, and walk out embarrassed. I know the IRS is going to audit me one of these days. Even though I have only filed simple tax returns for almost my whole life. There's nothing I do that should raise a red flag, but I still have saved every single tax document of my entire adult married life. Since 2002. This morning I have done something huge. I just took every tax document from 2002 to 2010, and threw it in a burn pile. Okay, so I haven't actually burned anything yet. I might publish this and then run and rescue everything, and put it all back neatly in the filing cabinet. But, I think I'm ready to say goodbye to all that rubbish. I think I'm going to be okay.    

I am going to get control of my life. I am not going to be perpetually surrounded by chaos. I might be surrounded by whimpering Labradors, and mountains of laundry, and sixth grade math homework, and VA nonsense, but I am going to stop giving into irrational fears, and throw away garbage if that is what it is. And, I'll hide underneath my headphones to block out the sound of the Labradors.