I have become an almost compulsive thrower-out. Having spent the last year getting rid of the domestic clutter, I have moved on to the Office. All kitchen work surfaces are now clear. My office is fit for the dispensing of ghostly counsel. But the filing … I don’t do filing well – was caught once having filed the Medical Cards under ‘H’. It’s obvious, isn’t it? Well, I thought so. There are four filing cabinets full of the energy and outpourings of my predecessors – may they golf in peace. It’s fatal to file as you go – you never get there. I have decided that the secret is to throw out all ‘third party’ records – files to do with groups and committees which are nothing to do with the diocese. Then you archive in the room off the kitchen anything which is more than about two years old. Then you invent a system of dazzling logic to deal with what’s left – muttering all the time John Truscott’s mantra, ‘It is not a filing system – it is a retrieval system’ So you file ‘Services’ under ‘W’. It’s obvious, isn’t it?
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They “the declutter your life boffins”, proclaim that if you havent used it in the last 6 months then you dont need it. Hmmmmm how many times have we thrown out something that has been around for donkeys years only to have someone ask – usually after the bins have been emptied, “you dont by any chance have a…….” ???
People normally use the excuse of moving house to have a good clear out but im presuming that didnt happen in your case David.
As for filing medical cards under H… very sensible I would say. H = Health H = Hospital H = Here’s where I put them 🙂
Good morning David, my wifes seems to suffer from the same sort of filing problems you have, but her filing of names in our telephone book is her main problem. The children and I have to stop each time we need a numbers, and ponder what Mum might have filled it under!!!
Paul