Hoarding...

I've spent a couple of hours this evening sorting out drawers full of papers and other stuff that for years has been clogging up the relatively small amount of storage space I have for my personal things.

Why do we do it? Why do we find it so hard to throw out old credit card statements, mobile phone bills, and receipts? Even when the things we bought on the credit card and to which the receipts relate are long gone into the landfill.

There is something about paperwork especially that I find incredibly hard to chuck out. I might just need to know what I spent £4.99 on in January 1999...and how will I ever know if I've shredded my credit card statements? What if I get a tax inspection? - they can go back 7 years so I'll need every salary slip, every tax voucher on dividends, every tax code notice and every bank and building society statement with even a penny of interest on it. And while I'm keeping them, I may as well keep the petrol receipts, the insurance policies, the reward card statements and the headhunter letters.

I now have a large pile of paper on the floor in front of me ready for shredding. No chance for me to be allergic to my past...it'll be in the recycling bin by tomorrow.