How many things have we put "away" over the years where we say either, "I'll put this where I can easily find it later" or "I'll put this in a safe place?" And how many times have we later said, "Now, where did I put that...?" Do the numbers of times come close to being equal?
Bill Adler, Jr. in his book Outwitting Clutter (Globe Pequot Press, 2002) has a great suggestion as to where you can store the location of the safe places and other important information. He suggests that you use your address book, either physical or electronic, because you are not likely to misplace your address book! He suggests putting the "safe place" locations under S, or perhaps list the specific items under the name of the item, such as the location of your will under W. He also proposes that you store passport numbers, driver's license numbers, your children's locker number and combination, credit card numbers and the specifics of the contents of your safe deposit box (including serial or certificate numbers) in your address book but make sure that you don't keep your PIN or passwords in the same location, particularly if you are using an electronic address book. Those numbers and words should never be listed in the same place as the account numbers and never in any device that is connected electronically to other devices, be it computer, PDA, cell phone, etc. People who know how to use the Internet for illegal purposes are very good at finding the information they need!
If you use a paper address book, you may need to add some pages to hold this additional information, but it would be well worth it to have all of this important information in one location.
Remember our goal of accomplishing three things before our next meeting on July 2 at 7:00. It can be anything, even counting coming to the next meeting or reading this or other blogs. We have to remember not to be hard on ourselves...the clutter didn't accumulate in one day, or even one week or one year, so it is not going to disappear that fast either! We should concentrate on changing some behaviors as much as we worry about the progress we make against the clutter. See you next month.
I do check the blog almost everyday. Thanks, Barbara. It really is helping.
ReplyDeleteI need to keep better track of my paperwork, and I started last week to organize it. I am making progress. So much progress that I was encouraged to request my annual FREE credit report. I did that this morning. It's something I was putting off. Fortunately no problems and no surprises.
I really like the idea of keeping track of all those numbers ... credit card, passport, etc. - in my address book. I have started adding them. I will also add the telephone number for the card company to report a lost or stolen card - it will all be in one place.
And as soon as I find that special something that I put in a SAFE place, I will also add the new SAFE place to my address book.
Fantastic Cathy! It is great to hear that you are making headway...a real inspiration for the rest of us! I hope to see you tomorrow night!
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