Life can get messy sometimes. There are minor things like October weddings and March cruises far more fascinating than sitting at a desk shredding and filing. As time goes on, the paperwork just stacks up. Two weeks ago, I decided to take the bull by the horns and get organized.
I started with the shredder, getting rid of all documents more than seven years old. It’s so freeing to watch financial papers turn into tiny bits of paper snow flakes. The shredder is a wonderful tool that can make fast work of all kinds of unwanted documents. No need to store box after box of paper when they are way past the expiration date of seven years.
Next, I emptied a wonderful file drawer in my desk. Again, emptying out all the unnecessary documents, I had a clean place to put my important documents.
A few weeks before, I had heard about a great product. The NOKBox. NOK stands for Next-of-Kin. This organization system is designed to ask questions about your home, cars, insurance, health, income, and end of life wishes. I decided on NOKBox Lite. Along with this, I needed a filing crate, fifteen hanging files, 67 file folders, paper, and a printer. Once the necessary items were at hand, I was ready to begin.
The “NOKBox” system came with detailed instructions that make failure impossible. Each section has a checklist detailing what you need. It’s up to you to find, print, and file. As simple as that.
As a retired teacher, organization has always been key to a happy life. It’s frustrating to spend hours looking for a certain document, key, or item. Much easier to have them at your fingertips. With great instructions, I began organizing my life. I’m almost done.
With each new question, I cleaned up details of my life. Many of my accounts were under my old name. I can assure you, Joy Hurt left the building many months ago. It was good to make sure HHH would have access to our accounts, should something happen to me.
Over the last nine months, I have called the utility companies on several occasions to change my name. In this day and age, you would think this would be easy. Nope.
“Oh Yes. Please send an original copy of your original identification along with certified copies of your marriage license. Then, we will forward this to our document specialist who will………” Shred the whole mess. I’m sure of that, because over nine months, the name remained unchanged on three accounts after multiple contacts.
With the NOKBox and new-found patience, I do believe my name is changed on everything. One of the most difficult things associated with getting married in 2023.
The NOKBox took a jumble of paperwork and put it all in a space no bigger than a bankers box of current information. As I went through, I realized I might need to rethink my car insurance, as it’s gotten quite high. It made me reexamine my bank accounts, choosing which ones needed to be closed. With every question, I became more organized, which is a great feeling.
A nice thing about retirement is that the retiree (me) finally has time to do these sorts of things. With everything in order, there’s no need to stress about the “What If’s??” of life, because all the information is organized and ready to go.
Whatever you do today, organize a drawer. When you start, plan to get ride of five things in the drawer. Once you start, you may get rid of ten things. Then, keep going. WE all carry so much extra baggage. Get going! It’s time to purge.
More tomorrow.