Doesn’t everyone store valuables in the trash?
“Where’s my check?”
That’s what Mom greeted me with on her first evening in town.
Okay. That might seem abrupt, curt — not very motherly. But my mother knows her oldest child.
You see I was her representative on Monday in the the closing for her house in Madison. The Florida bank had wired the money here and there was a sizable check due her when the closing figuring was all done.
Five figures.
I told this to a friend the other day. “She thought you had already spent it?” she asked.
No. I’m not going to be dishonest.
I just lose things. Or destroy things. By accident.
Take the time I threw away $10, 365.
It happens.
Saved from the trash can.
Then I lost my ring. Twice. (I lost it again but never wrote about that.)
The second time my husband found it in the side yard lying in the grass.
I put it here till I could take it down to get it re-sized. Which I did. Surprising I know.
See. These things always turn up.
Then there was the little matter of the Power of Attorney my mother mailed to us to use at the closing.
I found that too.
In the trash can.
You don’t store all your important documents under the used coffee grounds?
So mom got her check from the closing. Nice and purty.
It’s now resting comfortably in some bank account. Though I think it would have been just has safe in our trash can.
Well, till Friday.
When the city takes our checks and rings and other valuables left in the plastic receptacles on the curb to the dump.
How to you keep track of important papers?
Not that I need any help.
All of my documents sit in a pile on my desk until I get a chance to get around to them, which is usually never, then eventually they get circular filed when I get around to cleaning up. Never threw away any checks though.
Probably from years working at the bank (and practicing CYA), I deal with all paperwork immediately, then scan (new toy) and file. If it goes on hold then I write myself a tickler task in Outlook, but the paper finds a home first.
Hubby likes to live with stacks, but I do not. Just guess who asks who when something is needed or goes missing…
Maybe I’m so bad right now because we are living in such a small cluttered space while our house is being worked on. I try to put reservations and important stuff I need to retrieve later in a zippered file with many pockets. Checks, I don’t know. The $10,000 I never opened it. Thought it was junk mail and threw it away before I opened it. I need to put $ in a special place.
It’s genetic, brain-wiring I’m sure. Whatever the organization link is mine is random at best. Problem is that my husband and I are both that way — though he is a little bit better than me. And I have gotten better with age. Until this remodel (and turned 50.) Oy vey.
See, this is why I’m glad I rarely clean up or throw anything away. Then the problem becomes finding things… my husband is a stacker and I’ve drifted his way over the years. Yeah, that’s it.
I’m very guilty of stacking Julia. That’s where my checks go. In the stacks. So I can always find them.
Good memories.
Oh, my – so did your mom have to take that piece of paper to the closing? While pretending not to notice it’s condition.?!
I’ve become a major stacker. (It is less depressing to see a large stack of bills than to actually have to read how much we owe by opening the bill(s).) I need ShellTri up there to come over to my house and scan and file and tell me how to get blood from a turnip.
That was the piece of paper that said that she agreed for me to act in her stead. And yes. It’s now in the file at Lambert, Reitman and Abney.
Lol! Thanks for the story and chuckle this morning. Why yes, I think the trash is a perfect place to store important papers and valuables. 😉
Take care,
KC
I like to use my Important Stuff Pile. It’s really big and has expanded to actually be several piles, but if it’s important, it’s in there. Somewhere. Just give me an hour or two to find it!