Mail, mail mail. So much mail. While the transition to digital caused a lot of spam to pop up in our inboxes, computers also offered the ability to automate the identification an elimination of much of the spam we might receive. However imperfect those spam filters are, they are certainly a valuable tool simply because we don’t have to deal with all of the junk that comes in on a case by case basis. I’m willing to lose the occasional email to embrace that feature. The same automate process does not exist for your average physical mailbox. That wonderful system that brings you physical goods and handwritten letters also delivers a lot of items that you didn’t want in the first place — and they’ll clutter up your home.
After years of accumulating physical junk and storing it in boxes (as much of it needed to be securely disposed of) it was time to get rid of it… but how? We possess a modest shredder that I put on our wedding registry years ago. At the time I worked at a bank, and some of my wonderful coworkers chipped in and purchased it for me. It has seen some use over the years, but I doubted that it could stand up to boxes upon boxes of paper junk. We were going to find out though.
As soon as I started unearthing the mounds of paper and putting them through the shredder our son showed up to “help.” The system that I had for separating the parts that needed to be shredded from the parts that didn’t quickly fell apart. I soon found out that I could hand pieces of paper to my son and carefully help him place them into the shredder. He found this wonderful fun. The first piece he put through concluded with him saying “yay!” followed by a round of clapping. Perhaps a new job for the children in the future? Shred the junk mail?