File under: Carol is…a year older

One of the admirable things about The Wife is that she has this filing system for papers. Sometimes she can even find things in it; OK, I jest, because usually, she can. But her categories are not my categories, so I can almost NEVER find anything in her system.

She keeps receipts of almost everything she buys. If she needs it, she’ll pull out the folder for the year that purchased the item. This is of absolutely no use to me because, unless it was very recent, I can’t REMEMBER what year we bought something. Was it 2010 or 2009?  Occasionally she can’t remember either.

Moreover, I get impatient wading through a year’s worth of random receipts. MY system, when I was single – still used for things that are mine, rather than hers or ours – is by type of items – appliances, pharmacy, food, and the like. She’s willing to rifle through her files, but I find it too arcane.

I do see one advantage of her system, though. When the contents of a folder are eight years old, she can toss it; not that she does, necessarily, but she could.

With my folders, I put the tabs in the back, while she puts them in the front, something that, for some reason, totally flummoxes me when looking in her files.

It’s usually the little stuff that drives people crazy. As long as I don’t actually have to FIND something in her files, it’s all good.

Happy birthday, honey.

Author: Roger

I'm a librarian. I hear music, even when it's not being played. I used to work at a comic book store, and it still informs my life. I won once on JEOPARDY! - ditto. View all posts by Roger