With the boys away at school, I have two empty (or somewhat empty) rooms upstairs in which I could work. Instead I work in a corner of the dining room just outside the door to Maggie’ room. This way I can help the nurse or tend to Maggie if the nurse is not here. The dining room is our “everything” room. We do not have a hallway leading to Maggie’s room; you have to go through the dining room. The table is off center in the room so that her chair can easily fit. We eat every meal at the dining room table (when we are not in front of the television) because what was once the breakfast room has been converted to Maggie’s room.
All the office equipment is in one corner of the dining room, and the dining room table collects everything from important papers to junk mail. Because I use it as an office, it is often spread out with my projects, nursing papers, or any number of other things.
I am buried in paper in this room and there is no escape.
Periodically I organize it all and vow not to let it get like this again. Today is that day. First, I remove the junk. Junk mail, yesterday’s newspaper, printing jobs gone awry etc. go right in the bag. You can reduce every single pile of paper by at least 1/3 by keeping a recycle bag handy. Once the obvious junk was gone, I decided to go further. I was amazed at the amount of waste we generate, and most of it is not our fault.
We receive dozens and dozens of insurance statements every week. Every doctor visit, x-ray, medical supply delivery, oxygen fill hospitalization and everything else sets off a flurry of papers. We get bills we are instructed to ignore pending the insurance companies handling. Once the insurance company pays its portion, we get another set of papers telling us so and advising what we owe, if anything. I have papers verifying that the oxygen tank is filled, and that the supplies on my shelves have been delivered. I know that. I do not need a piece of paper telling me what I already know.
Everything goes through the insurance company, whether it is covered or not. The insurance company then sends a statement telling whether or not the claim has been honored. With each claim are two pages giving instructions on coverage disputes in three languages. Sometimes they save postage and put more than one claim in an envelope, but still each claim has these two extra sheets. One I just opened had 12 pages, four were claims and eight were garbage/recycle. That means for every paper I kept I threw away/recycled three others, counting the envelope. That is an incredible waste
Every time I get a prescription filled at Walgreens, I get three receipts and a set of instruction on using the drugs. I understand the necessity of this. However, do I really need a page of instructions for 13 medications every single time I refill them? Of course not.
How can I stop this madness? We used to have the recycle bin right next to the mailbox in the basement and a lot of stuff never even made it upstairs. That worked for a while but then we had to move the recycle bin to the backyard so that we could get Maggie’s chair though the basement to the backyard where the elevator takes her upstairs. I remember long ago reading about a man in Minnesota or somewhere cold that used all of his junk mail to heat his home all winter. I would happily send this stuff to him because he is a genius, but I would rather not get it at all.
Back to the piles. Unfortunately even after culling through the junk, I actually have to do something with the stuff that is left.
Do me a favor. Do not print this.
oh boy can i relate! we probably get fewer statements and bills but still the paper overwhelms me. reading this i was reminded that the dining room table is covered with them and I really do need to deal with that!
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