The Paper Solution

 

🧾 Confetti & Clarity: 

A Summer of Paper Decluttering

Weeds, Wildfires, and the Weight of 30 Years of Paper

Greetings, friends—after a long summer spent battling paper and weeds,

This season can be summed up with two dominant forces:

🌿 Weeds—which exploded across our property thanks to some much-needed rain (a blessing, since it helped keep wildfire threats at bay),

and

📦 Boxes of Paper—which I slowly, methodically, and emotionally worked my way through.

🗃️ One Box at a Time (Mostly)

Most days, I made it a goal to pull one box a day from our attic.

Some days I succeeded.

Other days, life had other plans.

But even at a slow and steady pace, the progress was real—and today, September 4, 2021, I’m looking at only a few boxes left.

That’s a win I’ll proudly take.

📜 A Life on Paper

What I found in those boxes was… staggering.

• Pay stubs from my very first jobs
• School papers from decades ago
• A full record of life’s big and small moments:
  
• Marriage
• Kids
• Adoptions
• Medical struggles
• All. The. Things.
• 
  

It was like my entire little life, told in ink and paper.

Layer after layer—year after year—documenting both joy and heartbreak.

🧺 The Shredder Chronicles

Of course, this meant many, many black garbage bags of shredded confetti.

My husband got in on the fun, too—his job was to compress those exploding paper bags into our garbage bin every two weeks. There were plenty of laughs. And quite honestly, I’m surprised none of our neighbors ever asked what was going on.

Let’s just say… our driveway was festive. 😄

📚 Finding Guidance (Even If Belated)

Though I’m nearing the end of this paper purge, I’ve started listening to “The Paper Solution” by Lisa Woodruff—and even if it feels a little late in the game, it’s already giving me tools to sort through the remaining papers that left me unsure.

(Yes, you read that right—I still have our tax records from 1998.)

Her framework is helping me narrow things down, and I hope it will give me the clarity to finish this once and for all.

🎯 Looking Ahead: Course Round Two

In about two weeks, I’ll be starting my second round of Joshua Becker’s course.

This time, my intention is to go even deeper—to strip things down to the bones of what I truly want in our home before we move.

Because that’s the real goal here:

A home that feels like peace, not storage.

A space that supports who we are now, not just who we used to be.

💙 How About You?

Wherever you are in your journey—if you’re laughing over exploding shredders or sorting sentimental school art—I hope you know you’re not alone.

Minimalism isn’t always clean lines and empty closets.

Sometimes it’s colorful confetti in the driveway, quiet reflections in the attic, and rediscovering yourself one memory at a time.

Hugs,

Anke