The "Happy File"

Today I spent almost the entire day cleaning out my filing box. I went in it in the first place to find some of my lease paperwork because of an argument I'm having with my building manager. I found what I was looking for, but I also got frustrated looking at how disorganized the box had become, so I figured I'd pull it out of the bottom of the closet and go through it.

This photo is POST clean-out. It was full when I started.

I'm not the kind of person that hordes things. In fact, I regularly purge my closets and drawers for things I no longer use. But for some reason this box had escaped my attention for a while, and every time I had something new to file, I just sort of shoved it in and figured I'd get around to reorganizing another day. Today, the time had finally come so I dug in, and boy did I find some....well, interesting stuff.

Here are some of the random crazy things I saved for some reason.

• Reboot discs from a laptop computer that hasn't worked since some time in 2000--and that I no longer have in my possession. Maybe the fact that it was still running Windows 95 was part of the problem.
• An article on travel tips circa 19993. I think travel has become a little more sophisticated since then and I'm a sophisticated enough traveler not to need the article.
• A couple of old drivers licenses featuring photos of me with REALLY BAD hair.
• Maps of random places like Cary, NC. Clearly these are left over from the days before handheld GPS technology.
• Instructions for assembling the Ikea "Morgondal" bed I bought in 1996. Since I've moved 4 times since I bought it, I think I've got the reassembly down without using the instructions.
• Tax returns dating back to 1989. That means I have copies of every tax return since I was making enough money to file a tax return.  Just in case you're curious, I was living LARGE in 1989 -- my adjusted gross income was $641. SWEET!
• An article about having a paper trail ready in preparation for Y2K. Yes, I know that was almost 12 years ago...

 But there is one thing I was glad I saved in that box -- my Happy File.

Back when I got my first "real" job out of college working for the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, my first boss gave me some really fantastic advice I've followed to this day. She reminded me that bad days, problems and outright failures are part of work life. The trick she used to get her through those tough times was keeping a file of things that brought back good memories. Whenever she was having a tough day, she would flip through it to remind herself that bad times don't last forever and there are plenty of good times in the midst of the bad.

In fact, one of my happy file items is a photo of Gay and I, hanging out in a tent on the roof of a building overnight as part of a fundraiser we did once. I smiled instantly looking at that picture, which is exactly the point of a Happy File.

So while I did purge a lot of outright junk, I found some great things still worth saving. My next task is getting them converted to a digital format, but that is a project for another day.

For now, I'm sitting down for a visit with my Happy File and remembering happier times.

What is in YOUR Happy File?