Ring Around the Binder

Once upon a simpler time, in days of yore so long long ago, I could count the number of passwords I had on one hand. And none of them was for Casual Uncluttering LLC. And most of them were probably my social security number. Because who knew? And ‘sides which, there were no computer hackers. Almost no computers really.

And I kept all my passwords on index cards in a little file box. And then one day the file box got too full, and the cards kept falling out, and the box was just a little too pointy and poked me one-too-many-times as I carried it around. I transferred those precious secrets to individual sheets in a three-ring binder. And then one day the three-ring binder got too full, and the sheets kept tearing out, and it isn’t a good thing to carry around in a backpack.

So here am I sitting on my bed, the largest space in my house to lay out all the sheets from a three-ring binder, transferring all the IDs and passwords and security questions and answers and alt IDs onto BIG index cards in a BIG file box. Yah, tell me about bad sleep habits. Worse sleep problems if I get locked out of my blighted QuickBooks account. And my IT hero Mahlon Otero is going to teach me about this magical app that stores all the same data online. My stalwart file box will sit on my desk. The wizard app will float on my phone. And I will hopefully never ever never get locked out of anything again or have to add five pounds of paper to my backpack.

I know someone reading this is grousing “OK, your point?” Your needs evolve over time. That’s not only OK, it’s human. The trick is to recognize the changes as they come and find the creativity and fearlessness in yourself to redesign, maybe even abandon and replace, your support systems. You might find index cards in a really pretty green. I did.