... but I (often) do so in order to lose it.
So I came across a five year old copy of a magazine. Big Deal. I have at least one full drawer of a filing cabinet filled with old copies of magazines, and of too many clipped and/or printed-out articles. I could probably write this same column about finding some of those, except that I'm not going to find them. They're not lost, or even misplaced. I know exactly where they are, and I hope that they stay right there, thank you. Admittedly, the basic idea behind a filing cabinet is to be able to file things to which you want to have access, but in my case it's simply to have them out of sight so that I won't have to think about devoting the time to actually going through them and deciding what to throw out. I know the answer, anyway: the vast majority can be thrown out without any tangible loss to myself or to the historical record. But please don't make me do it.
Go to: Reflections of a Spring Cleaner.