The Drawer of Important Papers

This past hour has taught me that we seriously need a new filing system for our documents. I’m usually quite good at organizing our lives, but somehow, over the years, things merge, overlap and then move on, and our documents get stashed in manila envelopes, lost in the “Drawer or Important Papers”.

This morning I was supposed to find Ayzah’s birth certificate. And what should have been a 2 minute trip to the “Drawer” turned out to be an hour long fiasco. The problem started when Omair and I got married. I moved my “Drawer of Important Papers” into his. And thus began a sea of paperwork that needed a filing system. Initially it was easy to keep track of paperwork. I had my transcripts, degrees, certificates, previous employment contracts, etc. and he had his. We had two separate folders of our own personal stuff, and one mutual folder of the new “us” stuff… marriage licence, tenancy contract, joint account statements. Everything seemed to be under control.

Then popped in Iman. AND STILL we thought it would be simple. She was just an addition to the “us” papers. Birth certificate, hospital records, the Pakistani Form B, Overseas ID card, etc. Simple it may still seem. But then she started school. Entrance letter, Original receipts, teacher evaluations, nursery completion certificate, all being stashed with the “us” stuff. So I felt she needed her own folder all together, after all, it wasn’t getting any simpler!

Along came Ayzah, and her birth certificate, hospital records, and all that jazz. All of a sudden, the “Drawer of Important Papers” was becoming the sea of documents that had no lead or end. Iman had a new folder of school related stuff. I had my old transcripts, Omair had his. We had joint paperwork, and kid’s paperwork. And now it’s just a merger of too much stuff. And amidst all this chaos, we lost Ayzah’s birth certificate. Now this is a HUGE calamity, because parents aren’t allowed to lose the proof of their child’s existence.

Luckily we found the birth certificate, but it took us a long time, and a realization that we need a new filing system.