Ratcliffe-Lee Filing System

If you’ve been to our house, you’ve seen ‘em before. Stacks of white storage boxes, in nearly every room. We had tried closets, bins, actual filing cabinets, and shelves, but nothing seems to work as well as those boxes. Sort of. You pop one open, put stuff in it, write a vague label on the outside, and stack. And you’re never afraid to keep on stacking, because odds are we’ll never look in those boxes again.

Until now.

I removed three boxes to get one that I thought I needed. I’m looking for some of Alex’s paperwork from a few years ago, and after searching his desk, thought the box marked “Alex’s HS Papers” would give me something. I dove in.

As you can see, it was a little difficult. I pulled out magazines, a binder, unopened letters, and no-I-wasn’t-snacking-while-sorting. I PULLED OUT THAT PLATE OF HALF-EATEN PECAN DANISH. It had been “filed” in between an October 2005 issue of TIME magazine and a poster of his name that he bought from Chinese peddlers in Italy.

So by filing, we mean sweeping everything (EVERYTHING) off of a desk and dumping it into a box, writing a vague label on the outside, and stacking.

I still haven’t found what I’m looking for, but I’m afraid to look any further. I’ll have to go through the box simply labeled “H.S. Papers,” which means I could find ANYONE’S danish dish, not just Alex’s.