What a basement does for organization

The carpenters needed access to my basement so I emptied it out.  Into my horse trailer - full of boxes.   Into my garage -full of furniture.  And my living room?  Boxes.  I have been cleaning out so much paperwork I have filled my car twice with bags of paper to recycle.  One stuffed garbage can of shedded paper.  Why oh why did we not get rid of things as we went along.  I found my first house rental agreement from when I was 20. And self-indulgent teenage pep talk letters about boys. And my favorite paper from my favorite class in college.   Memories... yes.  Interesting.. kinda.  Did I need to haul these through five Seattle homes and one Florida home... until they finally ended up in my basement? I can never complain about how much the basement cost, because this job made me go through the paperwork, so it does not move with me to the retirement home.  Good lord.  The sad thing is (I am not done. There are more boxes of paper.)