When in Doubt, Throw It Out

Today our department scheduled five hours to clean up our workspace. That seemed ridiculously long, but I had no idea what we were getting into [forgive me for ending in a preposition; I'm tired]. I found such items as antacids in the filing cabinet nobody's used for over a year, Highroads issues (our member magazine) from 2000, and procedure notes for processes we no longer use. That last one really floored me. Why would you send training notes to the warehouse? If it's a current process, you should keep them WITH you. If it's not a current process, trash them. When was the last time you were at work and thought, "Man, I wish I had a copy of those instructions from ten years ago so that I can see how much better we do things now." If there's anything I have learned from being my dad's executor, it's "When in doubt, throw it out." If you don't, it just means someone else ( = me) will have to do it.