Doing difficult things develops your character, so each month I try to do something that I hate. In January I watched an entire professional soccer game on television from start to finish without getting up from the sofa or reading a book while I watched. In February I went to Chuck-E-Cheese, ate two slices of their pepperoni pizza, then played Skee-Ball until I had won enough tickets to buy a plastic toy alligator. It took me two hours. In March I have to gather all of the papers I will need to file income taxes in April.

Fortunately, I know exactly where all of the tax papers are. Unfortunately, they are in a big folder with every other piece of paper I saved during 2006. It is my “To Be Filed Someday” folder. Two or three times a year I start to go through the folder but I never get very far. The last time I tried was in early November. I placed the giant folder on the sofa in the office and began sorting the papers into stacks on the sofa.

One stack was for credit card offers. I used to just throw them away without opening them, but then once I accidentally threw away a refund check from JC Penney’s for $7.68. It took me six months to get a replacement check. So now I open them all just to make sure there isn’t a check for one million dollars in one of them.

I had another stack for cell phone information. There are so many options that I am not sure if I have the best plan with T-Mobile, so I saved their invoices for the year. How close did I come to using up my minutes each month? Would it be cheaper to have fewer guaranteed minutes and just pay for extra minutes? Should I get unlimited text messages? Who called me from Michigan in August? I started developing a spreadsheet to figure this all out, but it is still a work in progress. But I keep saving my invoices in case I need them some day.

I also save coupons so when sorting through them, I throw away ones that have expired. There are at least a dozen 20% off certificates for Bed, Bath & Beyond, but we always forget to take them with us. I saved a postcard with a Victoria’s Secret model offering $10 off their underwear. It expired last summer, but I am saving it anyway. It will give me something to look forward to the next time I go through the folder.

I made another stack for wedding invitations. I play a game with myself, trying to guess whether we know the bride or the groom just by looking at the photo. There are three invitations and I guess two right but I am not sure who the third one is from even after reading the names. I should check with our neighbors. Maybe we got it by mistake. I placed that wedding invitation in the pile for Things to Ask Our Neighbors About.

Soon the sofa was completely filled with stacks and I had barely made a dent in the file. I took a deep breath and was about to look at the next piece of paper when I suddenly remembered that I hadn’t flossed in over a month, so I left my office to go into the bathroom. I can’t remember what happened after that but I never did return to the files. Three weeks later it was time to clean the house for Thanksgiving guests and the sofa was still covered with papers. So I scooped up all of the stacks on the sofa and put them back in the “To Be Filed Someday” folder. I will start over with it this month. As much as I would rather watch another soccer game while sitting at Chuck-E-Cheese, I have to at least find all of the tax stuff in the folder. I made sure to floss this week so I wouldn’t get distracted again.

David LeSueur lives in Littleton with his wife and one giant folder.