The non-stop stream of paper we get into our homes on a daily basis can be almost unmanageable. From bills to receipts, warranties and junk mail, we all need a system to toss what we don’t need, manage what we might need and be able to retrieve something when necessary.
First of all reduce the amount of paper that arrives in the mail. Immediately toss the junk mail addressed to occupant, flyers, pizza menus and charity requests (if you have no interest in donating). Consider eliminating (or reducing) the number of magazines and catalogues you receive, especially if you have no time to peruse them right away and they are stacked in a pile for “later.”
Have a good system for filing your bills, statements, important notices, invitations and personal letters and pick a regular date to deal with them.
How Long Do You Keep Important Documents?
Yes, you will have to keep important paperwork. For how long depends on what it is.
1 month:
- ATM receipts once you’ve confirmed the transaction on your bank statement.
- Receipts for general purchases. You can toss sooner if you are sure you won’t be returning the item.
1 year:
- Bank statements. Be sure to reconcile them on receipt and deal with any errors immediately.
- Credit card statements. Again, confirm the statement is accurate and make sure any returns are noted.
- Monthly or quarterly loan, mortgage and investment statements once you receive your annual statement summary.
- Utility bills.
- Pay stubs. Check the final amount to your T4 for accuracy.
- Property insurance policies – keep until renewed or changed.
7 years:
- Tax returns. Save all documentation (receipts, T-forms) that back up the information on your tax return in case of audit.
Until you sell or no longer own:
- Warrantees, receipts and instruction manuals for appliances, electronics, furniture and other large or expensive items. The receipts will come in handy for insurance claims. Periodically cull through these files to remove paperwork for items you no longer own.
- Home improvement bills. You can use some for various government rebate programs. They are handy when you sell your home if the buyer wants confirmation that the furnace really is brand new.
- Transaction receipts and confirmations for your investment purchases to calculate capital gains (losses).
- Car title and bill of sale and repair/maintenance paperwork.
- Home documents including title and copy of mortgage,
Forever:
- Birth and death certificates, baptism and confirmation certificates, marriage certificates, divorce decrees, adoption papers, military service records and discharge papers.
- Wills and medical directives, social insurance cards, citizenship records, licenses to practice your profession, trust and power of attorney paperwork, legal case paperwork and contracts.
- Burial plot deeds.
- Life insurance policy paperwork.
- Pension and retirement benefits agreements.
If the documents are irreplaceable store them in a safety deposit box (keep copies in your files). A copy of your will, power of attorney, or medical directives should be with your lawyer, executor and/or trusted friend or family member.
Destroy old and unneeded paperwork by shredding.
Paperless Filing
You can get rid of all your paper files by scanning them into your computer. If you are buying a new scanner get one with automatic paper feed such as the Fujitsu ScanSnap. It scans 10 pages at once (both sides) and automatically rotates images if they are slanted or up side down. It recognizes English words so you can easily search for relevant documents later by typing in key words.
Once a month or so scan all the pages you want to save such as bills and receipts. Create subject folders and files. Back up your data regularly. You can access your files easily with off premise servers such as CrashPlan.com that automatically save your data.
No more paper clutter!
I always find references like this very handy because I have a problem of keeping too much paper around. I went through my filing cabinet and purged a lot of stuff recently.
I also stopped keeping all my receipts and started trashing them or refusing them at the cash much more often. Errors on my credit card statement happen so rarely, it just isn’t worth keeping them.
Thanks for the handy list!
Nice work here. I haven’t been doing taxes long enough to store it for 7 years, but I plan on keeping them forever (or at least a lot longer than 7 years). My parents still have their returns from the early 90s.
Same goes for my bank statements, I’ve had a bank account like 5 years ago, I still have the statements from there. But over the past year or so, all my statements have been electronic.
And as for general receipts, I am not someone that returns items even if I don’t need it (I have a lot of stuff around here that I don’t need), so I usually don’t hang on to that receipt for very long.
I’ll admit that I’m horrible with filing and my bills, statements & receipts are all over the dining room table, counter top, study table – it’s quite an embarassing sight. I sometimes wonder why I keep letting the bills come to the house, when I’m tracking & paying everything online?
Once every six months (plus or minus), I’ll sit down for 3 straight hours and get it all sorted out. Until the next round I guess.. lol
To reduce my paper clutter, I have turned to online banking and requested utility bills to be sent via email.
Because of the number of stocks I own, I’ve had to start making adjustments to the volume of annual reports and investment-related material arriving at my doorstep.
I’ve noticed a decrease but I still have to work on it some more. Paper clutter can become overwhelming at times and it doesn’t take long for things to add up if you’re not organized.
I tend to deal with my mail every day; that way, things are always organized and I’m on top of everything.
Now that I’m on vacation, I’m not looking forward to the stack of mail that I’ll have to sift through in a few weeks’ time!
Nice post!
I do seem to struggle personally with paper clutter, I mean I have a box that still has papers and homework from when I was in high school! Granted that was about 6 years ago for me but still! I guess I am one of those that struggle with throwing things out, though I’ve been getting better at it. One thing for sure though I do chuck out immediately all the junk that comes via the mail.
-Jean