There are so many records that are going digital, but there is still a lot of paper clutter. Knowing what are the most important papers to keep is a difficult decision for many people because of the hassles potentially involved if you throw away the wrong thing. Furthermore, many of your older documents may have predated electronic formats and still only exist in physical form, which means you need to find a long-term, if not permanent, storage location in your home.
Here’s what documents can safely be disposed of right now, how long to keep other things, and all the rest that you need to keep forever. Hopefully you will be able to throw away some paper clutter today with no regrets or fear that you’re making a mistake.
Papers to keep forever
Find a safe yet easily reachable location for these documents to be stored, because they need to stay with you for the rest of your life. Take the items to which you won’t need constant access to a safe deposit box at your local bank, so that if you are robbed or your home is damaged, your vital files will still be safe. Safe deposit boxes usually cost only about $20-30 annually, and have the advantage of being kept securely in a place that is probably much more theft-proof, natural disaster-proof, and damage-proof than your own home. Here’s what you need to keep with you or near you forever:
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Items in bold are strongly recommended to be stored in a safe deposit box.
Papers to keep for a limited time
Most documents on this list are only useful for you to keep for the duration of the life of the item they refer to. When the underlying item or the document expires, safely dispose of the documents to avoid paper clutter taking over your life and overwhelming you.
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As you can see, there are plenty of papers that it is truly necessary to hold onto. Paper clutter is an annoying but unavoidable aspect of life, but you can reduce the stress of thinking about all that paper by dealing with the situation today. Sit down and go through your papers and set aside everything you will absolutely need to keep. If you haven’t signed up for a safe deposit box yet, go get one. Find a seldom-used area of your house, and some sort of paper storage unit to keep your vital documents until then.
We will discuss paper storage techniques in a later post, but hanging files, folders, or binders should do well for you until then. For more suggestions on where and how exactly you should store each file, check out this family records article. And if you really don’t want to rent a safe deposit box, you might want to look at this article about getting your own home vault.
