I want to rid my life of needless paper, what do I HAVE to keep?

December 7, 2006 11:05 AM

So my office is overrun with old bills, receipts, letters, etc and I'm sick of it. I want to scan what I can, keep what I must, and throw away the rest. What items should I store in their original paper format and what are ok to scan?
posted by jeff_w_welch to Home & Garden (4 answers total)

As a general rule, I scan the things I am allowed to submit in official contexts as copies, i.e. reciepts, bank statemetns, etc. Things that in official contexts must be submitted as originals, like birth certificates, transcripts, etc. I scan but keep *two* sets of originals in a safe. I pay for the extra original.

I do not keep old bills, unless it's for taxes or an expense report.

Note that card companies and banks will print you copies of old statements and bills at no charge, so there's not reason to keep the old ones around.

Also, everything like this that I throw out gets shredded first.
posted by Pastabagel at 11:09 AM on December 7, 2006

I really like Get A Financial Life which has a section "Know what to save and what to throw away." In fact, if you use that phrase with Amazon's search inside you should see her list of what to throw out now, throw out after 1 year, 2 years and what to save forever (page 45).

If that search inside working (it isn't for me) her "throw out now" list is old phone bills (unless you deduct them), supermarket receipts and old utility bills. Her 1 year list is canceled checks (except those you need for tax or insurance), store receipts, online order forms and credit card statements (same caveat as the checks but also keep receipts for the duration of warranties). After 3 years throw out bank statements.

"Note that card companies and banks will print you copies of old statements and bills at no charge, so there's not reason to keep the old ones around."

Not if you have a shitty bank like LaSalle Midwest that charges you something like $5 to $10 for each month of archival statements. If Google can index the web is it so much to ask that you give me free online access to my account history?
posted by revgeorge at 12:21 PM on December 7, 2006

In addition to being able to get an on-demand copy of a statement, many banks (Chase at least) are offering free access to many (7) years of statements if you choose paperless billing.
posted by Skorgu at 12:40 PM on December 7, 2006

I would encourage you, if you start scanning documents, to keep them in an encrypted folder - TrueCrypt is a free program for Windows and Linux.
posted by IndigoRain at 6:19 PM on December 7, 2006