Paperwork everywhere at parents' house

stebiz

I know this sounds a bit OCD but all my bills/papers/letters/appointments are all scanned. I then email them to myself and save a copy on CLOUD.

So if I needed a gas bill from say Sept 2010 I could find it within minutes.

paulineb_2

I wouldnt say Im the most organised person on earth (and then some). I have too much stuff, accumulated over the years and I have a big electrical cupboard where the too much stuff ends up, but Ive started clearing it. Im charity shopping stuff including stuff thats not saleable, for recycling, selling on ebay, binning anything thats only fit for the bin.

As for the really important stuff, I know where my birth certificate is, passport, savings plans info, anything to do with my business, all the paperwork. Its the assorted bits and pieces of crap that have ended up being shoved in drawers over the years that need to go.

Also, I dont have a recycle bin, because I live in a flat, theres one in the housing estate I live in, a big communal bin and its a bit of a walk, I do recycle stuff, but if I had bins like my mum has for food waste, paper, plastic etc, it would make life easier.

Its very easy to build up, even in a short space of time, piles of paperwork that lie about.

My mum has quite a lot of clutter, that shes sorting out as well, she ended up with a lot of my uncles books when he died (shes not getting rid of them), stuff from my grans house and she also works full time and its easily done that one person can accumulate tons of papers that they dont really need.

Im also sure that some people live their life being absolutely organised and very minimal. If anything happened to my mum, Id deal with whatever needed to be dealt with. Her house isnt in such a state of clutter Id need to worry about it, its lived in. But for both of us right now we are both just sorting through stuff that ends up shoved away in a cupboard, if youve got stuff thats just there, you arent using it anyway and you dont really need it.

I would never tell her not to have letters lying about or to organise her life better just so that if anything happened to her Id have less work to do.

Unless someone is an obsessive or compulsive hoarder or you have real concerns that these letters are to do with debt that they arent addressing, I would agree, that it really isnt anything that you should be concerning yourself with and raising it could just cause offence.

Everyone has different standards. Some people might think I live in absolute chaos (I personally dont think I do), but compared to some peoples homes, Im reasonably organised.

Unless you have real concerns about them, leave it be.

StumpyPumpy

stebiz wrote: »

I know this sounds a bit OCD but all my bills/papers/letters/appointments are all scanned. I then email them to myself and save a copy on CLOUD.

So if I needed a gas bill from say Sept 2010 I could find it within minutes.

An interesting, personal archive maybe, but unfortunately, not valid in any official sense as you need to be able to provide originals in any dispute. It would probably be quicker just to type the info you want to keep into a spreadsheet - would take up less space and be much easier to search to find things or to do data mining. Of course you may do both which is definitely CDO (just like OCD but in alphabetical order like it should be) :rotfl:

SP

stebiz

StumpyPumpy wrote: »

An interesting, personal archive maybe, but unfortunately, not valid in any official sense as you need to be able to provide originals in any dispute. It would probably be quicker just to type the info you want to keep into a spreadsheet - would take up less space and be much easier to search to find things or to do data mining. Of course you may do both which is definitely CDO (just like OCD but in alphabetical order like it should be) :rotfl:

SP

It's no real different to what banks do when they microfiche statements etc. They are legal and they are accepted in court.

StumpyPumpy

stebiz wrote: »

It's no real different to what banks do when they microfiche statements etc. They are legal and they are accepted in court.

No, they are not the same at all. The Banks are authorised to keep records in this way and do it in a secure and approved manner. You, I assume, do not get your scans notarised in a similar way. I can show you a scanned gas bill from any date you wish, but then, I am rather good with Photoshop, even if I say so myself. Personal digital copy keeping is far removed from corporate digital copy keeping.

SP

stebiz

StumpyPumpy wrote: »

No, they are not the same at all. The Banks are authorised to keep records in this way and do it in a secure and approved manner.
SP

Authorised by whom? I've spent half my life in a court room with photocopies and scans. They are fine. Much in the same way court rooms accept photos and moving images. They all can be doctored very easily.

fluffymuffy

Last year I got a wad of money refunded by the Nat West for the overcharging they made on a mortgage I'd paid off over 6 years earlier [thanks Martin]. I didn't need any documents - just the account number and date of their closing statement. I did have the original (why do I keep things? - because you never know!) - but they never needed to see it.

fluffymuffy

Dunroamin wrote: »

Everybody's suggested that you don't - why post for advice and then ignore what people say?

Maybe you missed the posts with different views form your own?

Any

Abbafan1972 wrote: »

Thanks for your replies.

I'm not saying I'm going to go steaming in and sort it all out! I think it's been like this for a long time, there's letters on the mantle in the back room, I didn't realise it was so bad, it was because we were looking for this blessed game!

Thanks for the comment about them looking after my children. It's half term and I have to work (only 3 days). It's a mutual agreement with them and they want to do it. If they didn't want to do it, then I would make other arrangements. But to be honest I shouldn't have to justify myself to you.

FYI, I don't interfere in my Mom's life, but she does interfere in mine a great deal.

We are away this weekend, so I will mention about it when we come back. If she wants my help to sort it all out, then I will, but if not, then I will leave it.

From what I could see the letters were opened, so I don't think there's a problem with keeping up payments.

Neither do your parents to you.
If you tried to come to my house and even gently suggest that you don't like how tidy or clean I keep it, I would tell you quite frankly exactly where your place is.
How egoistic and aplomb you sound...
Do you really don't see that? How inapropriate this is?

stebiz

Any wrote: »

Neither do your parents to you.
If you tried to come to my house and even gently suggest that you don't like how tidy or clean I keep it, I would tell you quite frankly exactly where your place is.
How egoistic and aplomb you sound...
Do you really don't see that? How inapropriate this is?

It really depends on how she approached it. If she offered to help organise her Mum/Dad's bills they may well actually appreciate it.