Bank Statements, Utility Bills, Important Documents-Birth Certificates

Hello Onredbull

Funny Ive just been doing my filing tonite!

Well I dont have room for a filing cabinet either in my house, I have those Filing Boxes - you can buy them from Argos and they are either A4 or foolscap size and usually fireproof ones. These fit in the bottom of my wardrobe at least!.

I keep bank statements, utilities bills, car stuff, mortgage, tax stuff, c.tax, insurances etc.

I have kept all my bank statements, payslips, tax stuff. As far as utilities go, I prob keep about 3 years back.

I hope that helps. good luck with your sorting!

From a legal standpoint, I've always believed you need to keep records for six years, but that could be urban myth:rotfl:

I tend not to bother too much with bank statements (these are easy to replace) but am more meticulous with wage slips, tax statements etc. Utilities are kept for interest and comparison, not for any other purpose.

Most things can be accessed via computer records. Just one tip, we always file the receipts for consumerables by stapling the receipt into the instruction booklet. Never lost one yet:D

I decided one day to have a sort out, and discovered that I had so much useless paper work that I had to be ruthless. Every January 1st, I bin from the previous year so every month I have exactly one years previous bills I never keep more than one year of bank statements .Whats the point. I am also pretty ruthless about receipts as well.
Once the years guarantee is up then they are binned .I found at one point I had guarantees for things that I no longer owned any more. It was becoming a fire hazard in my spare room. You really have to think along the same lines as clothes .If you havn't worn them or even seen them for a year then you are not going to in the coming year so bin them.
It's hard at first but it does get easier .
Legal papers like birth certs ect can all be stored in an A4 file with loose clear plastic envelopes that you can find things quickly with.Label one file Legal certs ,One file Bank accounts, and one file guarantees.
Utility bills are only kept for one year.Nowdays bills are on computers and it's highly unlikely that a gas company is going to say right out of the blue that you owe them any money. They are all too efficient at collecting their dues on time
It makes you feel so much better when things are sorted out.
Photographs I find are more of a problem to me as being the wrong side of 60 I have quite a lot of them.Plus of course one of my hobbies is genealogy so I do tend to hoard them a bit. But I separated my childrens photos out between them and put them in order from when they were babies until grown up ,also my grandchildrens as well. It makes a special gift for them at Christmas .Every year as the granchildren grow I add to their albums and when they get to around 16 they will get their own record of growing up from their Granny. My two daughters have aready had theirs and it's one less distressing job that they will one day have to go through when I shuffle off this mortal coil.
I still have a lot of family history stuff that I have collected over the years but most of it is on discs from my computer .
My main problem at the moment is books and records ,but I am working my way through it .My books that I am going through are ones that I have spotted in junk shops or charity shops and as yet have not read.But I decided that this year I would not go to the library until I had read every book that I owned .I have a big plastic box in my spare room that I drop them into as I have read them and when it's filled up I take it to the local second-hand book store where they will buy them (or rather I drive there and my youngest DD takes them in, as she knows that if I go in I would end up buying more !!)
Eventually I shall be free of my hundreds of books that I have bought over the years with the intention of reading at some point.My problem is finding the time for all this reading as I have so many hobbies .
records are a different matter though I am still trying to think of a reasonable way of disposing of my record collection .I did colect for over 50 years and I think that I shall probably be doing a record fair at some point this year as they are just taking up space.failing that possibly a boot fair as this seems an excellent way of getting rid of things .

Just another tip I use that has proved invaluable, but might be considered OT. When your children have illnesses,operations etc, write it with the date on the back of their birth certificate, this is something you never (seldom!) lose! And it saves hours of frustration when filling in forms in later years!!!

Yes i agree with mikeywills on keeping a record of telephone numbers, account nos, etc

In the case of putting everything on computer - I am often worried as computers break down you lose everything (unless you are very strict in backing up) and its so annoying when you want to access your stuff online and there's no server!!!!! and how many times have you phoned companies and they say "sorry our computers are down at the moment, we cant access your details" call back later! - at least you can always open good old hard copies!

also if you do have a break in - arent laptops and electrical the first stuff they grab to sell?

whichever option you go for, it is best as mikeywills says to have a "back up plan"!