When to shred

[Calliope]

Does anyone a good link or list of when it is safe to shred documents? I save literally every bill, pay stub and statement that comes through the mail. This morning, I filed this HUGE pile of mail in our bedroom and you know what I found under it? Our really nice desk! :shifty I would like to keep seeing it, so I need to shred some documents to make room in the file box.

[swimming with sharks]

Credit cards, paycheck stubs, bank statements, and investment stuff all gets saved. At the end of the year I put it in a Manilla envelope with what it is and what year it's from and then store in a big rubbermaid bin. Stuff like telephone bills, gas bills, car insurance bills, I keep for a year and then shred. I mean are they really going to come back and say I didn't pay Sprint 67.42 in March of 03. Normally stuff like that is caught the next month and then you still have the previous bill, info you wrote on it (I always write the date, check #, or conf code if I pay online). :shifty Hope that helps.

[klpmommy]

I'm keeping last year's stuff & this year's. I am shredding everything except tax related stuff from previous years.

[KatieMae]

First, I look at it like this: when the information is repeated, toss the original. Example: DH's paystubs come every other week, but then we get a year-end summary, the W-2. You don't need to save paystubs from 2007 if you have a copy of your W-2 from that year b/c it's redundant. Bank statements - For savings, again, I only keep them to show how much interest we've earned, so at the year's end we get a 1099 with that total, so the monthly statements can go away. For checking, I keep a year's worth in case we need them, but only 12 months - when the new one comes in, the oldest one goes into the trash. The same goes for any utility bill stubs b/c DH likes to compare this month vs. what we used/spent a year ago in the same month (especially on the gas & electric bill) but one-in-one-out still applies. I can't think of other examples. Oh, you only need to keep your *current* car insurance policy statement - I always tended to keep those even though they expire every 6 months - I will NEVER need old copies of those. I would only hang onto it if I actually filed a claim during that timeframe.

Anyway, you wanted a resource, not examples, sorry. I read a very good summary in "Let Go of Clutter" by Harriet Schechter (http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Let-Go-of-Clutter/Harriet-Schechter/e/9780071351225/?itm=1)

[AmyDoll]

If it's tax related: 7 years (in case of audit)

If it's a bill - 1 year (when u get Jun 08's phone bill - u can compare it & throw out Jun 07)
Keep Warranties & receipts that match the warranties - throw out the rest :)
Keep car repair bills for the life of the car
Keep current insurance policies
Throw out paystubs - they are on CD and u can get copies from HR