Recently at a client’s house, a 2 ½ hour project stretched to 4 hours. Why? There were several hidden bins of paper she had to deal with.
How soon can I shred the durn thing?
Let’s go looking for paper to shred! Yeah!
A good shredding program will have both an ongoing, everyday component and periodic components – both monthly and yearly. I like the way Ohio Mobile Shredding breaks this down into six categories:
Shred everyday -
- Credit card applications. (Better yet opt out to not receive offers!)
- Any piece of unwanted paper that contains: account numbers, birth dates, drivers’ license numbers, passwords, signatures, social security numbers… anything you wouldn’t feel comfortable having a stranger read.
Note: In this information age, I think shredding anything with your address on it is overkill. If you own a house in Franklin County, Ohio, I can not only find your address on the Auditor’s website, but can tell you what your home’s square footage is and how much you paid for it.
Shred Monthly - Choose a date and schedule an appointment on your calendar.
- Credit card and debit receipts after reconciling with credit card statement unless needed for tax purposes or warranties.
Shred Yearly - during or just after tax preparation, all statements not needed as tax support documents
- Monthly bank, retirement and investment account statements after reconciled with year-end statement.
- Pay stubs after reconciling with annual W-2 statement or 1099 equivalents.
Shred on a Seven-Year or Ten-Year Basis - File with that year’s tax docs and shred at same time
- Year-end bank statements (if not necessary for tax purposes)
- Titles, deeds, and surveys to cars and property you haven’t owned in seven years.
- Tax support documents over 10 years old (not 1040 forms or W-2′s!)
Never Shred - store in a fire/water – proof box
- Vital personal documents such as marriage, birth, divorce and death certificates
- Legal documents such as wills, Powers of Attorney
- Loan and mortgage paid-in-full documentation
Never Shred Until They Expire - remove and replace with current
- Titles, deeds and surveys to cars and property you currently own (shred 7 years after you get rid of property)
- Current personal credit history report
- Benefits package from current employer