Hacker News Reader

Comment by 13of40 | Hacker News Reader

After years of trying to perfect my home "office" system, I just have a 2-year stack of correspondence (electric bills and whatever) , which works out to about about a ream of paper. Upon intake I stamp the date in the upper right corner (because nobody can seem to standardize on this) and every couple of months I peel the >2yr off and shred it.

View on HN

> I peel the >2yr off and shred it

Oh how I wish I had the courage to shred paperwork older than 2 years. Here are a few true examples where I'm glad I didn't shred too early:

- lifetime warranty claim on an appliance required the original receipt from 12 years ago

- needed to verify details on a lawyer's bill that arrived 4 years after the service was done

- parents' tax return from 30(!) years ago that had critical info about a capital gains issue

And let's not forget that tax records might be needed up to 3 years after filing in case of an audit (and some sources say 7 years).

I think my taxes would be the most boring audit ever, but the point is you need to have a system for indexing the stuff in case you need to find something and you need to set some kind of retention period (possibly a flexible one depending on the content) so it doesn't become a burden on your life. There's no reason I should continue to provide space in my life for a document that just says what greasy spoon restaurant and hip bookstore me and my ex visited in 2003. Maybe something more important, as you alluded to, can be moved to a different queue.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com