Paper clutter - how do you manage it?

I'm trying to declutter the whole house. Have been away quite a lot this year and spent ages yesterday going through junk mail. I always take my address off everything before it goes into recycling so I had mounds of paper everywhere.And that was just the porch and the table in the hall. Have yet to start on my desk. Worth googling Martin Lewis with regards to bank statements and suchlike. I was going to throw a lot of stuff away but then needed it for the PPI claim. I need to cancel catalogues; I've been getting one from the Donkey Sanctuary for over twenty years and it goes straight in the bin.

6 years for bank statements (in case Inland Revenue ever come calling) 1 year for all regular bills (utilities and the like).

Keep all original legal documents, documents relating to long term insurance policies, house purchase documents, until 5 years after you move out.

My way of dealing with an avalanche of paper is to shut the door on it and say, 'tomorrow'.

Good suggestions thank you

I did a time management course once which among other things said open and sort your post immediately including e-mail so I still do that. As the post hits the doormat I scoop it up rip off the addresses for shredding scan the contents, most of it goes in the recycling and I deal with any other post that day, file if its needs filing but most of our stuff is on line and paperless. Newspapers and mags go in the recycling as soon as they have been read. You have to move fast round here to stop me binning your stuff!!

If in doubt Chuck it out.

I keep a bin in the hall for all the junk mail. Part of my problem is all the stuff from years back: the photos, the theatre programmes, the drawings my daughter did when she was little, letters from 30 years ago, birthday cards, and the list goes on....... AGGHHHH I'm drowning !

We open our mail on arrival by the bin. Harmless junk mail goes straight into the bin. Everything else arrives on my desk. I immediately shred mail with addresses etc. I then either deal with immediate bills or file in a rolling 30 day file for future action.

Takes about 5 mins from arriving in the house.

I deal with anything in the file for that day at the same time.

My rule is I never tough it twice if it can be avoided. I have a book scanner ( it's a little hand held scanner. I scan any bills, bank statements , guarantees and instructions. I download once a week onto my lap top. Rename each image with type and date and how many pages, and file . I shred the hard copies.

We used to have a massive filing cabinet full of papers now I have my file and a hard drive. Don't forget to back up the drive.

What happens when your PC dies and you find your backup drive has not been working? Yes happened to me last month.

I was about to say someone on here mentioned a hand held scanner and I keep meaning to ask about it . NanaandG can you tell more?

ah ha Tizliz I always double check :-)but we've all done it I suspect!! I could back to a secure cloud source but all of these backups are only as good as the person who does them I guess.. its very easy to forget. Its just an old habit for me now.

As for the scanner * Stansgran* this is a similar model to mine ( you can get more expensive ones which might be better for photographs as they have a higher dpi( dots per inch).

www.amazon.co.uk/TaoTronics-Handheld-Document-Portable-Selection/dp/B00B4O3ALW/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1469114830&sr=8-3&keywords=handheld+scanner

Its cordless and handheld. Its just over A4 size. It connects to your computer via a USB connection( cable included) and is super simple to use. I've had my current one over 5 years.

I asked about this on another forum and the best reply was from someone who put hers on computer like N&G. But I haven't got the technical skills to do that.
I found that there are legal time limits for all these things.
We do have a fairly efficient paper filing system though, and keep it up to date. Recently put everything into new files and folders.

I open all mail as it arrives , all addresses are removed for shredding and anything for filing goes upstairs and letters dealt with as soon as. We don't get much paperwork anymore as most things are paperless and online.

I bought a couple of gadgets which have an ink roller to cover up sensitive information such as names and addresses, the bank details on receipts and anything else that might be used. It takes a few seconds and then it all goes in the recycling. I've recently been disposing of 6 years worth of business documents and have taken it to Staples - you can buy a sack for £20 and they send it to the professional shredding company. With 6 bags gone already that's a lot of shredding!

@NandG thank you . I'll have a go at one.

I keep the bank statements filed but shred everything else which I might need for a year. Junk mail with my address on has the personal details ripped off and the rest of the document goes in the recyc immediately. It's like fighting the tide!

My DS and my DH don't throw anything away so I have to deal with their rubbish too. I file and throw and even though they ignore their post they say, often months later, 'Where's my....(whatever the document)?'

Tough luck. Gone and never called me mother.

Never had a paper bank statement for 6 years.

Yes, the day to day stuff can be managed - but what about:
the photos, the theatre programmes, the drawings my daughter did when she was little, letters from 30 years ago...
That's the stuff I struggle with too...

DS and his DC visit twice a month. Before they arrive I tidy everything cluttering the living room into a carrier bag and put it behind the sofa intending to sort it the next week.
Maybe I'd better leave gransnet now and investigate the sofa hoard ...

I do almost everything on line so have very little paper. Junk mail gets shredded and dug into the compost/muck heap.

Well, just this week I have been having a paper clear out . I scan the documents on my printer and file on my PC. Hopefully they are all on 'the cloud' if they ever need to be retrieved and the PC has given up the ghost. Wish I had done it years ago and the job would have been so much easier. I have just found my Maternity Payments from 1972. Mt daughter tells me these documents are now 'social history!' Who knew?

About 12 months ago I destroyed bank statements and business records going back to 1975. This year I asked for a statement from HMRC of how many years NI contributions I had paid.They claimed I had not made any payments in 1978 and 1979. As DH and I were in business together I know that all contributions had been paid by Direct debit and had I kept those statements I could have proved it. As it is I've had to pay 2 years worth of top up payments.

I mentioned this to a friend who lives about 40 miles away but we shared the same tax office. Exactly the same thing happened to her. She's been told that when the tax office moved there were boxes of untouched records stacked along corridors so we suspect our records were there somewhere and we're probably not alone.

I wish I'd kept the bank statements.I keep all annual statements for bonds and pension. Receipts for large items I stick to the original boxes in the loft until the guarantee runs out.Everything else is shredded once it's dealt with.

As soon as I opened this thread a purple ribbon appeared at the bottom of my screen saying TIDY SPACE, TIDY MIND: DECLUTTERING WITH MARIE KONDO. What's that all about? An ad?

Same here, NotTooOld, clearly big brother is watching!!