Hello All,
I pay all of our bills and I am overwhelmed by paper clutter. I have no problem keep bills in one place and paying everything on time. My question is, what paid bills do I need to keep? I know anything for taxes needs to get saved, but do old utility bills? How long do you all keep paid bills and which do you keep? Thanks for the advice!
If you move, buys like to see a years worth of utilities to get an idea of expenses. So even if we don't have a plan to move, I always keep at least that for reference.
Most bills now I have switched over to automatic withdrawal on either our credit card or through our checking. Those are paperless now. The ones that aren't paperless I put all together in our AT & T envelope that comes because it's the biggest and holds the whole months bills/statements/etc. I label it the month and put it in a file when the month is up. I save a years worth of bills. Every month, I shred the month from the year before that so I only have 12 envelopes stuffed with bills in my file cabinet. The rest of the mail, mostly junk, I go through everyday so it doesn't pile up. Sadly, it's mostly junk that gets recycled. I wish I knew how to get my name off all these lists that send me things.....
Sign up for online billing accounts wherever it makes sense. That way you don't need to deal with paper bills. They keep records of everything.
I never keep old bills. After I pay them I tear them up and toss them. Everything is so automated now that if you ever needed a copy you could get it on line easily or call them. I've never needed to reference an old bill. The only bills I've ever kept for short periods of time are medical bills until I'm sure insurance has paid their part. Once I'm sure everyone has paid what they're supposed to and my balance is zero, those are tossed too. Good luck with the decluttering!
I seem to be the only one that frequently refers to my old paperwork. I have a box that sits under the desk labeled "2009". All my paid bills, bank statements, home expense receipts, car repair, doctors office receipts, etc. get thrown in there.
The box isn't huge, and any time we have a question about something ("how much was the gas bill in Feb", or "when did you mail the Visa bill") it's a quick flip through the pile. When tax time comes, we just pluck out the things we need. Everything is there, more than we need, but it doesn't take up much room if you keep it all together.
Going paperless is nice, but for those of us doing it the old fashioned way, it's easy just to have a box for each calendar year. When you have the time (but who does) you can go thru past years' and get rid of the stuff that you don't need to keep long term.
It's stress free because I never need to worry that I've thrown out something I may need or want.
I too have become overwhelmed by paper clutter as I saved a lot of things from my divorce (fifteen years ago-I just started shredding the checks with my first husband's name) and then my present husband (for the following fifteen years almost-haha) became a citizen so we saved everything from that, then I ended up saving my children's things. Oh my I have a bonfire here. I guess you don't nowadays need to keep things as much with computer storage, but of course if you own a home keep the house related papers, I heard 7 years of bank statements and as far as utility bills etc. unless you are just checking on how much higher they are you could probably get rid of anything over a year like electricity, gas, etc. Keep copies of insurance papers. I am going to read the other posters. Hopefully that doesn't make me hang on to anything else!I just read Maria's response. Looks good to me!
Generally, anything you need for tax purposes (property tax bill, bank statements, cancelled checks, etc.) shoudl be saved for 7 years.
As far as credit card, utility bills and such, I only save the most recent. When the new bill arrives, I compare to make sure the currecnt charges are accurate, then shred last month's.
Even better, many companies now offer paperless e-bills. With online billing, you have access to your past bills for usually 1 year, which greatly reduces the clutter.
I use to save every bill and organize them by month paid and year and never once needed any of it. Now as I pay each bill (the day it comes) I shred the bill. If you pay online, your bank keeps track of all payments. If you would ever need on of the old bills, you could request it from the company.
Just keep a file for anything for taxes. If you write off a home office, you will need to keep energy and phone bills.
Make sure you recycle all the shredded and discarded paper!
Congrats on number 2 :)
Go paperless! It's neater and you are saving trees!
Hi mom I used to have that same problem, I had 20yrs of old bills until some one had to tell me I only needed to keep them for 1yr and this really works for me I have folders for each month so every month you will be putting in and taking out its easy, but you will always have paid paper bills they just will be organize in a smaller pile Good luck
Hi M.,
I get almost all my bills online by pdf files, I save them on my computer. I have separate folders for each. The few I get on paper I scan and save on my computer. This way I can actually find what I am looking for when I need it. I pay everything through my bank web pay so they keep the records online if I should need it. For tax stuff I put one copy in a tax file and one in the company name file. This is so much easier and does not take up a bunch of space. I hope this helps.
S.
