https://www.suzeorman.com/resources/record-keeping

https://www.daveramsey.com/blog/organizing-your-important-documents

Earlier this year I went through stored boxed of old papers and shredded all of it except tax returns. I had 25+ years of stuff! (no utility bills or receipts, though - just paystubs, bank statements, medical papers, etc). I think I kept just 3 years' worth (might have been 4) of documents, and I plan to shred one year's worth every spring when I file the tax returns in the storage box. I am keeping all tax returns and property pay-off stuff just in case, though.

Some of those things on Orman's list are outdated or at least where I bank. You can print your statement and copies of checks for a year. The bank does not return cancelled checks any more. So many of those things are now done electronically. Even if you are still receiving utility bills your proof of payment would be your cancelled check. My utilities except for when they changed ownership have on line your records for the last 12-24 months.

I keep my income tax returns for seven years (legal requirement where I live). Utility bills (the ones that arent electronic) go to the shredder once paid. Property taxes are paid quarterly: I keep the bills for the current year only. Likewise, insurance, car registration, etc - current year only. Bank and credit card statements are all electronic: if I need something, I print it off when I need it and not before. Sales receipts for things under warranty go in a single box, culled annually. I dont keep receipts for other stuff.

So, a single small box for tax stuff, and file folders for the rest. If I had a file cabinet, my records wouldn't fill one drawer. You can pretty much retrieve anything you've paid for by credit card, bank transfer or cheque (I can't actually remember when I last used my chequebook) online, so why keep paper?

We own our own business and my husband is an immigrant who got his citizenship through marriage to me. Between those two things we have to keep more physical paperwork than the average family does. I also have school related paperwork for the kids as well as diagnosis paperwork for my special needs son. I have a really good filing system but I wasn't sure how long to keep certain things and my 2 drawer filing cabinet is pretty full.

Business papers do take up more space, but I don't see the need for keeping old immigration papers. If your husband is now a citizen, his once-upon-a-time immigration status doesn't matter. I immigrated to Australia, sponsored by my husband, and the only document I keep now is my citizenship certificate (and my passport!).

I understand the need to keep documentation for your special needs child, but think about whether you really need to keep last year's paperwork for your other kids. And might I suggest, scanning as much as you can of those sorts of papers, and storing them on a memory stick?

I guess my overriding advice is to rely wherever possible on electronic rather than paper systems, and get rid of anything you really don't need (I had a friend who kept sales receipts and bank statements for years, for no reason except she "might" need them some day. She never did.)

Our immigration attorney told us to keep all of his old immigration papers.

How about Tax Schedules and supporting documents related to the purchase and sale of ALL private residences - I have them going back over half a Century? You'll need for Capital Improvements and Adjustment to Sale and Purchase Prices which are carried forward.

It's very dependent on your life and family situation......some things you should keep forever, some things barely a year. I keep all of my financial paperwork (taxes and investment information) for the legally required time - 6 years - but most everything else is kept for at most a year. There are exceptions (real estate transactions, for example), and when I paid for utilities I would keep several years of data so that I could do comparisons to maximize my efficiency and minimize my bills.

" I guess my overriding advice is to rely wherever possible on electronic rather than paper systems"

You should be very cautious doing this, because electronic records can disappear in the blink of an eye whether you need them or not. At least keep screenshots or PDFs of documents on a flash drive that can be removed from your computer and stored separately. Then you get to decide when they disappear, not someone else.

Toronto vet - when I said that, I also mentioned backing up on a flash drive, so we agree on that point. But I know people who keep hard copies of bank statements and credit card statements for years, even though those statements are available on line from the bank itself whenever you might need them. No need to back those up at all.