Paper, paper everywhere!  Are you in danger of being lost forever in the mounds of paper taking over your space?  While it?s true there are documents that should never, ever be thrown out, most do not fall in that category. 

 

One method of retention and disposal is to keep banker boxes by year of disposal.  For example, one box would contain documents that are kept indefinitely.  Another might have a disposal date of 12/31/08 and would contain records with various retention rules but that all expire on 12/31/08.  On January 1, 2009 you can feel free to run the entire contents through the shredder without feeling the need to examine and agonize over every document.

 

Some are more comfortable keeping documents for each year together.  This method certainly makes the initial filing easier, but requires periodic inspection to determine which documents are ready for shredding. 

 

Regardless of the method, use the following guidelines to diminish the piles that threaten to consume you.  The list is separated into two sections, personal and business.