The paperwork you should keep — and the nine years of it you shouldn't
A plain checklist for the filing cabinet you have been avoiding.
Most household filing cabinets hold two kinds of paper: documents that genuinely matter, and documents kept because throwing them away feels vaguely illegal. The second pile is usually nine-tenths of the drawer. Here is a defensible way to sort them.
Keep forever
Birth and marriage certificates, Social Security cards, military discharge papers, divorce decrees, current wills and powers of attorney, and the deed to anything you still own. These live in one folder, ideally fireproof, and you should be able to find it in the dark.
Keep seven years
Tax returns and everything that supports them. The IRS generally has three years to audit an ordinary return, six if income was substantially under-reported. Seven years of tax paperwork covers the realistic worst case; the 1987 return in your drawer is protecting no one.
Keep one year or less
Pay stubs until they match the W-2. Utility bills until the next one arrives, unless you claim a home office. Bank and card statements for a year at most — nearly every institution now provides seven years of them online on demand. Receipts only until the return window closes, unless they belong to a warranty or a tax deduction.
The one-afternoon method
Three piles: forever, seven years, shred. Anything you hesitate over for more than ten seconds goes in a fourth pile to photograph before shredding — a phone picture in a folder called "Probably fine" resolves almost every future doubt. Households that do this report the same number: about one grocery bag of paper kept, and four shredded.