One of the things I least enjoy doing is keeping up with the file cabinet. We save bills, check stubs, warranty documentation, school papers, loan info and pretty much everything else that could come back to haunt us if someone makes an accounting error. The problem we have (like I imagine most everyone has) is that the papers add up quickly and we run out of space in the filing cabinet. Our garage ends up cluttered with boxes of old bills that in all likelihood we’ll never see again, but are a pain to move around.
To remedy this problem, I’m devising a plan where we scan everything that we possibly can–that is anything that doesn’t require us to retain the original document. That way we can hang on the everything for a year then throw it away and still having a copy backed up on the hard drive and on CD.
This will add a little time scanning, but it will make documents easier to find, archived for longer periods of time and take up a lot less space in the garage. I haven’t tried it yet, but I’m looking forward to doing it (in a strange way) and plan on documenting the process here. I bet you just can’t wait.
2 replies on “Keeping the File Cabinet Empty”
I have flirted with this same idea in the past, but since it is my wife’s job to file everything, I haven’t been motivated enogh to do it yet. The idea of having all of my documents indexed on the computer is really cool, though. Please keep us posted on how you decide to do it.
I actually have a friend that did this about 2 years ago and he loves it. He’s never gone back to paper and runs his personal business and all of his personal finances this way.