To shred loads of old financial documents?

[17bluebirds]

I am so sick of the piles and piles of paperwork in the house, I just can't seem to get a storage system that keeps it neat.

I have so much stuff and I need to get rid of it.

WIBU to shred old mortgage statements for a house we no longer even own? Would I ever need to prove I owned it and that I paid on time?

What about old pension documents? They send annual statements each year, so can I shred the old ones when the new ones arrive?

Old utility bills and council tax? What about the random letters from broadband suppliers that say welcome to our service?

I need to take drastic action because I'm drowning in this stuff.

Please help

Could come in useful if there is another run on toilet paper ...

I dont know where it all come from! 25 years of H who cant bare to throw things out. Now he has left I can get sorting.

I will give him all his bank statements, he can do what he wants with them.

I have about 6 different pension plans that I need to combine into 1
Total annual pension from them all is about £500.
I'm screwed! But I may as well be screwed and tidy than screwed in a sea of paper.

With pensions I'd say keep the first lot of paperwork saying you've joined, any major changes to it like the pension provider changing its name, and the most recent stuff. Get rid of the stuff in the middle. Likewise with bank stuff, loans, mortgage things etc. Keep your first and final payslips from all employers and stuff like that.

I recently needed a payslip from a firm I left in 1985, to prove that I was indeed in their pension scheme.

Also if you have a garden burning in an incinerator much quicker than shredding

I've not even got to the file with pay slips in yet!

The ones I have done were some related to DS's health and EHCP, and DLA, which I found easy to sort what I needed and what I didn't.

Its these financial ones that are difficult, everything from many years just shoved randomly into 2 box files.

Do I need to keep the old Tax credit reviews and letters? I am no longer claiming, but that only finished this year, so I guess I need to keep some recent ones, but how far back should I keep?
I always have a fear that they will suddenly turn round and tell me they have overpaid and that I owe thousands back to them.

Just thought I'd give a quick update
I've shredded 2 bin bags of paperwork, and burnt some others when the shredder couldn't take any more.

I feel really good, and now I know what and where everything is.
I've made some v simple notes for DD so she can find things if anything were ever to happen to me. She can find all life insurance details etc. that she didn't even know existed before. (she wasn't very happy to talk about it, but she does need to know )
Feeling proud of myself.

Ooh fab timing, I have a filing cabinet full of god knows what....
The shredder and bbq are getting an outing this week, maybe get some marshmallows to bribe the kids into helping!