where do you store all your household bills, bank statements etc?

[Urbanvoltaire]

I currently have a filing cabinet in the junk room but its about to be redone into a new living room so am having to make space and it has to go.

So...where do I keep all my paperwork and how long do you all keep bills, bank statements, credit card statements etc for?

Thanks!

upstairs in the cupboard in the spare room, but have very little nowadays as it is all online & I don't print anything off.

I keep ours in a filing cabinet... Both self and husband are self employed so relevant paperwork needs to be kept for 7 years. I have a good system which I adapted from a household mgmt book I read a few years ago. Everything that needs to be kept (bills, car insurance details, statements, policies) goes in its own foolscap hanging file in the filing cabinet. A couple of times a year I go through each file and remove anything that refers to the previous year - eg recently I went through everything and pulled out stuff relating to 2009 that needed to be kept but not necessarily looked at at frequently. All of that goes in a file marked 2009 - any old way - just one of those cardboard A4 pocket files. Then it becomes "archive". This year, when I made my 2009 file, I threw out 2002. That way, you barely have to look at the oldest file; just a quick glance and shred. And the filing cabinet only really has this year's and "active" stuff. It makes things easier to find as if you do need to refer to something from the past, as long as you know the year you will find it v quickly.

My filing cabinet is kept in the kitchen under the stairs - easy to access but unobtrusive. I wouldn't be without it, tbh. I deliberately bought a nice silver one so it would "go". It's a two drawer foolscap. If I ever find it's getting a bit full that's my hint to have a bit of a clearout - I can't see how anyone would ever really need more paper storage for a household unless you worked from home also. This way it's all in one place, and not scattered all over the house.

I've got mine in my front room in an Ikea Alve storage bench which has rails for hanging files.
I don't get bank statements, cos I bank online, and I keep the last year's worth of phone bills, and 3yrs worth of utility and credit card bills (in case we need to get another mortgage).

Thanks all, I think I need to adopt LCPO's archive system and get one of those Alve benches for up-to-date paperwork. I currently use a drawer for all papers and every few weeks I go through it and file away accordingly. I now need to go through the filing cabinet and archive/shred stuff as well.

I'll get some of those office archive boxes as I can keep stuff on my loft.

I'm all set now!

I have a ring binder with plastic punched pockets in. We then lock them away. We are paranoid about identity theft and destroy/hide anything with any personal details on.

Mine are stored in Kitchen draws and under my desk in box files.

I am watching with interest.

Currently all my documents are shoved willy nilly into drawers/cupboards all over the kitchen to the point they are spilling out to the cupboards below. Its awfull.

But im getting a new kitchen so this week is de-clutter/sort out the kitchen week so all should be tidy, just need to re-think my old "storage system".

This is the one I have.

Not particularly sophisticated in my case. Just many many lever arch files with separators for each bill/investment/school etc. I put them in shelves in the linen cupboard and reinforced the shelves due to the sheer weight. At least they are tucked away out of sight. They are always overflowing and multiplying. I desperately need to prune but cannot find the time or will.

When I move house, sorting out storage for these files will be on the list. It will have to be a sturdy cupboard with a door/lock so they can be locked away out of sight.

Because I'm naturally quite a messy person, ease of filing was v v important to me, otherwise I'd just chuck things in a box. the filing cabinet works like that, as I just open it up and slide the paper into the front of the correct file. Lever arch files or a load of those concertina files wouldn't work, as I'd never get round to filling them. The order of things within each hanging folder is not perfect, but if there's only a year or so in each one it doesn't matter so much as things are still findable. And having a system to get rid of old stuff easily (see above) is a good way of keeping the size controllable.

Littlecheesy, are you really able to keep 7 years' filing in the filing cabinet you linked to?

I reckon I will need at least double the space.

Agree about the lever arch system being quite tedious. I usually just throw the papers into a tea chest first, then do filing every month or so. The lever arch thing is a hangover from working in a law firm in the olden days when they still had paper files

Oh no, sorry, the 7 years is in one medium sized plastic crate (it doesn't fill it entirely). It would all fit into a three drawer cabinet if you could get one, but I didn't want a four-drawer as it would just encourage me to keep more crap.

I've made this for the mail coming into the house as that is our week spot. When sorted it all goes into labelled box files, which use to go into a cupboard, but now we have moved they are on a shelf, but I have bought some wall paper and plan to cover them to make them blend in more!

One huge but pretty storage box, just piled in willy-nilly. I will keep most things for 7 years or so. It looks terrible if you are an organised person but I can find most things in there.

I shred mine as soon as I see the money's come out for a bill or etc. Is that bad?

That's a nice idea Bumperlicious. That's our weak spot too - currently the kitchen table is a (flylady) Hot Spot and always covered in paperwork. So not a perfect system (yet!).

oooh i like that alve bench! cheers m'dears, i'll be off to ikea next week

I dream of living in a house where everything has a place (which doesn't involve a two hour hunt to find 'the place' when it's needed!)

Puppymonkey - I don't think it's bad at all - I'm just a bit paranoid being self employed and knowing HMRC could come knocking at any time.