Help with household filing- my drawers overfloweth!

[latherrinserepeat]

How do you manage your household filing please? I need some help as the two drawer cabinet we bought about five years ago has now reached capacity and I am not filing anything as there is no more room!

I need to clear out old stuff I appreciate but;

1. how long do you keep things for? Seven years I was thinking?

1. what do you do with stuff that is no longer current eg not this year's bank statements but that are still within your seven year keep period?

All ideas gratefully received - thanks

I think I'm going to put my stuff in the loft. It is so rare that you need it but can't throw it out (shred it, I mean).
It takes up too much space and makes sorting out bills/paperwork a bit of a mammoth effort getting out huge filing boxes etc.

Yes I thought about loft - maybe bundling up everything that is pre the current tax year and keeping it up there til 7 years have gone by . . . . can't imagine I will remember to shred it though and of course will want to go through it all before throwing it out to check there is nothing important.

Is there any kind of fly lady system anyone uses?

TIA

Hi, We have one folder for each tax year rather than filing things by what they are.

Means that you can just bung everything in this year's folder as it arrives rather than having to do proper filing.

We keep everything for 10 years, as if the tax cometh that is what they will ask to see.

Evey April I now shred the oldest folder, relabel it and start sticking the new stuff in.

I keep 9 of the folders in the loft and only rthe current one in the house.