Been going through my filing cabinets these last couple of days and shredding loads of the documents contained in them. The question I'd like to ask is: Has anyone ever shredded/got rid of any particular documents and then come to regret it? For example: do I need to keep 15+ years of payslips, utility bills, bank statements?

Yes, a letter from immigration regarding classification of Scotland, England, Ireland and Wales in respect of the last remaining relative visa!

Sorry to hear that. If you don't mind me asking, how did it affect you?

We scanned a lot of that stuff and put it on disks before shredding. The OH has a huge shelf full of our stuff in his office. Things like bank statements, mortgage papers, old tax returns, etc.

Roughly five years ago I was clearing out some of the papers my mum had kept for years... I found a rent book from 1952 !

Last time i was home i found some old exercise books from my time at school and you know a lot of you folk are right,i am a smart arse

I wish I had kept my last UK pay slip for nostalgia purposes. Plus I dont know my bleeding National insurance number. You never know I may want to claim the UK pension one day, I doubt that though.

I keep everything....

I can remember my mum, after asking if I had fallen in with the wrong crowd, being told that "your son IS the wrong crowd"

love it

That's one number I've been given that is fixed firmly in my head. I forget car number plates, phone numbers etc that I use frequently but the NI number that I've rarely had to write down seems to be tattooed on my brain.

We brought five years worth of documentation over with us. I shredded it all about two years ago. Felt very odd.

When my dad died we went through some of his stuff. He kept his first paycheque from 1932 for 10 cents.

Funny the things people save, eh?

10 cents... a night on the town, fish and chips for four and taxi home afterwards.

My mum had all sorts of strange stuff she had kept. Ration books from the 50's, recipes cut from newspapers on how to make the best of the meat ration, 40yr old cinema tickets...

Haha. I remember the headmaster saying similar things to my mum and dad.

It's very worrying. We have just cleared out a load of stuff and shredded it. Although we keep all of our very important docs together in a safe.

We have also scanned in most of our important docs in colour e.g. marriage, birth certs, passports, drivers licenses etc... so if the paper version get destroyed, we at least have a trace.

I would get rid of less important stuff like payslips older than a year or two. Bank statement history going back quite far can now be downloaded from internet banking.