Bills and so on, for how long do you keep them.? Surely a few months will do for utiltyy bills. What about stuff from the UK, old mortgage info. Am snowed under by paper and aam yearning for a bonfire.

Can't you scan them into your pc and then shred?

Go for it. You burned your bridges a long time ago.

That would be more annoying than filing

Sir, my bridges and any burning thereof are a private affair.

As are mine. Respect. Mes ponts sont nouveaux.

Can you not sign up for electronic utility bills? Those kind people at the utility companies email them into my electronic bank account so I can pay then straight away!

But if you did this you wouldn't be "snowed under" by paperwork.

Saying that if you live in Alberta you'd have a hard job getting a bonfire going

I have online billing fro every company that supports that feature and for anything else mailed to me I scan it and shred it. I m trying to achieve a paperless life whereever possible. I would suggest you scan it all and then shred or burn it

7 years, after that all bets are off.

You must have really stinky fingers

Depends on the size of the paper - when I had my own businesses I found that most of the regular forms sent by Revenue Canada and Worker's Compensation fit perfectly into the bottom of a large rectangular budgie cage.

Years. Decades even. Need to see a shrink about it! Funnily enough, when an online account make me go paperless, I am not that bothered.

Ok, scanning sounds good in theory but i am rather disorganised, and can easily find other stuff to do rather than scanning, so this is not likely to happen. I currently heap all the bills up and then have a little filing fit, I can feel one coming on. Seven years is for tax related stuff but surely household bills etc can go sooner??

You are probably right. Its just easier for me to keep it all together and toss it all after 7 years.

I think 3 years for utility bills is probably more than long enough if you want a two tiered system.

I cant say Ive ever had a need for that old paperwork (touch wood), but I reckon if I ditch it something is bound to come up and I would end up regretting it