I'm so excited! After doing the last two posts showing the files we have, I decided to see what I could do to minimize the mortgage documents. We've owned three homes, but now currently rent due to military service. The last home sold almost three years ago. I read that you only need to keep documents three years after the sale of the home.
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| 38 pieces that did not need to be shredded! |
Part of the process was determining what documents were already on file with each county. I figured those are the important documents that would prove we had transferred legal ownership. All documents were correctly filed. Yay!
I did scan some documents primarily from the last home we sold, since we are not at the full three year mark from the date of sale. The odds of needing them are pretty slim at this point, but it took no time at all to get them scanned.
Look at that! 139 pages that needed to be shredded. That is a thick stack of papers!
I did buy a new shredder recently and it does a great job slicing and dicing about 6-8 pages at a time. That means I'll be decluttering my old shredder later this month!
The final product! Paper out to the trash bin, and three fewer files in our file cabinet. Specifically, that is another 177 items declutter towards the 2018 Decluttering Challenge!
I specifically saved digitally the HUD statements and warranty deeds and original mortgage loan papers. All other papers were not needed for the two oldest homes. I have other documents from closing of the last house scanned, including 1099S, purchase agreements, and receipts for repairs done for the buyers. Eventually, some of those scanned documents can just be deleted from our digital folders.
We really do not need to keep as much paper as we think we do! What can you let go of from your paper files this month?
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