Minimalism: Papers In Our Desk Drawer

The progress to minimizing our paper files has been very satisfying.  I'm surprised in some ways how little we have left! I'm going to document that here for my own reference and also to share with you who may be curious.

We have one file drawer in our desk. It contains the following:

• Van receipts and title
• Truck receipts and title
• Vet records (six sheets of paper)
• High school daughter school records (grades 10-12)
• Lease agreement
• Utilities 
• To File (which has a few random don't know where to put items)
• College (one packet to fill out)

Guess what? I could get rid of more. 

The lease agreement is in digital form. The blank college form will likely be filled out online and submitted so don't need the blank version. Vet records could be scanned, no need for originals. 

The utilities folder has one bill from each current utility for account reference and phone number information only. I could scan this or write down elsewhere. It also contains old utility information from our previous home. Those utilities were co-ops, so we are entitled to future return of capital. These documents could also be scanned. 

I also think maintenance records for our vehicles could be summarized in an Excel document. We don't need the original receipt to prove anything, only for reference of when and at what mileage did we have work done. 

My daughter's file for school is not very big. It has some school information for reference, standardized test scores and report cards. Once she graduates in June, several pieces can be recycled and the rest retained for memories. 

Yes, I also store envelopes and mailing labels here too. 

I'm really starting to see that I could get our files down to just this one drawer, however, there ARE more files. I will show you our two drawer filing cabinet tomorrow!