What to keep, what to shred: a family document checklist

Try this. Without getting up, how long would it take you to produce a utility bill from March, your car insurance policy document, and proof of your partner’s national insurance number?

Most households own every one of those. Very few could put their hands on them quickly, which is the only measure that counts, because the moments you need this stuff are already stressful ones. A mortgage application. A visa appointment. A claim. Someone in hospital.

Tier one: never throw these away

Originals, kept somewhere safe and ideally fireproof, with scans as backup:

• Birth, marriage and death certificates
• Passports, and immigration paperwork of every kind: approval notices, permits, registration cards, old passports with old visas in them
• Social security or national insurance documentation
• Property deeds and vehicle titles
• Wills, powers of attorney, anything a lawyer drew up
• Academic certificates and professional qualifications

Two things people get wrong here. They throw away expired passports, which still contain the visa history you may be asked to prove. And they keep the scans somewhere only one person can reach, usually one person’s personal cloud drive, which works right up until that is the person you cannot contact.

Tier two: everything with a date on it

This is the tier that actually causes problems, and it deserves different treatment from the rest.

• Passports and visas
• Driving licences and vehicle registration
• Insurance: car, home, health, travel, life
• The lease, or the date your mortgage rate ends
• Professional licences, memberships, certifications
• Warranties on anything expensive

Every item in this tier is completely fine until the week it ruins your month.

Each one needs a date attached and a warning set well before it. Not on the expiry date, which is too late to be useful. The 90-day ladder covers the pattern.

Tier three: keep for a while, then let go

Retention rules are set by your country and they change, so treat this as the general shape rather than the law:

• Tax returns and supporting paperwork. Years, not months. This is the tier people bin too early.
• Bank and card statements. A year, unless one supports a tax return, in which case it moves up.
• Payslips. Until the annual summary arrives and you have checked the numbers match. People assume they always do.
• Receipts for major purchases. As long as the warranty, plus a bit.
• Medical records and bills. Keep, particularly anything tied to an ongoing condition or an open claim.

Tier four: shred it today

Anything with an account number, a signature, a date of birth or a national ID number that has aged out of the tiers above. Pre-approved credit offers go straight in the shredder. They look like junk mail, which is precisely why they are useful to someone going through a bin.

The two nobody can find

Across the households we have talked to, two documents come up over and over as the ones people are asked for unexpectedly and cannot produce.

Proof of address from a specific past date

Banks want it. Visa applications want it. Background checks want it. And it is oddly specific, often “dated within the last three months” or “covering the period you lived at” somewhere. Keep one utility bill per quarter, scanned, and you will never be caught by this.

The insurance policy document itself

Not the renewal email. The actual policy. It has the policy number, the cover limits and the claims line on it, and you need it at the worst possible moment, which is usually by the side of a road.

Common questions