As we head into the new year and eagerly leave this one behind, you may be looking into ideas for ways of improving your life. The New Year is an opportunity to begin anew and start fresh. Whether that means committing to more physical activity, improving nutrition, or promising that you will put effort into achieving a better night’s sleep, now is the time to start thinking of how to make next year your best one yet.
Another item that may be on your to-do list is clearing some clutter from either your home or work office. With various papers cluttering your working space, clearing out some paperwork is beneficial for your productivity and clarity. However, you may be wondering which documents should be destroyed or which documents should be stored.
Fortunately for you, Document Destruction of Virginia offers both document destruction and document storage. In this blog, we’ll take a look at some documents that you should destroy and documents that you should keep.
Documents That Should Be Saved Indefinitely
Always keep documents that pertain to major life events, but make sure you always lock them securely and do not carry them around on your person for day-to-day keeping. Here’s a list of documents that you should keep indefinitely, but safely lock them away:
- Birth certificates or adoption papers
- Social Security cards
- Citizenship papers or passports
- Marriage or divorce documents
- Death certificates of family members
- Auto titles or home deeds for as long as you own the property
Documents You Should Destroy
With identity theft and fraud still a very prevalent issue, shredding your documents is essential to protect yourself and those around you. In our last blog, we pointed out some surprising documents that should be shredded. Any documents that contain personally identifiable information could put you at the risk of a data breach, and ripping them up yourself and putting them in the trash won’t suffice. Here’s a list of documents that should go in your shredder:
- Birthday cards
- Credit card offerings
- Old resumes
- Boarding passes
- Prescription labels
- Receipts
- Old resumes
- After 7 years: bank statements, income tax returns, titles contracts, and deeds for sold properties
Whether you’re looking for a one-time purge or scheduled services, we make sure that your documents are securely destroyed.
Documents You Should Put Into Storage
Federal and State laws require that specific business-related documents should be stored for a certain period of time. Companies should be saving these documents either on-site or off-site:
- Accounting records: Financial statements, income tax returns, payroll tax returns, accounts payable and receivable records, expense reports, etc.
- Corporate records: Property appraisals, internal audit records, and Fixed Asset Reports.
- Human Resources and Payroll: Workers’ Compensation Benefits, attendance records, medical benefits, payroll checks, and personnel records.
If you decide to store these documents off-site, make sure you use a storage warehouse that is secure and climate-controlled to protect your documents.
We Offer Both Document Storage and Document Destruction
Document Destruction of Virginia is the largest locally owned and operated paper shredding and records company in Central Virginia. You can count on us to ensure that your documents are protected or destroyed securely and efficiently.
To find out more about our services, give us a call at 1-877-338-3320 or send us a message online.