It’s early January, and the cold and snow are keeping people across America cooped up indoors. While staying in and watching movies every night sounds fun in the beginning, after a few works most people start to feel a little stir crazy. Locked up inside with all of your stuff provides the perfect opportunity to realize just how much, you know, crap you’ve accumulated. The worst offenders are those piles of papers, magazines, junk mail, and other miscellaneous documentation that we haven’t looked at in months but feel weird just tossing in the trash.

For many people in and around Pembroke Pines, deciding what documents can be dropped off at our paper shredding service locations and what documents need to be saved indefinitely is an overwhelming process. Sure, last week’s grocery store flyers and the umpteenth credit card promotional letter can be tossed right into the recycling bin. But what about old utility bills that have your account number on them? What about your mortgage statement, old W2s, or the service records for the vehicle you sold three years ago?

Thankfully, people far smarter than we have already created some guidelines for what to keep and what to toss, and how long you have to wait to do it. Once you’ve organized all of your piles of paperwork into things that have to be kept and things that can be tossed, don’t worry about overflowing your recycling bin. Simply find the nearest Shred Monkeys drop off shredding service location and get that junk out of your life forever!

Documents You Should ALWAYS Have A Physical Copy Of

These documents, most of which are legal in nature or involved in a long-term process, like owning a house, should always be in your possession (in a physical form):

• Birth and death certificates
• Social security cards
• Pension plan documents
• ID cards and passports
• Marriage license
• Business license
• Any insurance policy (good to keep even if they have a digital copy in case problems come up)
• Wills, living wills, and powers of attorney
• Vehicle titles and loan documents
• House deeds and mortgage documents

If you run across any of these documents while spring cleaning, we recommend you file them away in a file cabinet or put them in a tub marked “important documents” until you need them next.

Documents You Only Need To Keep For A While

• Tax records and receipts (keep for seven years)
• Pay stubs and bank statements (keep for a year)
• Home purchase, sale, or improvement documents (keep for at least six years after you sell)
• Medical records and bills (keep at least a year after payment in case of disputes)
• Warranty documents and receipts (keep as long as you own them)

If keeping this kind of stuff around really bothers your inner neat freak, you can also use our document imaging services to create digital copies that can be kept safe on an external hard drive.

Documents You Only Need The Most Recent Version Of

• Social security statements
• Annual insurance policy statements
• Retirement plan statements (401(k), 529, IRA, etc)

Once you get a new copy of these documents, feel free to collect the old ones for the paper shredding service.

Use Our Drop Off Shredding Service For Everything Else!

Don’t have a paper shredder at your home? Don’t feel like you have enough documentation to warrant mobile onsite paper shredding service? No worries! Shred Monkeys has two convenient drop off shredding locations–in Lauderhill and Pembroke Pines–where you can securely dispose of your documentation with ease! Please call the Shred Monkeys office at 954-271-0007 to schedule your drop off. We can’t wait to help make your home clutter free!

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