Decluttering the Stuff

Decluttering the Stuff for a Decluttered Life in Retirement

Checkbook Registers

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Old checkbook transaction registers – how long are we supposed to keep these? How many of these do you have?

I went into the cabinet drawer to pull out old tax documents from 2011 and 2012 to shred. If you only need to keep these and their supporting records for 3 – 7 years (or indefinitely if you commit fraud hahaha – see this post) , then it seems like we can declutter these.  

I must have decluttered the registers from before we got married since the earliest I found was for 1984, the year of our marriage.  

64 registers gone!  plus another 23 random medical documents.  87 items gone today!

Now I’m off to shred them! I know, it’s overkill but . . .

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9 responses to “Checkbook Registers”

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  1. purpleslob Avatar
    purpleslob

    87 gone!! woo hoo! Blazing thru!

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. declutteringthestuff Avatar
      declutteringthestuff

      haha and I still have the last 10 years worth. Just couldn’t get rid of them yet – silly me!

      Liked by 1 person

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      1. purpleslob Avatar
        purpleslob

        You will!! You’ve been ruthless!

        Liked by 1 person

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  2. MinimalMelody Avatar
    MinimalMelody

    What’s a check register?? Just kidding! Though truthfully, I haven’t used one in years. My bank doesn’t even send them in the box when you order new checks now.

    I use the same method as Brian – new statement in, old statement out. The rule of thumb that I read is 2 years for regular bank statements and 3-7 years for brokerage statements or any statement that is used to support your tax returns.

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    1. declutteringthestuff Avatar
      declutteringthestuff

      I knew someone would question this!!

      I still use them even though we do online banking with online statements. John thinks it’s a waste of time but some habits are hard to break. Neither of the kiddos use them, I think it’s a generational thing.

      Liked by 1 person

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  3. Jen Avatar
    Jen

    Wow!! You had a lot of those! Every now and then I come across them around here but it’s pretty rare. And then I just look at them because I don’t know what to do with them. Lol! I’ve started shredding them now but they still sit around too long.

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    1. declutteringthestuff Avatar
      declutteringthestuff

      It amazes me that I’m still finding things like this to get rid of. We’ve been at this for about 6 years and removed probably close to 30,000 items. I wouldn’t consider us hoarders either.

      Liked by 1 person

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  4. Brian Avatar
    Brian

    Here I think the rule for me is 6 years for tax purposes since I’m self-employed. I’ve done well to keep on top of this by having only 6-years-worth of ring-binder space, so each time I add the latest month of receipts or bank statements I out* the oldest month. But of course, if you had done that, you wouldn’t be able to post about these things now!

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    1. declutteringthestuff Avatar
      declutteringthestuff

      TRUTH! I never knew how long to keep things until we started decluttering. Then things like these get overlooked because of where they are. I tend to keep things now 1 year. I have a folder by month – when I need the new month, the old gets shredded. Now that so much is online, it isn’t much we keep.

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