Paper Document Retention#
Paper documents should not be kept unless they have clear legal, financial, educational, medical, sentimental, administrative, or household importance. Unnecessary paper documents increase clutter and create additional risk of information exposure.
Paper documents that are no longer needed should be disposed of appropriately. Documents containing names, addresses, account numbers, school information, medical information, financial information, signatures, barcodes, QR codes, or other identifying details should be shredded or otherwise destroyed before disposal.
Paper documents should not be left out longer than necessary for active use. Once a document is no longer being reviewed, completed, scanned, mailed, signed, or otherwise handled, it should be stored, digitized, or disposed of as appropriate.
Sensitive paper documents should not be left visible on desks, tables, counters, couches, printers, scanners, mail areas, or other shared spaces. This includes bills, school paperwork, medical documents, tax documents, legal documents, account statements, identification documents, insurance paperwork, and documents containing personal information.
Paper documents that must be kept in physical form should be stored in a lockable safe, filing container, binder, or other controlled location appropriate to the sensitivity and importance of the document.
High-importance documents should be stored in a lockable, fire-resistant, water-resistant, and theft-resistant safe when practical. This may include birth certificates, Social Security cards, passports, vehicle titles, major legal documents, tax records, insurance documents, and other records that would be difficult or costly to replace.
The key, combination, or access method for any safe or lockable storage container should be protected. Safe keys should not be labeled in a way that clearly identifies the safe, document storage area, or purpose of the key.
Paperless-ngx should be treated as the primary platform for digitizing and managing long-term household documents. Scanned documents should be uploaded, named, tagged, and organized in a way that makes them searchable and useful later.
Important scans should be checked for readability before the original document is discarded. Digitizing a document does not automatically mean the original should be destroyed, especially when the physical copy may be required for legal, financial, identification, school, medical, or sentimental reasons.
Documents that are digitized and no longer need to be kept physically should be disposed of securely. Sensitive originals should be shredded or destroyed rather than placed directly into household trash or recycling.
Child-related documents should be digitized with Paperless-ngx where practical. This includes homework, graded tests, report cards, school forms, awards, teacher notes, and other school-related paperwork that may be useful to preserve.
Child documents that are important enough to keep physically should still be digitized when possible before being stored. This may include report cards, awards, certificates, major art projects, selected schoolwork, or other meaningful records.
Physical child documents should be stored in an organized binder, folder, or container with a label that clearly identifies the general nature of the contents without exposing unnecessary personal information.
Paper documents should be reviewed periodically to determine whether they still need to be kept. Outdated documents, duplicate copies, expired records, old drafts, and papers that have already been digitized should be removed unless there is a specific reason to retain them.
Printers, scanners, and mail areas should be checked regularly for forgotten documents. Sensitive documents should not be left sitting in printer trays, scanner beds, incoming mail stacks, or other areas where they may be overlooked.
Paper documents related to accounts, passwords, recovery codes, MFA backup codes, or emergency access should be stored with extra care. These documents should not be mixed with general household papers and should be kept in a secure location.
At the end of any document handling session, the area should be reset to a secure condition. Documents should be scanned, filed, shredded, stored, or returned to their proper location rather than left out for later.