Plan9

We accumulate a lot of papers in our lives. Stuff from school, stuff from work, stuff from the military, stuff from the things we buy and sell, the hobbies we have, the people we marry. What do we do with all of it, anyway? It's gotta go somewhere.

Earlier today I was thumbing through the miniature file cabinet I have to lug around with me as I go on these various business trips and started thinking about what my fellow TFPers do with all their important documents. I’d imagine some of you are “stackers” and other people are “filers,” some people are meticulous accountants and others just use the shoebox-and-Sharpie method.

First, a little light reading on the topic I'd like to discuss.

Seeing that I get paid to think about this kinda stuff (and I lose sleep at night thinking about folding my socks), I'm all about the pillars of preparedness. As it applies to life’s important documents:

1 - Security - Keeping your stuff safe from whatever potential threats are out there (fire, theft, loss, accidents).
Organizational system, locking filing cabinets, fire-resistant safes, using the safety deposit box at the bank, etc.

2 – Accessibility - Being able to get to your stuff when you need it.
An organizational system that works, having multiple copies of documents in different locations (working copies, travel copies, originals).

3 - Redundancy - Having different types and locations of backups in case the other two pillars fail.
Making copies of everything, keeping them in various locations, storing documents digitally (flash drive, secure online), etc.

...

Seeing that work requires me to travel overseas, my passport is the single most important document I have and thus must be safeguarded at all times. I keep it under double lock in my room and whenever I travel I wear it around my neck in a dorky ID carrier inside my shirt next to my skin. I’d be absolutely screwed if I lost it. It would take me a long time, probably several long weeks, to get another one.

That would totally suck.

As stated in the linked article, it is relatively painless for US citizen to get a secondary passport. I’m going to do this when I get home so that in the event one passport is lost or destroyed, I have one waiting somewhere. I’m also going to start scanning everything not disposable in my filing cabinets so that I can keep a digital copy of my documents in various locations, such as my parents’ house and in a safety deposit box. In the event that both houses burn down during the zombie apocalypse, I’ll still have a copy of my high school diploma when order is restored.

Back at the house: I have my own two-drawer locking filing cabinet. My organization system keeps rotating papers in the top drawer, with older records and oh-shit-super-crucial items in the bottom drawer. I've realized the biggest problem with this setup is the fact that my whole Library of Me is incredibly vulnerable to fires: either the fire itself will burn up my papers or the sprinkler system that extinguishes the fire will ruin them. Gonna need to invest in a small fire-resistant safe and waterproof sleeves for some of the more important items such as my educational parchments and original military records.

While on the go: I have a backpack designed to carry file folders and a laptop. I store all my important papers in this backpack in a locked container in a locked room. If a document is absolutely critical, I keep the original or necessary copies of it on my person (such as my passport when traveling). Recently I've also been scanning documents and storing them on my laptop and external hard drive as backups so in case I lose my physical papers, I have digital copies to reference or print later.

What do you guys do? What's your crazy system? Any disastrous stories about losing everything or saving your own ass through preparation?

__________________
Whatever you can carry.

"You should not drink... and bake."

mixedmedia

I keep all of our papers in a small filing crate in the little room under the stairs. I've never taken particularly good care of them, for instance, the papers from my first divorce are water damaged, but I like to know where things are when I need them so I keep them well organized.
My boyfriend's papers, from before we got together, are all stacked inside of a plastic box in the garage and it's a major ordeal anytime he needs to find something in there. I hate that feeling (doubting whether I will be able to find what I need) thus I learned to start filing them about ten years ago. But that's the extent of it.

__________________
Most people go through life dreading they'll have a traumatic experience. Freaks were born with their trauma. They've already passed their test in life. They're aristocrats. - Diane Arbus
PESSIMISM, n. A philosophy forced upon the convictions of the observer by the disheartening prevalence of the optimist with his scarecrow hope and his unsightly smile. - Ambrose Bierce

The_Jazz

The REALLY important stuff - passports, birth certificates and some irreplaceable kid stuff is in the safe deposit box at the bank. The other stuff is salted throughout the house in secure spots.

__________________
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - B. Franklin
"There ought to be limits to freedom." - George W. Bush
"We have met the enemy and he is us." - Pogo

dlish

i scan a lot of stuff like passports and birth certificates and email them to myself.

i keep dockets for 12 months (sometimes more) . i use a tissue box to put the reciepts in there. and if i ever need to find a reciept to return something i know its in this little cardboard box.

i keep A4 folders and i file nearly every bit of paper i have. i dont throw anything away. bank statements, phone bills, car purchases etc. ive got them from years ago. not sure if ill ever need them, but if i do i know where to find it.

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An injustice anywhere, is an injustice everywhere

I always sign my facebook comments with ()()===========(}. Does that make me gay?
- Filthy

ZombieSquirrel

I have a filing cabinet that is somewhat organized. I'm not always good at filing right away so there is a "to be filed" pile on top of the cabinet. If I don't need the document, it gets shredded. I had my identity stolen when I was young and stupid, so I am more careful now. That was an awful battle to go through. My credit has just now rebounded.

I used to keep EVERYTHING. Now I don't even get paper credit card statements. I believe my shredder was the greatest thing I ever got. It destroys my personal information and I'll shred before even thinking of filing that receipt that I do NOT need to keep.

__________________
Attack ZombieSquirrels

Jinn

I have everything from my birth certificate to my car titles, motorcycle titles, will, insurance policies, benefits information, warranty manuals and random other assorted stuff in one big ass pile in the bottom drawer of my desk. It has a lock but I never use it. Whenever I need something I have to rifle through everything to find it. If anything were to happen I'd lose all my important documents.

That's not to say that I think its a great system, and I'd probably be petrified in terror if I thought about how terrible of a system it is. It's just that my laziness overcomes my actual thought in this case. One day I'd like to make it more secure, make copies, etc., but there are a lot of 'one day' tasks that I've not done yet, and likely won't do for decades. I don't have a passport, but when I do get one, I'm going to at least adopt the idea of 9's to wear it around my neck or something.. just because it's a good idea and requires almost no continued effort on my part (like an organizational/backup system would).

I'm deliberately avoiding thinking about this seriously now, because I know it would get me all freaked out.. like a casual conversation about how I defend my house against burglars would.. at least for that I'm ostensibly prepared.

__________________
"I'm typing on a computer of science, which is being sent by science wires to a little science server where you can access it. I'm not typing on a computer of philosophy or religion or whatever other thing you think can be used to understand the universe because they're a poor substitute in the role of understanding the universe which exists independent from ourselves." - Willravel

ring

Birth Cert., SS card & truck title, in a portable fire safe.
The rest is in the top drawer in a very jumbled yet kinda organized fashion.

snowy

I have a filing cabinet that I file less important things in. I am pretty paperless these days--no credit card statements through the mail, for example. Important papers are kept in a small desk drawer. Eventually I'd like to get a fire-resistant safe.

I have redundancy in that there are multiple copies of my birth certificate--my parents keep one in their files, and I keep two of them. Washington State made it fairly easy a few years back to get new copies of a birth certificate. If I want another copy, I just have to go to any county's vital statistics office and get one. When I go to renew my passport this year, I'll be looking into duplicates, and I want to get one of the new passport cards, since one of the places I like to travel to is Canada. I also have two Social Security cards, because one ended up misplaced, I had to go get a new one, and then I ended up finding the other.

__________________
If I am not better, at least I am different. --Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Zeraph

I have some important stuff in a safe, and a safety deposit box. Other than that I'm terrible. Papers litter my floor. I just end up throwing them away in bulk when I get sick of it, not know what I might be throwing away. So far so good though

Grasshopper Green

My passport is in my purse.

Everything else is in a storage box that would not survive a flood or fire. I really should get one of those fire and waterproof safes. I tend to pile stuff on top of the box for a couple of months and then do a mass filing. I am pretty organized once the paper gets into the box - auto stuff, certificates, health records, hubby's military stuff, housing papers, etc. each have their own folder - I try not to just jam stuff in the box.

I did save myself a lot of time once because I hang on to my papers. When hubby and I moved back to Utah after he left the military, I wanted to start back to school. In Utah, if you move back within 48 months of moving away, you don't have to re-establish residency. I was gone 49 months. Thankfully, I kept check stubs from a job I held for 2 months (in Utah) while hubby was on deployment. Because I could prove I really only lived away for 47 months, they didn't make me wait the year.

__________________
"They say that patriotism is the last refuge to which a scoundrel clings; steal a little and they throw you in jail, steal a lot and they make you king"

Formerly Medusa

KirStang

Got my passport, birth cert, and a copy of my naturalization cert in my safe. My other papers are sitting in a file drawer in my Law desk.

I think, I want to invest in a sentry fire-safe, and keep all my important school, military and associated legal documents in there. I also want to insert said safe in to my fire-resistant gun safe. Double protection. Awesome.

That said, I think a duplicate passport is a great idea. Maybe with alternating expiration dates so you can always travel?

Charlatan

We have a drawer in our bedroom in which we keep most of our important papers. The rest is in an accordion folder in a cupboard.

All the truly important stuff has been scanned and stored.

We have few very important things anymore.

__________________
"My hands are on fire. Hands are on fire. Ain't got no more time for all you charlatans and liars."
- Old Man Luedecke

SirLance

Ditto. If I don't need an original, it get's scanned, filed (I'm one of those organized people) and the image stored online, using a secure service my internet/cable provider charges me a modest fee for.

You may not know this, but if you take a photocopy of the facing page of your passport and you lose your passport, you can go to any U.S. Embassy or Consulate overseas and get a replacement issued on the spot. In the US, you would go to a passport center, but they aren't in every city.

So I always travel with 2 or 3 photocopies stashed in various places, also I leave a couple with my office to fedex in the event I need it.

__________________
DEMOCRACY is where your vote counts, FEUDALISM is where your count votes.

Ourcrazymodern?

My important stuff
isn't made out of paper,
it's older than that.

When documents define me,
I'll just put my arms behind my back
& bleed on them a little.

__________________
BE JUST AND FEAR NOT

amonkie

I'm along with Charlatan -Accordion fold for the things that are current and need quick access.

Birth Certificates, stocks, and bonds are in my parents fireproof safe. Certified copies in a lockbox.

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Calling from deep in the heart, from where the eyes can't see and the ears can't hear, from where the mountain trails end and only love can go... ~~~ Three Rivers Hare Krishna

ItWasMe

They are in the same fireproof safe that the guns and ammo are stored in.

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"Ok, no more truth-or-dare until somebody returns my underwear" ~ George Lopez

I bake cookies just so I can lick the bowl. ~ ItWasMe

noodle

I have everything in a filing cabinet right next to me, actually.
Based on the filing system from Rich Dad, Poor Dad.

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remy1492

I scan most stuff. Then use truecrypt (free) to encrypt it to a storage file, and email that file to myself. I also burn a DVD of files and send it to my parents every so often in case my house burns down.
Photos of my possessions, house, insurance stuff. Documents etc...

you only realize how important they are once you try to get a copy, argh the pain with waiting in lines.