What to Do With Your Important Documents

Personal documents are important for data tracking, financial records, and plenty of other reasons.  Even though these documents are critical for certain tasks, they are also confidential and must be securely stowed.  Identity theft and financial theft are incredibly common when your documentation gets into the wrong hands.  As a recycling company that helps with certified document shredding in Orlando, we help people discard their secure documents in a safe way.  Most people keep track of their personal documents by keeping them in a filing cabinets or even personal safes.  There are a few things you should do with your important documents to keep them organized and secure.

Keep Them Secure Forever

Important personal documents that keep your identity safe should be kept forever.  These should also be kept in a secure location that only you know about.  This way, they will stay protected from theft and being lost.  These documents include birth certificates, social security cards, pension plan documents, ID cards, and marriage licenses.  You should also keep records of any property ownership you have, like a business license, house deeds, and mortgage documents.  These are important for any future informational documentation you may need to fill out for your job or bank.  These documents should be kept in a safe location forever.

Save Them for a Little While

There are certain documents that you want to be sure to keep for a short amount of time.  You should keep these properly stowed and organized inside a filing cabinet.  It is recommended to organize them into files that are properly labeled, so that you can easily find them when you need them.  These documents are often financial related, like tax records, receipts, pay stubs, and bank statements.  These may help with the tax filing process.  It is recommended to keep these filed for a year or two after the taxes have been filed, just in case anything were to go wrong in the process.

Shred Them

When you get rid of important documents that contain personal information, like your social security number, address, bank information, and credit card information, you will want to properly shred them to hide information.  They should then be recycled to help save the environment from wasting paper.  These documents should include past tax documents that are no longer needed, used airline tickets, expired credit cards, and expired ID cards.  

It is important to understand how to properly keep track of your personal documents, whether you keep them forever, save them for a little while, or shred them immediately.  Once you discard your documents properly, you should always recycle them to help save the environment.  As recycling center that helps with certified document shredding in Orlando, we help our clients safely and securely dispose of their documents.  Contact us today if you are looking for recycling services.