So, I know this isn't a caregiving question, per se...but I thought I would ask for opinions.
I'm finally at the tail end of going through mom's possessions. Now I'm just weeding through all of her paperwork. To say that mom liked to save paperwork is like saying the sun is kinda hot.
I have about 8 file boxes/banker's boxes full of old paperwork, including a box full of years and years of bank statements.
Her estate has been settled, and all funds paid out; none of these accounts are open anymore.
So, do you think it's necessary to shred all of the pages of the statements? Or just the "cover" page that has her name and address on it? In theory, no one should be able to use her SS# for ID theft, since it was reported to SS that she passed away; and frankly, even if someone is able to use it, that's not going to be my problem to solve - at least, I don't think it would be.
Would you spend hours shredding? Or just throw it into recycling?
I realized DH has the same tendencies his parents have with paperwork and he deflects. He accuses me of having the most stuff in the house. It is hard not to have plates to eat on, pots to cook in a table to eat at a living room set, etc. I was amused since we did initially have a bunch of TVs. I don’t know how that happened. I fixed that. We have 2 that are used. The rest are donated or given to people. After cleaning out his parents house, I started on ours.
DH was in shock. My place will feel bigger sooner and be easier to clean. Piano, sleeper sofa, bench, old historical papers off to sisters who want them. Historical book dad gave me was given to sister who could use it in her work. Will be checking out antique stores to sell some of my antiques I inherited since I never wanted them in the first place. My house is small.
I want the pleasure of enjoying my home without the clutter. I just need to ask sisters that I really don’t want birthday presents.
No exceptions. If anyone gives us a "gift" that is stuff, we tell them how much we appreciate it but, we have no need. If the giver wants it back, great, if not, it gets donated.
It took a while to get people to understand that we appreciate the thought but, we buy what we need and we don't want great products just being stored when someone could really use and enjoy it.
Oh, I see that you answered your own query seven hours ago.
My sisters and I (and once in a while our brother) sat in the living room of her old home and went through every box in 3 hour sessions over months. Greeting cards and other things with incomplete names and no addresses or information went straight into big black trash bags. Everything with a complete name or an address or any personal information went into a shred box. There was no estate to speak of. Once the bills were paid, etc., there remains about $1000 each. The sister who is executor will keep the account open until Mom has been gone a full year, just in case. However, any scrap that might allow some unscrupulous person to file a false claim against the estate will be shredded and taken to a facility that will accept shredded paper for recycling. We will pay for that. Reason? The estate cannot afford the legal fees to handle a false claim. Those who would cheat you will think of all sorts of ways to misuse or misrepresent data they may get from the trash. Shred it all and have it securely recycled. It is worth it. If you are your mother's executor, it will be your problem if someone makes a false claim against the estate. Even if a claim is false, it must be answered. It is not anyone else's problem, it is yours. Take the time or money for the shredding. It is worth it.
Well, it's been 4 days of shredding, but we're mostly through it. DH and I have worked out a pretty good system, I sort and he shreds.
I probably could have asked my neighbor to use his burn barrel; but this really hasn't taken as long as I had thought it might.
ITRR - I had no idea that compressed paper would only smolder and not burn! I guess since fire needs oxygen to burn, the paper pressed together robs it of that.
I'm going to hold onto her tax papers. Not just the 7/10 years, but ALL of them (back from 1955, no kidding!) I want to talk to my accountant and see what his recommendation is; but I'm also going to hold onto them for a bit to take a look, maybe along with my sisters. I think it might be fascinating to look back at tax records from 70 years or such, DH said it's a little bit of history, and I agree. It's only 1 box of stuff, not at all unmanageable once the time comes to have to get rid of it.
Thank you for all of your suggestions!
My friend is helping her hoarder niece--they hauled 50lbs of PAPERS out of her bedroom and friend said they had only scratched the surface--everything is in big black garbage bags and that's how she 'sorts' her paperwork. Even though most of the stuff they destroyed was over 12 years old--her SS # and such has not changed, so it could be used by someone to open accts. The kicker was that none of the mail was opened, bills and ads, magazines and catalogs--all still in unopened packaging.
The cost to shred this was $150, so they're looking for a cheaper way to do this, b/c it will cost thousands, if they actually get through it.
Friend said that THEY had to remove all staples and such---I don't know how that is even possible.
I'm intrigued by people who hoard everything that comes in the house--truly, I am baffled by people who feel they have to hang on to every piece of mail that comes in the house.
Personally, if I could, I'd burn all this stuff, but we're in a city and burning papers is not permitted.
A piece of advice that I heard a while back is to sort your mail over the recycling bin. Literally, don't even let it come in the house to be looked at later if it's something you already know is trash. 5/6 days of my life ALL my mail is recycled.
Don’t try to burn it all at once! It won’t burn well. Start a fire and add a few crumpled pages at a time. Please have a water hose or fire extinguisher near by.
Our neighbor died and her children blew in for ten days to deal with things. When they left, they asked if we would burn the rest of her items. No problem, it took 3 days to do a box and the fire department showed up.
Shredding is far, far easier. And, you can use the shredded paper as mulch or recycle.
Previously I had been removing any paper with names, etc and burning them out back in my burn pit or shredding in my paper shredder in the house. The papers without info and my shredded paper went to a local school paper recycling dumpster. The school gets paid for the paper.
What I can do is split it up and mail it to my sisters to deal with...again, just kidding. Well, kinda.
I would shred, myself, but it is made easy here by out scavenger service; we just haul in a box for shredding and it is free. After all that I have done this amounts to "easy".
I think you are "safe", but I would just do it because I do "overkill" normally. Congratulations on getting it all done, Good; it's a job, isn't it?
I too would shred it all; many solicitors (I don't know if any of the data in question includes this) use mail merge functions so that names appear repeatedly, as if the mass produced solicitations are individually tailored.
But I guess you're all correct, and better safe than sorry, so a-shredding I will be! Unfortunately, no shredding services near me, phooey
Keep tax returns and supporting documents, records of property or investment sales, appraisals, and the estate's bank statements and accounting records including payment to creditors for at least seven years.
Keep records of any trusts established with estate assets until at least 10 years after the youngest beneficiary becomes eligible to take their full share.
Keep the deceased person's death certificate, ongoing trust documents, the original will, and letters testamentary issued by the court indefinitely.
That's potentially a lot of paper for a larger estate. If you don't have room for all of it, consider keeping only originals, such as a signed will or certified copy of a death certificate, and scanning the rest. Keep a copy on an external hard drive or disk and back it up to the cloud as well. Check with your service provider to be sure that your data will be encrypted.
When you are ready to get rid of documents, be sure to shred them because many estate records contain significant personal information."
(source: https://info.legalzoom.com/article/how-long-keep-settled-estate-papers)
For my protection (my narcissistic sisters accused me of stealing Mom's money even though I was always open with her "books" and often told them if they had questions I'd show them everything. One sister, on advice from Mom's lawyer, did ask specific questions. I showed them all receipts and the statements I used showing every penny. Sister told the other "everything was on the up and up" but the accusations continued.).
Anyway, the thought of scanning two-foot length of documents exhausted me. For each month, I laid out the receipts and/or documents and carefully photographed the set, ensuring each photo was clearly showed the information. Actually, that process went pretty fast.
Unfortunately there are none in my immediate area and I still have boxes of stuff that I have been working through very, very slowly 🤣 - I wish I still had access to a burn barrel. You are lucky that only the cover page has identifying information, most of my stuff has something embedded on every page.
What concerns me is that one paper that has someone else's personal information on it.
If you are certain that nothing like that exists, then recycling is probably fine.