I'm a bit of a hoarder of paperwork. It comes, I know, from my previous career with the Revenue, where one was told to keep everything up to seven years old, and one expected everyone else to do the same.
So, anyway, Signora Rogin and I had a bit of a clear-out last weekend, of my "important papers" cabinet, which although only about 3 foot cubed, had begun to weigh about a metric tonne and much of which, I admit, was not exactly filed in any particular order (nor indeed read, much of it still being in unopened envelopes). We began by agreeing that we'd fill a bin bag or two, and take it to go and throw it all on a big bonfire my sister-in-law was already planning that weekend at her farmhouse.
So we did, and yes, there were bagfuls of it. Old payslips, folders full of old printed bank statements, old car insurance policy documents (all 50 pages of them, you know those leaflets they sent you? I'd kept then all. I'm going back to 1993, here). All merrily thrown into the bag, that ended up going up in flames.
I'd made sure, of course, in the "purge", that I'd kept the important bits. Current house insurance, mortgage, utility information. Our birth certs, wedding certs, passports. My O Levels. A Levels. Degree Certs. Car related stuff. My work pension documents. All good. What could be missing?
Only when we got home from my sister-in-law's, I began to have a nagging doubt at the back of my mind. Where were my life assurance documents? The ones, er, supporting my mortgage for my - well - widow - if I was to, er, snuff it? A frenzied - much less frenzied, really, given that my important cabinet now consisted of about 30 pieces of paper - check revealed that yes, I had put them on the pyre. Thankfully, this afternoon, a phone call through to Scottish Widows (don't see why I shouldn't name them, as they've been so so helpful) meant that they are sending through the new versions and certificates of everything I'd inadvertently, well, burnt.
Any paperwork you've ever lost or got back, or not been able to?
So, anyway, Signora Rogin and I had a bit of a clear-out last weekend, of my "important papers" cabinet, which although only about 3 foot cubed, had begun to weigh about a metric tonne and much of which, I admit, was not exactly filed in any particular order (nor indeed read, much of it still being in unopened envelopes). We began by agreeing that we'd fill a bin bag or two, and take it to go and throw it all on a big bonfire my sister-in-law was already planning that weekend at her farmhouse.
So we did, and yes, there were bagfuls of it. Old payslips, folders full of old printed bank statements, old car insurance policy documents (all 50 pages of them, you know those leaflets they sent you? I'd kept then all. I'm going back to 1993, here). All merrily thrown into the bag, that ended up going up in flames.
I'd made sure, of course, in the "purge", that I'd kept the important bits. Current house insurance, mortgage, utility information. Our birth certs, wedding certs, passports. My O Levels. A Levels. Degree Certs. Car related stuff. My work pension documents. All good. What could be missing?
Only when we got home from my sister-in-law's, I began to have a nagging doubt at the back of my mind. Where were my life assurance documents? The ones, er, supporting my mortgage for my - well - widow - if I was to, er, snuff it? A frenzied - much less frenzied, really, given that my important cabinet now consisted of about 30 pieces of paper - check revealed that yes, I had put them on the pyre. Thankfully, this afternoon, a phone call through to Scottish Widows (don't see why I shouldn't name them, as they've been so so helpful) meant that they are sending through the new versions and certificates of everything I'd inadvertently, well, burnt.
Any paperwork you've ever lost or got back, or not been able to?
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