If you lost your wallet, how easily could you identify and replace everything in it? In an emergency, how quickly could you find your birth certificate or other important papers? In week 33 of the 52-Week Decluttering Challenge, we’re taking on the critical task of organizing important documents. We’ll also put together an emergency binder so we, or our loved ones, can easily find things in case of an emergency.

I’ve always considered myself to be on top of this kind of stuff. When I started this week’s task, I thought it would be more of an organizing exercise than a decluttering task. I was about to be surprised by what I found.

Are you ready for week 33? Let’s go!

This post was originally published in August 2021 and republished in September 2024.

What is the 52-Week Decluttering Challenge?

In this year-long journey, we’re tackling one task at a time with the goal of cleaning up and organizing our homes. If you’ve just joined us, no worries. You can jump right in with this week’s challenge. Just check out the first two posts in the series to download your free checklists.

• 52-Week Decluttering Challenge
• Week 1 – Easy Decluttering Checklist

You can get easy access to all previous weekly posts on the main Decluttering page.

Week 33 – Organizing important documents

In our household, I’m the one who looks after the bills, investments, and keeping our records organized and up to date. It’s a task I don’t mind doing but having one person look after everything comes with a risk. As I started this week’s challenge, I asked myself if my husband would be able to find things if anything happened to me. I had to admit the answer was no.

My goal for this week was to get everything well organized so he could find things if he ever needed to.

Over the years, I’ve developed what I thought was a good habit of filing important documents in a file box. We also had the beginnings of an emergency binder where we keep our wills, powers of attorney and a few other items. So, I was in good shape, right?

The problem is my good habit turned into a bad habit because I just kept stuffing everything in the file box without ever organizing it and getting rid of old stuff. Maybe I did need a little decluttering in this area!

This week’s decluttering and organizing tips

Before we get to what I got rid of, here are my tips and learnings from week 33.

• Stop the clutter before it starts! For years, I kept every single credit card statement and every receipt. These days, I discard most paper receipts, and I scan receipts for large purchases right away. That’s definitely a space saver.
• Take pictures or scan copies of important documents like passports, birth certificates, social insurance cards, marriage certificates, and divorce papers.
• Shred all documents with personal information. If you don’t have a shredder, these papers also make great fire starter. Seriously though, with over 60,000 reports of fraud in 2023 in Canada, a shredder is well worth its cost to prevent your information from getting into the wrong hands.
• Keep a record of everything in your wallet. I learned the hard way how important this is when I lost my wallet years ago. But I have to admit I’ve been complacent over the years, and I needed to update my records.

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Emergency binder

Create an emergency binder. Without a doubt, this is the most important tip from this week’s exercise. I could write a whole post on this alone. Stay tuned, I might just do that. For now, here is a list of what to put in your emergency binder:

• Wills
• Powers of attorney
• Family member names, addresses and phone number
• Contact details for doctors, lawyer, financial advisor
• Bank details and contact information
• Safety deposit box information and location of key
• Life insurance policies
• Health insurance details
• Retirement account information
• Other investment account information
• Credit card and loan details
• A list of your social media accounts and passwords

Keep copies of all these documents electronically in case of fire or other natural disaster, but it’s also good to have a paper copy. Put the binder in a secure place and, most importantly, let your family members know where and how to find it if they need it.

What I got rid of

Although this wasn’t supposed to be a decluttering exercise, as I was getting organized, I stumbled upon a box of old receipts and account statements dating back to 2013. Between that and clearing out outdated items from our important documents file box, and scanning items that I don’t need to keep paper copies of, I filled this huge box of papers. I’m seeing a bonfire in our future.

I’m not sure how many items this is and I’m not about to count every piece of paper to find out. There are thousands of pieces of paper in that box, but I’ll just add 100 items to my decluttering tally for the year.

I did have a bit of fun when I found the bill of sale for my very first car! It was a 1985 Hyundai Pony that I bought in 1988 for $3,830. I think my daughters will pay more than that for a year of car insurance for their first cars.

2024 Update

It has been three years so I’m rebooting the 52-Week Decluttering Challenge to see how much I can get rid of in 2024.

I’ve done a decent job of keeping my emergency binder up to date, and staying on top of my documents, so this was really a quick maintenance exercise. I updated the financial account listing in our emergency binder and took pictures of a few new items in my wallet.

So that’s week 33 done. Organizing important documents was a lot more work and took way longer than I expected. But everything is sorted and backed up now, so I don’t need to think about it for at least a year.

If you have friends or family members who could benefit from a little less clutter in their lives, please share this post and spread the word!

Do you have any tips for organizing important documents? Tell us below.