this tip mines the history vault. benjamin franklin may just be the genesis of this idea by commenting that fish and houseguests stink after three days. what does that have to do with organizing, you ask? simple. ol' ben had a deadline in mind, and no matter that fish and guests seemed like different problems altogether, he knew that one deadline kept his life simpler.
we take this approach to paper archives that have a habit of building up in filing cabinets. we've seen some magazines advocate for a complicated system of different deadlines depending on the type of paper--frankly, it makes our heads spin. so our solution? seven years. keep your paper trail for seven years. at the start of every new year, pull all of last year's paper, tuck it into sturdy envelopes and (this is important) add seven. this becomes your destroy date. write it clearly on the envelopes, and when the date rolls around, the paper heads to the shredder. simple.
oh, and ben may have said a little something about death and taxes too--and that's our one exception to the seven year rule: taxes stay forever.
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