Photo Credit: EvelynGiggles
If you run a small business chances are you’ll need to keep years of tax information and other important documents in some form of storage. Usually, this means you’ll have stacks of boxes and confidential documents clogging up your office.
Instead of having these documents take up precious space in your home or place of work, many business owners have opted for renting a Woodbridge self storage unit. You don’t want these documents to become damaged or end up in the wrong hands, so you’ll need to take extra precaution.
We’re going to highlight a few of our best tips for taking care of your sensitive business documents. You have enough to worry about as it is, so don’t let having to keep years of printed business documents weight you down.
What Are The Right Documents To Keep?
You probably have a lot of documents to sort through. Knowing the correct documents to store and which ones to get rid of can be very beneficial. You’d hate to hold onto documents for years when they’d be better suited for the trashcan.
Documents to keep permanently include: tax returns, year-end financial summaries, bond and stock certificates, deeds of ownership, health and trust records, birth certificates, and custody and death records.
Documents to keep for a short period of time include: paycheck stubs, utility and phone bills, monthly bank and credit card statements, monthly mortgage statements, brokerage statements, and any cancelled checks or tax deductible expenses.
Documents to trash include: bank deposit slips, credit card receipts, receipts for minor purchases, old magazines and articles, and any documentation and warranties for items you no longer own.
Consider External Factors
Once you have your collection of documents under control it’s time to move on to external factors that could destroy your documents. The downfall about storing paper documents is that it’s easy for them to get damaged. Factors like light, moisture and temperature can make all of your documents virtually unreadable.
When you’re organizing your documents you’ll need to think about which ones you’ll need to access regularly and place these documents towards the front of your unit. Otherwise, you run the risk of damaging or losing certain papers when you have to shuffle them about.
Keep all of your documents dry from the start and invest in proper containers to keep your documents in good condition. This means you’ll want to go beyond simple cardboard boxes, and purchase plastic containers that have snap-on lids. These will help to keep moisture out. It can also be valuable to store your containers on top of wooden pallets to keep them elevated.
Investing in the proper Woodbridge storage unit is very crucial in keeping your business documents safe. When it comes time to keep your goods safe and protected we hope you consider Gateway Storage . We love to serve our customers across the Alexandria, Woodbridge, and Springfield counties, as well as most of Northern Virginia.