What to do with a shoebox of receipts

Somewhere in your home there is a shoebox, an envelope or a drawer full of receipts that you intend to deal with. This is how to deal with them in an evening.

Before you start

Clear a table, put on something to listen to, and find a good light. Set a limit of two hours; a pile like this tends to expand to fill whatever time you give it.

Sort first, capture second

Spread everything out and make rough piles by month. Do not read, decide or categorize yet. Sorting is quick and it makes the next step much calmer, because you are now looking at a short stack rather than a mountain.

Newest first

Start with the most recent pile. The recent ones are the ones you can still remember, and the ones most likely to matter: warranties, returns, this year's paperwork.

Photograph in batches

Take a photo of each receipt on a flat surface and move on. Do not fix details as you go; the details can be read from the photo afterwards and checked in one sitting. If a receipt is faded, photograph it from a slight angle in good light and keep the original.

Thermal paper fades

Till receipts are usually printed on heat-sensitive paper, and the print fades with time, sunlight and warmth. That is the real reason to do this now: a receipt that is readable today may be blank in two years.

Stop when it stops being worth it

Old receipts for small amounts are rarely worth the effort. Do the ones that matter, keep the rest in the box for a year, and then let them go.