Digitising your household documents: a method to empty the drawers in a weekend

Every home has its document drawer. Then a second one. Then the box in the loft. When you need a document — the washing machine warranty, the tenancy agreement, the vaccination record — you tip everything onto the table and hope. And if the other parent isn't home, they have no way of finding it.

Digitising the family archive sounds like a huge job. With a method, one weekend and half an hour a week afterwards is enough.

Before you start: what not to throw away

A digital copy is very convenient, but for some documents the original is still required: notarial deeds, identity documents, official certificates, qualifications, signed contracts, some tax documents. Digitising is for finding and consulting documents, not replacing originals with legal value. When in doubt, keep the original in one safe place.

1. Decide the categories

Before photographing, decide the folders. Few and clear:

• Identity and family: certificates, personal documents
• Health: for each member
• Home: contracts, mortgage or rent, building management, systems
• Utilities: electricity, gas, water, internet
• Tax: returns and receipts, by year
• Car: registration, insurance, repairs
• Purchases and warranties
• School: for each child

In KidBox documents you create folders and categories as you like, and search finds files by name and tag.

2. Three piles

Empty the drawer and split everything into three piles:

• digitise and keep the original
• digitise, then discard (according to retention periods)
• discard now: advertising, duplicates, long-expired documents

For retention periods, see the rough guide in how long to keep family documents.

3. Photograph well

You don't need a scanner: a smartphone is enough, with a few tips:

• natural light, document on a dark background
• every page, including the back if it has information
• one file per document, not scattered photos per page
• PDF for multi-page documents

4. Names you can find

The file name is the difference between an archive and a digital heap. A simple scheme: year · type · who/what. "2024 · Tenancy agreement · High Street", "2025 · Warranty · Washing machine", "2026 · Report card · Sara". Add a tag when useful.

5. The right place for everything

• everyone's ID documents: in the wallet, with the expiry date highlighted
• receipts for deadlines and jobs: attached directly to the home deadline, the car job or the medical visit, so they go into documents but stay linked to the event
• everything else: in its category's folder

6. Encrypted and shared

A family digital archive holds very sensitive documents. In KidBox files are encrypted on the device with the family key before upload, and visible only to family members. More in why encryption isn't a detail.

After the weekend: the new-arrivals rule

The archive only stays tidy if every new document goes in when it arrives: the bill, the receipt, the school letter. Thirty seconds. Once a week, ten minutes for whatever has piled up.

In short

Keep originals with legal value, decide a few categories, split everything into three piles, photograph well with one file per document, name files with year, type and subject, put everything in the right place and add new documents the day they arrive. The drawers get emptied once. Then they stay empty.