Question for Writers

[rolanni]

...especially those who are living in small spaces.

Where do you keep all the paper and other records attached to the business of writing? Here at the Confusion Factory, we have four five-drawer file cabinets, plus overflow in file boxes in the basement. Granted, we're running two businesses out of the house -- SRM Publisher, and the Lee-Miller Authoring Empire -- but it comes to me that we are perhaps ...overzealous... in the matter of keeping papers.

Comments

[ramblin-phyl.livejournal.com]

I fill plastic sweater boxes with original MS and copyedits and store under the beds. One of these days I'll probably donate some of the effluvia to a charity auction.

Recipts, files etc over 10 years old get shredded. Technically I can do it after 7 years but I'm paranoid.

I'm not far off from renting mini storage for extra file cabinets and MS boxes.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

I do pretty much what you do. Plastic storage boxes in the basement for old manuscripts and records, and a single 4-drawer in the office for immediate needs. I could probably dump half the contents of the fie cabinet without missing much. It contains mostly research articles, stationery, con info, discs and software.

I am trying to get into the habit of getting research articles online and saving them electronically instead of automatically printing them out and filing them.

[torrilin.livejournal.com]

My father's business is run out of a 2 drawer and 4 drawer filing cabinet, both quite full. However... that does not include the box of plans, or any of the other large papers, just the basics of bills and such. He's also made a great deal of effort to eliminate needless paper in his business.

The amount you're keeping sounds much in excess of what he keeps, but a hardcopy of at least a final manuscript draft (for more secure backup) would take up rather a lot of room. So it doesn't sound totally unreasonable. It might be sensible to look over how long you're keeping financial records, and perhaps audit yourselves to see that only those required for regular business use are kept after the IRS audit period.

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

One thought - the businesses (and most homes) here in Japan do a yearly cleaning just before the new year. And they are quite serious about going through the year's accumulation and tossing anything that isn't needed.

Similarly, one business that I knew that was very good about records put "time bombs" on them - when they stored it, they put a date to review and usually dispose of it. And they went through those old files and got rid of them when the time came. I wish there were automatic obsolesence dates for politicians, but that's another story.