Post #2780414

2026-05-09 09:09 UTC

Asked myself which documents I have to keep for how long. I found this German Verbraucherzentrale [article](https://www.verbraucherzentrale.de/wissen/digitale-welt/datenschutz/aufbewahrungspflichten-welche-unterlagen-muss-ich-wie-lange-behalten-84296) ([Google translated](https://www-verbraucherzentrale-de.translate.goog/wissen/digitale-welt/datenschutz/aufbewahrungspflichten-welche-unterlagen-muss-ich-wie-lange-behalten-84296?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=eo&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp)) about document retention times. But that information doesn't give me a workflow. What are your workflows for new documents to scan(tags, correspondent, unique number). How do you keep track of out-aged paper which can be disposed? What's your pdf backup strategy?

Replies (3)

@BennyInc@feddit.org 2026-05-09 09:15

I posted my paperless backup strategy here: https://lemmy.world/post/46429607 As for retention time, in digital I don’t care. Storage is cheap enough for that amount of data. Paper I tend to only keep very important documents, but haven’t done a full inventory scan yet.

Open ##2780425
@KatherinaReichelt@feddit.org 2026-05-11 11:13

If it's digital, I'm keeping it. A scan it's just a few kilobytes. And for a normal private person, the storage amount needed is absolutely minimal. Even if you get one important document per mail per day and scan it with a 1MB filesize, you're looking at 365MB per year. If you're 20 right now and are looking at a life expectancy of 85, that would be 365MB*65 = 23GB of storage.

Open ##2780426
@dan@upvote.au 2026-05-10 04:53

For backups I use Borgbackup with Borgmatic, to two different storage VPSes (hosted by two different providers in two different regions).

Open ##2780427