Digital archives will include a variety of digital files for your assets. Documenting your assets is critical to archiving. Some of the asset documents can include:
- Home documents such as deeds, mortgage papers, home improvement receipts, building permits, correspondence, plat maps, etc.
- Vehicle documents such as buy/sell papers, maintenance records, service receipts, etc. If you sell your vehicle the service records and receipts could be used in sales negotiations.
- Appliance documents including warranty, receipts, maintenance details, etc.
- Real Estate records for other property including deeds, sale related material, assessments, etc.
- Other files for equipment such as tools, camera components, or any other high-value items.
Here is a very basic asset template. You can use this as a starting point and modify the folder structure to fit your needs.
_Template_Assets
/Appliances
/RealEstate
/{house1}
/{house2}
/{land1}
/{land2}
/Vehicles
/{vehicle1}
/{vehicle2}
/{vehicle3}
You will probably add many more folders for your specific requirements.
Where should you store those scanned receipts? If you purchase a new refrigerator should you copy the digitized receipt in the folder for the current year or should you copy it in your assets folder? The answer is “both.” Copy the digitized receipt into the appropriate folder for the current year so that it can found by date of purchase. Also copy that receipt file to the asset directory. Digitized receipt files are very small and it takes a negligible amount of space to store the files in multiple locations.
