Every UK household owns the same drawer. In it: a boiler manual for a boiler two boilers ago, a receipt so faded it's now just a suggestion, and four envelopes marked "IMPORTANT" containing mysteries. The drawer exists because nobody ever tells you how long anything actually needs keeping — so everything gets kept, forever, unfindably.
Here's the actual answer, document by document. The short version: far less than you keep, for longer than you think, and the receipt that matters most is the one for anything still under warranty.
The retention table
| Document | Keep for | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Receipts for anything under warranty | Life of the warranty, minimum | The receipt is the warranty, in practice — no proof of purchase, no claim. |
| Receipts for big purchases | 6 years (5 in Scotland) | The Consumer Rights Act lets you claim against the retailer for faulty goods for up to 6 years in England, Wales and NI — long after the "warranty" expired. |
| Tax records — employed | At least 22 months after the end of the tax year | HMRC's own minimum if you file a return. Keeping the full 6 years costs nothing and ends every argument. |
| Tax records — self-employed | At least 5 years after the 31 January deadline | HMRC's legal minimum for business records. Not negotiable, occasionally checked. |
| P60s and payslips | 6 years minimum; ideally until retirement | They're how you win an argument with HMRC or a pension provider about your own past. They take up no space. Keep them. |
| Bank statements | ~1 year on paper | Your bank holds 6+ years digitally. A statement line also counts as proof of purchase if the receipt has faded to nothing. |
| Utility bills | ~1 year | Longer only if you claim home-working expenses — then they're tax records (see above). |
| House purchase pack — deeds, searches, planning permissions, building-regs certificates, FENSA, guarantees | As long as you own the house. Effectively forever. | Every one of these will be demanded, urgently, the week you sell. Damp-proof and window guarantees are worthless without the paperwork. |
| Boiler service records | Life of the boiler | Manufacturer warranties require an annual service — the records are the proof. Also the first thing a buyer's surveyor asks about. |
| Gas safety & electrical certificates (landlords) | Gas: 2 years by law. EICR: until superseded. | Legal duties with dates attached. Keep copies beyond the minimum; disputes outlive tenancies. |
| Insurance policies | Policy term + until any claim window has closed | The schedule matters more than the booklet — it's what says what you're actually covered for. |
| MOT certificates & service history | MOTs: optional (records are online). Service history: keep it all. | MOT history is on gov.uk. A complete service history, though, is real money at resale time. |
| Home improvement receipts | While you own the house | Proof for insurance, proof for buyers, and if the house ever stops being your main home, evidence for capital gains calculations. |
The warranty trap
Three things about warranties that the leaflet doesn't make obvious:
- "Proof of purchase" doesn't have to be the till receipt. A card statement or order confirmation showing the retailer, date and amount usually does the job. Useful, because —
- Thermal receipts self-destruct. The shiny ones fade to blank paper in a year or two, with a talent for finishing the job just before the appliance breaks. Photograph them the week you get them.
- The manufacturer's warranty is the floor, not the ceiling. Your Consumer Rights Act rights run against the retailer for up to six years and don't care what the warranty card says. A fridge that dies in year three of a "one-year warranty" can still be the shop's problem — if you can prove when and where you bought it. Which is the receipt, again.
- Register the appliance anyway — at the manufacturer or via registermyappliance.org.uk. Not for the warranty spam: it's how they find you when the model is recalled for setting fire to kitchens.
Paper or digital?
For almost everything above, a clear photo or scan is fine — HMRC accepts legible digital copies of most records, and a photographed receipt beats a faded original every time. The short list worth keeping physically: title deeds and anything with a wet-ink signature or a seal (wills, share certificates, some guarantees). Everything else can live as pixels, provided the pixels are somewhere you can actually find them — a camera roll with nine thousand photos of receipts, children and dogs, interleaved, does not count as a filing system.
General guidance, not tax or legal advice. The genuinely unusual situations — trusts, businesses, inheritance, marital archaeology — deserve a professional, not a web page.
Or: photograph it, forward it, forget it.
The House Holder reads your receipts and paperwork, names them, files them against the right thing, and remembers the warranty end dates so you don't have to. You can even email documents straight in. It's the drawer, with a brain. Still the most boring app in the world.
More from the boring shelf: The UK home maintenance calendar — what to do, month by month.