What to Save, What to Shred

Keep your Social Security cards, birth certificates, marriage license, car title, military discharge papers and other key documents in a fire-proof box or bank safe deposit box. The same goes for your passport and copies of credit cards and other important items that could be stolen. Another option: Exchange copies of important documents with a trusted friend or family member.

Your family may need access to estate-planning documents such as a living trust, will, powers of attorney or health-care proxies, so they should not be stored in a safe deposit box. Make sure to distribute copies to the proper attorneys, executors and/or trustees.

You might consider filling a briefcase or box with key documents. That way if you have to evacuate your home you can grab it on your way out the door. Or go digital: Scan documents and burn them to a disk, or send them to an online storage firm.

O'Planick does just that with all of her business paperwork -- it's uploaded in encrypted form each day and stored securely on a server in Texas. When her computer failed recently and she lost some data, the company was able to recover and return it all.

"You need a strategy so you can access your most important papers when you need to," she says. "You need to save the ones you need for taxes. Then, make a point to shred or recycle everything else."