Document Retention Map Skill

Households and small businesses keep documents by anxiety — everything, forever, in boxes — or by accident — nothing, discovered at audit time. Retention is actually a small map: a dozen categories, each with a keep-period driven by who could ask for it and for how long (tax authorities, courts, insurers, warranty desks), a short keep-forever list, and a destruction discipline for everything past its date — because keeping expired documents isn't safety, it's liability plus clutter. Periods are jurisdiction-specific; the map states category logic and flags every number verify-locally.

What This Skill Produces

• The retention map — categories × keep-periods × storage location, jurisdiction-flagged throughout
• The keep-forever list — the short set where the answer never expires
• The digitize rules — what a scan fully replaces, what needs the paper original, and the scan-filing route
• The purge ritual — the annual pass that destroys (shreds, not bins) what's aged out

Required Inputs

Ask for these if not provided:

• The scope — personal household, freelancer, or small business (business adds employment, corporate, and customer-data categories with their own clocks)
• Jurisdiction, loosely — retention periods are set by local tax law, statutes of limitations, and industry rules; every stated period is a common-pattern placeholder flagged for local verification
• The current state — boxes? A scanner backlog? Already digital? The rollout starts from reality
• Special categories — property owned, ongoing disputes, professional licensing — each extends specific clocks