I’m not sure how it happened but one day the single junk drawer turned into drawers, the home office merged from nicely stacked “to do” and “to file” piles into a giant mound, and the night stand overflowed magazines intended “to read before bed”. My world was full of endless paper and clutter – creeping in via junk mail, unsolicited magazines, credit card statements, newspapers etc. Enough! A top goal this summer was to create a paperless household (except, of course, for essentials like toilet paper, tissues, paper towels, maybe a few favorite cookbooks). Benefits – less dust, clutter and so much less stress!
5 Steps to Creating a (near) Paperless Household
- Save documents to a wireless hard drive or to an online tool like dropbox
- Don’t allow mail or paper beyond the house entry, utilize a “holding area” like this one
- If printing is necessary, use the prints right away and then build that burn pile
- Throw away newspapers, magazines after 1 week or month — don’t let them pile up
- Use scanning apps for receipts and business cards