This was supposed to be our saviour from paper clutter. Spots for him and her, shred it and file it, husband’s business stuff. We were going to meet every Tuesday night and clear it out. That lasted two weeks before we just got too busy dealing with the rest of the stuff. Paper clutter is insidious.
That’s why I’ve decided to go (almost) paperless.
Going Paperless at Home
Here’s how I went paperless:
- Sort all loose paper into file – shred – recycle – scan.
- Go through current filing system and declutter your papers. Look for expired warranties or manuals for things you no longer own. Check your tax laws for what you can safely shred and when from your tax files (frankly, it really shouldn’t be this meticulous to get a tax refund). Look for sentimental items you no longer want or want to scan for safe keeping (like high school report cards, personal letters).
- Shred. File. Recycle. Start scanning!
- Make a system for incoming papers. Be it one spot that you deal with weekly or a habit of opening mail, recycling or filing it right away. Think about what works for you in your home. That’s the best way to go paperless: find a system that works for you.
- Sign up for as many e-bills and e-statements as you can
This job is not done. Yet. There is a small box of items my husband needs to look through and I have at least a half day of shredding to do.
But below you will see my future. One file folder and a USB key. I’ve scanned my high school diploma, unofficial university transcripts, a few receipts, some statements about our mortgage I don’t have access to online and a few other odds and ends. The rest will be shredded or recycled.
Many moons ago I temped at a health clinic. They were in the process of going paperless. The process meant that everything was scanned and also kept. Nightmare. Luckily I made the executive decision to skip transition and just dive right in.
I need to do some research to see how much I can thin out in that little folder. Are scanned copies okay for:
- life insurance
- tax returns
- mortgage/sale/home purchase documents
I’ll look into what I legally need to keep and hopefully get rid of even more.
And here it is…
I really don’t know if going paperless is possible. I still have to pay some bills on paper. And, I thought that taking the time to scan in all the years of tax returns would take way to long. I would need more information to go completely paperless. Also, what happens if a hurricane comes, and there is no electricity? That happened and we noticed that the paper address books were suddenly important, and having paper copies, since the computers no longer had power. Anyway, we live in FL, and it’s good to have many copies of everything, one in the computer, and one in the house, etc. I’ve tried to scale down the photos, not needed two copies, if one is scanned in. Thanks for the article. I will try to think about it.
Please post if you find out if scanned tax returns are acceptable.
This is what I have found so far: if you file electronically with NetFile you can just keep the electronic version of your tax return. However, supporting document must be kept in original format. So yes, this means you have to keep receipts, T4s, etc in a hard copy format for seven years. You can read more here: http://www.incometaxcanada.net/news/books-records-tax-info.htm.
This reminds me, decluttering our overflowing file cabinet is on our list. Since I have been home and collecting the mail each day, I cannot get over how much paper there is. I received a paperless mail thing from Fido and Canada Post recently and have kept it… where? In the “inbox” ofcourse… LOL!
“Here’s what is says: ePost in three easy steps. 1. register for free epost account at canadapost.ca/fido, 2. add fido as a mailer to your account with a single click, 3. receive, manage and pay your bills online.” This was from Fido, but it looks like you can receive other bills this way as well. See link below (also contest to win $5,000 bill payment):
http://www.canadapost.ca/cpo/mc/business/campaigns/epost/default.jsf?ecid=murl10005888