You see, we’ve tried going paperless in our household and failed four times over our ten years together. Each time I could tell that the system was not working within the first two weeks due to a number of tell-tale signs that the plan was doomed (described below). Before getting into those signs I’m happy to say that for the past four months I have been successful in my struggle against stray bills, receipts, and losing the mail I actually want to keep. The MVP in our war against well-meaning piles of paperwork has been a Neat Connect wireless scanner and its built-in option to export directly into my Evernote account (one of many export options). No computer to power up, no special software, and absolutely no hassle.
Nondescript Piles of Paper
If you’re anything like me you have a corner of your kitchen counter or dining room table that has half-opened mail sorted into the nondescript piles sorted by action; throw away, file-this-someplace-that’s-not-here, to-do-eventually, and junk. Within 24 hours the individual piles slowly merge back into a single heap of paperwork as toddlers crawl across the table, kids do their homework, and eventually the pile gets moved over to the far side of the table to make room for plates and cups when the evening meal is served.This means I’ve thrown away a lot of important mail, sensitive documents, report cards, and coupons we intended to use. We’ve tried moving the paper piles to less kid-accessible places, and this just resulted in creating a new pile of papers less likely to be handled. Parents of young children live in a world of best intentions. Finding the time to free up more file storage, come up with a physical filing system, and making sure only the really important stuff takes up physical space is a pretty big undertaking. We all know that the paper piles contain important things, secret things, and it might contain money, ask for money, or tempt me to spend money. The longer the pile sits and the bigger it grows the easier it is to accept that Schrödinger really just had a problem with unopened mail, not dead cats.
Tell-Tale Signs Your Paperless Plan Is Doomed
Keys to Breaking the Paper Pile Curse
Check out Part 2 of Living With Less Clutter tomorrow, and find out how my wife and I went paperless in our household.
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