The paperless home

One of the challenges in almost all households is the ever increasing mountain of paperwork. There must be more to it than the endless paper mountain being created on my doormat. I used to like the idea of the paperless office and to a large extent I'm almost there.

No more memorandums, no more newsletters (on paper), no more post it notes etc etc. While I enjoy the freedom from paper in the office, I can't say the same to the mess of paper I have at home. I actually find it difficult as well as a chore to try to determine whether I should keep a document or not. And if I rang one of the companies who sent me a letter you can bet that they don't have a room full of copies of all the letters they send out to us. No, they have them all stored electronically and are willing to send you another copy just by printing it out again.

So, if they don't keep a paper copy, then why should I? Hmmm, Paperless house, here I come...

Not so fast! There are some things that you need to keep a hold of as paper. One of those things is something like a utility bill. This is the type of thing that some companies will insist on you having to help prove where you live. Just like when you want to open a library account, or hire a car, rent a video etc.

Apart from that, I really need to move to a less paper oriented environment.

The first step is to ask you bank, phone companies, and as many other companies you can ask, to send you an electronic version of your bills and to stop the paper version from coming out. This will help to stop the paper mountain on the doorstep from growing.

Next, you need to have a mechanism to both clear the years of paper you have collected as well as being able to handle the new post which lands through your door.

For this I have set up my multi-function printer to be able to scan any new documents into my network and to store these documents as PDF files. This should make them easier to retrieve and read at a later time should the need arise. I'm storing the documents in my file server with a regular backup configured to ensure document safety. I can also print out the doc should I need to.

And now to the really big challenge. How to get everyone else in the house to use this new method. Which means I need to show them how to scan. I can't see this catching on anytime soon in this house, however, I must try.

I'll keep you informed.