OMG, thank goodness you don't have three kid's school krap. Err, I mean precious mementos and groundbreaking work product.

We of course opt to receive all statements of all kinds online, and pay everything online. And whenever I get a catalogue, I call them up and ask them to take me off the list. We tend to put our mail in a basket on the breakfast table, and in the same area I have a file drawer in one cabinet with pendaflex. I file things in there, and then purge when it gets to be more than the drawer holds. Really important things ... documents, tax stuff, gets filed in the office.

I love the idea of the scanner, but haven't gotten around to actually getting one and starting the process. Let us know once you've used it if the software is "neater" than the previous one you had, I don't want to get something that will drive me crazy!

Like the scanner idea, but then don't you have to organize everything you scan too so you can find it later? That would drive me crazy knowing I have to set up another electronic file system. I'm OCD about it I guess, but I'd have to do it.

My daughter bought a scanner with good intentions of becoming a paper-"less" household. I think they've had it 3 months. It's still on the laundry room counter waiting for them to have time to set it up.

BPathome,

But why do you even need a binder for that? I make a point of communicating with everyone via email. So as long as I remember their name, or the subject, or even just the time frame, I can find the name of the sub who did such and such, and all the related "paperwork".

It took me a while to figure out No Ultra Plush, LOL

I have been working towards this for years. I download all manuals on ibooks and it is accessible from my iPad and iPhone. I stopped buying cookbooks and went pretty much electronic because I was just generating more books and magazine and buying furniture to house them. I converted my magazine subscriptions to Zinio so they are always available on my iPad and laptop. I recycle all catalogs immediately upon receipt (I can look up anything online and I don't need to be shopping anyway)! I don't have piles everywhere anymore. I have a huge stack of receipts from contractors to scan in over the next few weeks and these are OCRed and cataloged by keyword. The bane of my existence are receipts I collect from restaurants or local shopping. A friend has a good method which is to take a picture of them and shred them immediately. Will start trying this:-)

"So as long as I remember their name..."

Ha, for me that's the problem these days! I use a binder as well. I suppose I could set up a "Home Improvements" folder on the Mac, but that seems like a lot of work to me. Sigh. Not a tech person.

homepro: "I stopped buying cooktops..." I can't follow this -what are you referring to?

Paper or not organization of this sort of stuff is a NIGHTMARE..both have their down side. I though this was going to be about paper products in our homes..my son's new girl friend uses paper towels and spray something to clean counters etc. after cooking, eating at the table. One evening in her home drove me insane..the sticky counters and dirty table..somehow hot soapy water and a dish rag has a bad wrap!

I use a scan snap at work and it's a piece of cake. All of our invoicing/reimbursement/ordering etc. is online and everything is scanned and submitted. However, at home, we do not scan. We have a pretty good filing system and we still prefer the paper copies vs. scanned copies. For example, tomorrow we see our financial guy. It's easier to me to get in the file cabinet, pull the appropriate folder(s) and take what I need to the meeting. My beef is the stuff we don't need to keep that has info that requires it to be shredded. Which takes time. I am also my grandmother's POA and besides our own records/files, I have a set for her. Organization is key.

gramarow, I bet that was supposed to be cookbooks.

By far, the biggest paper problem in my house comes from the kid's schools. I am working on a way to deal with that. Middle school does not seem to be as bad (yet), but the one still in elementary school is just ridiculous. We have online statements where we can. I doubt a scanner would be anymore helpful for me because I would still have to organize that. My filing system had been neglected for a while and one of my goals this winter is to work on that, and get it somewhat color coded, etc. I am looking forward to using a bunch of it as fire-starter.

I saw this topic and was wondering how you would replace toilet paper, but I see that's not what you meant. LOL! Personally, I got rid of paper napkins. I bought all cloth napkins in black. They never show dirt, and go in the laundry. They come out clean and ready to use again. I am systematically scanning things and keeping them on an external drive, but I hear even that isn't permanent. Sigh.

I embraced the paper monster long ago. I want real, bound books. Get two newspapers every day. Don't want to have to stress about accidentally sending SDG&E $5500 instead of $550. My magazines have a nice feel to them in hand--those that no longer come on paper, fall off of my reading list. Notes go on Post-its; grocery lists on scrap paper. My money is covered with germs. Although I converted to cloth napkins, I think I am still one of the final curve holdouts.

I throw away lots; then file papers I want to keep every couple of months. It's not terribly much, but filing is kind of a "busman's holiday" for me, since I'm constantly filing, scanning, and organizing professionally.

I keep my papers in plastic file bins grouped by topic ("house," "personal," etc.) because I got frustrated with bulky cheap filing cabinets. Some of those things you absolutely need to keep in paper form (e.g., birth certificates, SS card)

If I need to scan something really important, I do it at work. I don't even have a printer at home.

ETA: The Internet has drastically cut down on paper clutter. I try not to keep anything in paper form which is easily accessible on the net. I used to keep stacks and stacks of magazines and catalogs -- no longer, yay!

- I process all mail immediately. It either goes into recycling or file as soon as it comes into the house. We are getting close to only having junk mail.

- Banking and bill paying is all online.

- All my magazines, books, newspapers are electronic. DH doesn't do this, he has a tremendous love for "real" books.

- All my recipes are scanned or pulled from online and kept on my ipad.

- Notes, receipts, purchases, meetings, appointments are kept in a "keeper" folder in my email program. I send myself an email with any attachments and a detailed subject line so it's easily searchable.

And don't forget to backup! I have a terabyte external hard drive that my computer automatically backup to every night. It's about the size of a deck of cards. I'm not trusting the cloud yet.

Next step is streamline scanning (I have a scanner but it's clunky) so look forward to your review KSWL!

if/when you (all) kick the bucket, are your heirs going to know where to look on your email, computers, and devices for the documentation they need and have the passwords to access all your electronic files? Will the banks, courts, and insurance companies accept scanned copies?

just something to think about

We bought a document scanner in 1995 (a Fujitsu). Put everything on CD's - the media of the future. Can't read the CD's because we put adhesive labels on them and the adhesive ate through the CD coating.

Put stuff on an FTP site - didn't renew the domain name - data gone.

Have a very expensive SCSI Raid 5 drive with most of my life on it. Win7 doesn't support SCSI anymore. Have to move all that data off to the latest "data backup of the moment device" before my WinXP computer dies (not "if", just "when").

Um, as violetwest asked, the banks, courts and others do not like scanned copies (they may accept them if somebody can pony up an original "something") - my situation anyway. They know the power of Photoshop - and they accepted a few electronic documents from me after my DH died, because my business was graphics (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.)

I had a lot of things documented in emails--800 and some odd, and one day I opened my email and they were all gone. Supposedly they are still there according to tech support, I just can't see them.

I also just got a new phone and had a number of things saved in text messages, that were originally transferred to the new phone, but when I updated something with messaging (which my phone recommended) most of the texts were lost.

I had a hard drive self destruct and lost hundreds of photos that I had saved over the years from the internet and from a digital camera whose software was obsolete almost immediately.

On the other hand, I have some paper documents from my great grandparents that survived a period of time in an unheated collapsing house that was infested with chipmunks. We literally pulled the legs of some of the furniture out of the mud underneath the floor.

Last Christmas my dad spent days shredding papers. He had saved everything from his first contract and tax returns from his last job (1962--), every utility bill and other document for the house (1969--) every cancelled check from sometime in the 1960s. Even with all this, it was about three crammed full large file cabinets, which really isn't all that much space occupied.

I am afraid to give up paper just yet.

I'm with Pal. I had the same issues with email disappearing and hours of tech support gives me no solution. Text messages gone with new phone. Also with that new phone came contacts listed I had maybe called once and did not have on my contact list.

I am just not that tech savvy I suspect despite setting up several computer systems for offices over the years. Not to mention the ID fraud we were subjected to by our bank a couple years ago...

I can file. I can tame the paper monster. One bankers box per year in the attic after 7 years the oldest box moves out to burn. 7 boxes no big deal.

I'm a computer professional and implement scanning solutions. The Scan Snap Ix500 is incredibly impressive for the price. Congratulations on stepping up to a real solution instead of falling for the $200 nonsense out there. At $400-450 it is about the same quality as the 4 year old $1000 Fujitsu solution that I use at home along with a $500 shredder.

-My recommendation is to first design a logical way of finding documents.

-Then stop stapling anything, ever. Throw away staplers and verbally abuse anyone that tries to staple anything and then hand it to you. Cuss at them, tell them they are an idiot, and then refuse to accept it until they fix it.

- Don't shred anything until you have a backup and then another backup offsite or equivalent such as ReadOnly media like a CD or DVD in a fireproof safe, etc. I wouldn't trust "the cloud" for anything important. One of the backups, maybe but not the only backup.

Here's a solution of mine, a 4 year old $1000 Fujitsu FI 6130z for light duty on the left, a new wonderful $9000 Canon DR-G1130 scanner on the right (500 sheet input bin and 130 pages a minute both sides of the page), and the piece of junk Xerox in the background the Canon replaces- why do
people fall for this junk - Xerox USED to be a decent company. Another desk in the same office has a $9000 Canon that has scanned a million pages over the last decade or so before being retired. The new Canon is capable of scanning a clients two file boxes of documents while they wait and the handing it back to them without having to figure out where to store it!

First rule of paperless is don't store it in the first place!

"The new Canon is capable of scanning a clients two file boxes of
documents while they wait and the handing it back to them without having
to figure out where to store it!"

yes, unless you have to unstaple/restaple, pull off and replace clips, and pull off sticky notes

I scan all day--as I work for a law office and we are always drowning in paper. But the topic is really addressing home use, and what is a practical system for short and long term storage and filing for a family.

Whoa! Feeding my paper monster costs less than $100 per year. What a good little monster. :-)

I'm not going to be a slave to either way of life. I'll do what I can to cut down on paper clutter but I'll never attempt to cut out all paper. Maybe it's my age. I pay my bills on line but I want real physical bills in my (physical) mailbox. All my mail is sorted/thrown away as soon as it comes into the house. I still subscribe to one recipe.cooking magazine (allrecipes) because I enjoy it. I also am a subscribed member to Allrecipes.com...both have a place in my life. All of DH's books are on his Kindle. Anyone remember "Fly Lady"? She calls piles of paper clutter "hot spots". I HATE hot spots. I have one now in the kitchen but as soon as the bathroom remodel is over (after this weekend) and I can get things back to normal around here, that hot spot will be extinguished. I try to keep paper organized and to a minimum. I will email or fax clients invoices and bids but DH still wants a "real" copy for his records. So no, I'm not working towards a paperless house but I am cutting back :)

Cyn,

The full phrase was "So as long as I remember their name, or the subject, or even just the time frame," though.

I can't imagine needing information on something where I didn't have any of those clues?

And in re:

look on your email, computers, and devices for the documentation they need and have the passwords to access all your electronic files? Will the banks, courts, and insurance companies accept scanned copies?

We actually have a guide to our passwords that we keep in the safe with important docs. And scanned copies of what exactly? when you are dead, mainly I think the executor needs documentation as to their purview, and a death cert. Anything else one needs one can request a physical copy.

I think you are more organized than most, though. Scanned copies do work in most instances now, you're correct, although courts still need original wills. If you are incapacitated original documents (such as social security cards, executed powers of attorney and living wills) may also help. I think there is more acceptance now about photocopies, but also more awareness of the potential for alteration of digital copies

someone mentioned restaurant receipts, I wonder why these need to be kept at all unless they are for tax purposes. Does the IRS accept scanned images in case of an audit? I do not know.

Just finished an IRS audit with no change. All docs provided were scanned and then printed for the auditor. Modern copiers are digital, which means they are the same thing as scanned and printed. Some of the requested info required documents that were 18 years old.

Paper can be damaged by fire or flood. It took almost 6 months to get some of our fireproof safes dried out from a flood from a leaking toilet tank. The water was only 1/2" deep. The dampness in the fireproof insulation kept making dry paperwork get damp again.

I've been through two audits which required me to document my physical whereabouts every day for a year (happened for 2 diff years). Any paper documents I didn't have I was able to have generated; it seems to me anyone with the legal right to do so on your behalf would find themselves in the same place. I mean, worst case it can be a delay or a PITA, but so is being your own file clerk, lol.

I really hate paper!

Magdalena - Oh my, what do you have in those 6 junk drawers then? Ha! I remember you saying that in another thread and thinking how if I had a larger home I'd most likely have more than 2. :)

"It took me a while to figure out No Ultra Plush, LOL"

Was that supposed to read "No Plus Ultra?"

I also keep emails from vendors, but my native email outlook program on my main computer is well on its way to becoming a dinosaur.....I don't want the web version of outlook because someone else is storing it for me online and I don't trust that the emails I would download couldnt be suddenly subject to some sort of electronic recall.

Update on Scansnap:. between DS 2 recovering from a virus and getting off to school (all those things on his to do list that he'd had several weeks to accomplish were crammed into two days) and a committee meetings at my home last night I haven't even started. It's this weekend's project, though, and I will report back on Monday!

What do I have in my junk drawers? Um, well, not paper.

FYI - My city has a twice a year "Shred Day" where (with proof of residency) you can take three banker boxes full of paper to shred. I imagine there must be other municipalities that do the same.

I feel like a file clerk trying to stay on top of our paperwork. I can't see scanning as an answer, though, because like bpathome and tinam, it's easier to find papers in a well-ordered file cabinet than to root around on a computer or trying to remember which portable hard drive a file is on. I too have had digital storage corrupt. And we've been audited, been in a lawsuit in an investment case, & have ever-changing investments, insurance, & tax stuff to keep track of. We need the originals..

Maybe it's time to rethink what truly needs filing and what doesn't.

What exactly do you all file?

We aren't paperless but I wish we were. We get a minimal amount of catalogs (a few times a year) and a lot of our bills are online (but not all). However, we don't really save any receipts unless its for a large purchase. I'll hold on to them until for a bit if I know that I'm going to take an item back, but I almost never make quick buys and always return items quickly. I don't like stuff sitting around.

What does become part of our paper monster is all the paperwork from buying our house, past water bills, and documentation from all the jobs I've had the past few years!! One of my goals for the upcoming months is to go through the stack in the basement. Can't wait. :(

I think that even those a lot of my life is online/on the computer, since we don't keep a lot of paperwork to begin with, its really the important stuff that's left. A lot of that needs to be in a fire proof box anyways. I can't stand clutter so everything else is shredded immediately or put in the recycling.

...we really need to put that water bill online...

such a mix here; I think we are in a transitional phase. Much like the choice to keep and read "real" books instead of digital. Probably the best is to just figure out what works for you; what you need to keep; what you want to keep; what makes sense to be digital and how much you trust digital v. paper

I keep financial records -- credit card stuff, insurance papers, receipts for car repairs, original car title (you need that in paper form if you sell it), credit reports; also a lot of stuff from the purchase of my house, including all the covenants, easements, deeds, etc. even though they are online; appliance and electronic repairs and manuals; lots of landscaping stuff--receipts and resources because I like to refer to them; personal papers such as a family tree and diplomas; ONE box of my kids' childhood stuff, hard copies of my taxes as well as digital; my cats' medical records and county licenses, receipts for home improvement and furnishings . . .

sounds like a lot, but it's five smallish plastic file boxes. Yeah, there are things in there I could probably scan. I might, but I scan stuff constantly all day so really don't want to do that at home!

Yes, we have the shred days too. Also, Staples has a shredding service. However, I do not trust my personal info to anyone else to shred, so if it's personal info I wouldn't go that route.

Pal's experience is why I still use a paper datebook/calendar and files of certain papers...just can't quite go all the way paperless, but we do a lot of our banking and bill paying online.

I need to start a thread about cloth napkins, though...trying to decide if that's a worthwhile switch.