HOW TO GO PAPERLESS: 5 Step Guide to a paper-free home

Going paperless can be a bit of a tricky task at first and many people feel overwhelmed and don't know where to start. If you're struggling with lots of paper cluttering your home, then this guide is perfect for you. Some of the benefits of going paperless are:

Reduced clutter: There's nothing worse than a shelf filled with unsorted documents, bills and random paperwork just lying around. Storing them in folders will also not make it much better, because it will still take lots of valuable space in your home. The best way to reduce clutter is to just digitalize all the important paperwork you have.

Quick access: Another benefit of going paperless is to always have your files at hand. You will know exactly where all the most important documents are and not lose any more time searching through piles of paper.

Cooperate: If you are a business owner or just share lots of documents with other people (e.g. if you work in a group), it is great when everybody has the same access to important files. It makes it way easier to cooperate with others when everybody can search for the needed documents. 

No more lost files: The risk of losing important files once they are digitalized is very minimal. You can copy them to different devices or save them online so that you'll never have to fear that they will disappear or just get lost in the clutter of your home.

But where to start when you want to go paperless? Here are my five steps that you can take to transform your home into a clutter-free, paperless world.

Disclaimer: There are some documents, that you need to keep in its original form. Get a nice accordion-like folder or some form of box and store them away. You even can get a fireproof box, so that your documents will be really safe. Now let's get started with my five steps:

1. Collect the paper: Either deal with incoming paperwork immediately or collect it in one spot, so that you can handle it once a week or every two weeks. Personally, I like to deal with incoming paperwork immediately, so I have a habit of opening letters immediately and either storing, digitalizing or throwing them away.

2. Take action:
Call up all the different companies that send you letters. Try to figure out, if there are electronic alternatives for the physical mail you receive. Many companies already offer to send emails instead of old-fashioned letters. Try to reduce the incoming paperwork as much as possible, by simply calling and asking whether it's possible to either have their letters sent to you digitally or quit receiving them altogether. A great pioneer in that field is the European mobile bank N26, that exclusively operates through an app and website. No paperwork whatsoever!

3. Make decisions: Decide which documents need to be kept in their physical form and which ones you need to get rid of. From my experience, there are lots of documents that you don't need at all and that can be thrown away immediately. If you're not sure whether you will need a document later, you can digitalize it and if you're not sure, whether you will need the original later on,  you can store it away. Another solution is to ask the company that sent it to you, whether you will need the original paperwork later.

4. Scan your documents: there are lots of great apps for your phone, That can make your life a lot easier. One of them a Scannable, an app that allows you to scan all sorts of different documents super simple and super fast. You just have to put your paperwork on a high contrast surface and hold your phone over it. The app will do all the work for you and turn your document into a beautiful PDF, that can be sent to your email or Evernote account straight away. That way you don't even need a scanner, which would take up unnecessary space in your home.

5. Organize your files: Create folders on your computer or on services like Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud or Evernote. I don't need constant access to all of my documents so I simply store them on an external hard drive. If you want to have access to certain documents on the way, it is better to store them online, so that you will have access from different devices. That way you can also share documents with family, friends and colleagues. No matter where you store your documents: it's always smart to keep a copy stored on another device or online.


Bonus: More ways to create a truly paperless home
eReader:
If you have an e-book reader, you can get rid of all of your books. This step might be extreme for a lot of people and I must admit that I myself struggled a long time with my attachment to physical books. That being said, I don't regret replacing them with digital versions at all.  Having an eReader makes my life so much easier. I can take all of my books with me wherever I go and I can take notes and mark important passages on the way, simply with one swipe of my finger. My reader even allows me to export all of my marked passages into a PDF file so that at the end of reading a book, I have a complete summary of all my favourite quotes. 

To-Do List: 
There are lots of wonderful apps that replace classic pen and paper to do lists. The best one, in my opinion, is Trello. I have a whole video on how I use Trello to organize my life, so if you're interested you can check it out here:

Diary: 
If you're someone who likes to write a diary, you can consider switching to a journaling app. At first, it might be a bit difficult to write on a digital device instead of a physical diary, but it also has its pros: you can access it from everywhere and you can edit it later on as much as you want. 

Magazines:
If you like to read newspapers, there are also lots of great apps out there, that allow you to have all of your favourite magazines digitally. And just like eBooks, those digital versions of magazines and newspapers are most often also cheaper than getting physical papers, so it's also a great way to save money.

I really hope that you liked my guide on how to create a paperless home. I also love to read your comments, so don't be shy!