Usually when you see the word "paperless" in the title of one of my posts, you can count on Donnie being the one who wrote it. He is the paperless guru in our family; the rest of us just get to benefit from his incredible organizational habits. 🙂 Today, though, I wanted to tell my side of the paperless story to give you an idea of what the paperless lifestyle looks like from the "other" spouse's perspective.
Unlike Donnie, I wasn't always 100% sold on going paperless. When he first brought up the idea, I thought it would just be a phase that he went through for a while and then would move on to something else. {Shhhh...don't tell him I said that! 😉 } Even after he started scanning and purging our mountains of old paperwork, I was skeptical. Would digitizing all of our documents and files really make that big of a difference?
Donnie kept up his scanning and fine-tuned his paperless workflow, and I was thrilled to let him do his thing, especially since my part mainly consisted of dropping any important paperwork in his inbox and letting him handle it from there. And after not too long, I started to notice that this whole paperless thing was becoming pretty handy. Why? These are my top 5 reasons:
1. It's a lifesaver for scatterbrained people like me.
I would consider myself an organized person but also a creative person, and I fully blame the creative part for my scatterbrained tendencies. Unless I have something written down on a list, I'm likely to forget it... like the one time I forgot to put our new insurance card in the car and didn't have it when the auto repair place needed to see it. Instead of having to run back home to grab it or call my insurance company to have them fax it over, I was able to use my phone to pull up the copy of the insurance card that Donnie had scanned into Evernote and email it to the mechanic within seconds.
Another time when we were taking Caleb to have a minor procedure done, I forgot to bring a piece of paper with important details on it. (#mommyfail. But in my defense, we had to be there at 5 am!) Donnie's paperless system came to the rescue again, and we were able to access the digital version of the paperwork from our phones.
2. It's like Pinterest for my whole life.
Evernote, the software we use to store our information digitally, kind of feels like a personal Pinterest on steroids. Not only can I save and organize important blog posts, articles, and ideas, but all of my personal information is also neatly sorted and available in a few clicks any time I need it.
I was grocery shopping once, for example, and couldn't remember the exact dietary restrictions the doctor had given one of our family members. Not wanting to buy the wrong foods, I was able to access Evernote on my phone and pull up a copy of the literature from the doctor that we had scanned, which listed what was okay and what wasn't. Problem solved!
(Unlike Pinterest, all of my information stored in Evernote is private and for my use only, obviously, so unless I choose to share my files with someone, they are locked down tight.)
3. It makes tax time oh-so-easy.
Oh yes, April 15th is almost upon us, but we are never running around like crazy people trying to gather up receipts and paperwork when tax time rolls around. Throughout the year, we have already scanned, tagged, and organized all of our pertinent documents and have them all ready to go when it's time to tackle taxes.
4. It helps to eliminate clutter.
If you have been around this blog for very long at all, you know that I hate, hate, hate clutter! I am constantly purging and rearranging and organizing to try to eliminate as much clutter as possible from our home. With our paperless system, one huge area of clutter-- paper-- is automatically eliminated. I don't have to worry about searching through a filing cabinet to find a piece of paper that I may or may not have kept. We don't have random stacks of paper laying around our house that need to be filed. And not only do we not have the clutter that paper brings, we can easily get to a digital copy of that would-be clutter-causing-but-sometimes-important paperwork any time we want.
5. It gives us peace of mind.
This may be my most favorite feature of our paperless lifestyle. Since we have all of our important information stored digitally with multiple backups, we never have to worry about losing or misplacing documents. We don't have to worry about paperwork getting ruined if something would happen to a filing cabinet. We don't even have to worry about forgetting paperwork or not having information at appointments or if we're traveling-- we always have everything we need right at our fingertips, and that's pretty powerful stuff.
As much as I hate to admit it, this is one of those instances when I had to swallow my pride and tell Donnie, "You were right! Paperless is most definitely the way to go!" It has truly made a hugely positive impact on our home, our organizational systems, and our lives.
If you've ever thought about going paperless but weren't sure where to start, be sure to pop over and check out our eBook The Paperless Home: How to Use Evernote to Organize Your Life! This eBook will walk you through the process of going paperless step-by-step and will help to develop a simple paperless workflow so that maintaining your new paperless lifestyle will be easy!
If you have any tips or tricks on curbing paper clutter or going paperless, we'd love to hear them in the comments! Have a wonderful week, friends!
Hi, Abby ~ I've been slowly working toward getting our house/family paperless. Thanks for your post today. It's motivating to hear the practical ways being paperless comes to the rescue. Plus, I really hate filing! Looking forward to the new book!
Amen-- I hate filing too! Good for you for taking the leap and going paperless! I know it has been a life saver for us!
~Abby =)
I really need to make the jump and do this... I have so many piles. Is the maintenance hard? I feel like I'd get everything done and then end up with piles of things I need to add.
The maintenance really isn't hard at all. Donnie has a physical inbox where he puts incoming paperwork. Then once or twice a week, he takes a few minutes to scan it in and tag it to the correct place in Evernote. That's it! Hope you're having a great day, Krista!
~Abby =)
This is on my to-do list for this year! The office is the only place in the house that is still uber cluttered and disorganized. The only way I can stand it is I don't go in there much. My husband works from home but he doesn't mind the clutter (so he says). By the end of the year that room is going to be organized and the paperwork is going away. Thanks for the inspiration!
Girl, that was so our story. We were literally shoving paperwork under the door of the office so that we didn't have to open it and be faced with our mounds and mounds of paperwork! Going paperless has been a lifesaver for us-- I know it will be for you too!!
~Abby =)
i think the idea of going backwards is what holds me back. I think I need to start with items that are coming in to get the hang of it. Unless Donnie will travel!!!
What a great idea! This would have been so handy to know for all the trips I've made to the BMV and not had the right documents or not enough of the right documents. I can already think of so many ways this would make my life easier.
I love the clutter free paperless life, and I am fortunate enough to have a loving husband who makes that happen!
I have been told by my digital marketing mentor to become paper free in the office. We already use Asana for project managing and assigning tasks in the business but now we are starting to use it to record and assign tasks at team meetings as well. Just discovered Evernote, need to get my head around how to use it though, I think the Paperless Home is going to be a go to resource for me, looking forward to it coming out.
Asana is a great tool! I haven't committed to it but it's definitely a powerful project management app.
Hi Abby,
Great post. It's reminding me why I'm making the effort to convert our household to paperless.
Unlike some families, I'm the techie in the household so I bear the responsibility for getting the paperless thing going. For me, the hardest part has been finding the best workflow in Evernote itself. Lots of notebooks with tags, fewer notebooks with tags, very few notebooks with more tags...etc. I just started with what I thought would work but found that it became less than optimal after a few months of using it. As I research, everyone seems to have a different opinion on the best way to optimally use Evernote so I guess it comes down to personal preference and everyone's unique situation. But your post has encouraged me to get moving again, as best I can, and keep working towards a completely paperless home. I truly long for that.
Thanks again! It's fun to see you and Donnie working together on your blog posts. I hope you get a chance to do more of these together. 🙂
Thank you so much for your sweet words, Rae! I think what you said is very true-- the "best" way to use Evernote will be different for everyone. Thankfully, it's a very flexible and easily maneuverable program! Best of luck with your paperless journey!
~Abby =)
Hi Abby,
The thought of going paperless makes me cringe. I know it is a good thing but the thought of giving up my paper is scary to me. It took me forever to put my schedule on my phone/computer instead of carrying my "bible" with me. That's what my family called it. lol. So now I find myself once again in scary territory. I see the benefit of going paperless but the actual doing it scares me. So I have decided to get your ebook and put my "big girl panties on" and go for it. Your story gave me courage to make the leap! Thank you so much for all of your sharing!
Have a great day and happy posting!!
Tamra
You can do it! I, too, am naturally a pen and paper girl, but with Donnie's influence I am slowly going more and more paperless, even with the little things! Best of luck with your paperless journey!! 🙂
~Abby =)