5 Ways that Going Paperless Has Improved Our Lives

Learn the best benefits of going paperless, getting rid of paper clutter, and having all of your most important information at your fingertips at all times!

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.

More than 10 years ago now, Donnie came to me with an idea that seemed kind of crazy. He was sick of all of our paper clutter and our mess of a filing cabinet– so much so that we had completely been avoiding our home office where our mess of paperwork lived– so he suggested that we go “paperless.”

By going paperless, Donnie meant that he wanted to scan all of our documents and create a “digital filing cabinet” in an app/program called Evernote. This would allow us to get rid of nearly all of our physical paperwork and access our documents in the Evernote app on our phones and computers anytime we needed them.

At first I humored him, thinking that this was some sort of temporary hobby that he would give up in a few weeks. Even after he started scanning and purging our mountains of old papers, I was skeptical. Would digitizing all of our documents and files really make that big of a difference?

Little did I know that his one little suggestion would be a total game changer for our family.

Here we are 10+ years later, still paperless. We don’t even own a physical filing cabinet. And we could not be more thrilled about it! So what has been so great about this whole going paperless thing? Well, I’m so glad you asked… 😉

The Top 5 Benefits of Going Paperless

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1. Going paperless is a lifesaver for scatterbrained people like me.

I may talk about organization a whole lot on the blog, but it’s been a long road getting here. Naturally, I’m actually pretty scatterbrained! 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. I could then 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. We were able to access the digital version of the paperwork from our phones and get the info we needed.

2. Evernote is like Pinterest for my whole life.

Evernote, the app/program we use to store our information digitally, kind of feels like a personal Pinterest on steroids. I can save and organize important blog posts, articles, and ideas. AND 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. I pulled up a copy of the literature from the doctor that we had scanned, which listed what was okay and what wasn’t. Problem solved!

I also use Evernote to make lists, keep track of goals, stay on top of tasks and projects, and more. Everything is all together in one convenient spot, and I can access it on my computer, tablet, or phone at any time.

(Though unlike Pinterest, all of my information stored in Evernote is private and for my use only. So unless I choose to share my files with someone, they are locked down tight!)

If you’d like to make sure you’re setting up Evernote the right way from the very beginning, we can help with that! Snag our free step by step setup videos by clicking the button below.

3. Going paperless makes tax time super easy.

When tax time approaches, we are never running around like crazy people trying to gather up receipts and paperwork! 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.

This eliminates a ton of stress and saves us time, too. We always know where our important documents are and can access them with just a few clicks.

4. Going paperless 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 decluttering 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, but we can easily get to a digital copy of that would-be clutter-causing-but-sometimes-important paperwork any time we want.

5. Going paperless gives us peace of mind.

This may be my most favorite feature of going paperless! 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. And 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.

I may have been skeptical at first, but this was definitely 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.

Paperless Made Simple is here!

For years, we have gotten questions about our paperless system, with people wanting to know how they can implement something similar in their own homes.

I am so thrilled, then, that we recently released a course called Paperless Made Simple, which walks people step by step through the process of getting rid of paper clutter and setting up a digital filing cabinet of their own!

We hope that going paperless will be as impactful for you as it has been for us!

Want to learn more about going paperless? These posts can help:

If you have any tips or tricks on curbing paper clutter or going paperless, we’d love to hear them in the comments below!

Thank you so much for following along! Have a wonderful day!

This post contains affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosures here.