Little notes plagued me. I had them everywhere. In my office, in my bags, tucked into notebooks, and taped up on walls. I collected them in piles and would eventually toss them into a box.
When you live in a tiny space — whether it’s a camper or a cabin — there is just no option for paper clutter. There is simply no room to spare for a box of stuff that is not directly relevant to your daily life.
A couple of days ago I went through such a box, one last box of “stuff” that had been nagging me. I recycled one trash can full of useless paper and notes — the last vestiges of my paper life. How did I do it? It’s not that difficult, really. Here are my 7 steps:
1. Stop printing stuff out.
I put the printer in the closet. Now I only use it if I absolutely have to print something, like a resume or a government form. I still like to print high quality glossy images from time to time to give to friends — otherwise I would get rid of the printer altogether.
2. Stop keeping paper copies of digital files.
If I have the file somewhere on the computer, or if I can easily access it on the internet, then there’s no use in keeping it in my life in paper form.
3. Don’t accept paper stuff.
If someone hands me a report, I make sure to hand it back to them before I leave. If someone wants to give me a file, I politely ask them to email it to me instead. I don’t accept paper fliers at events. If I do pick up a newspaper somewhere I try to leave it after I’ve read it.
4. Turn your fax machine into a PDF machine.
There are several online fax services out there now, so if someone absolutely has to send me a fax (when will that technology finally die?), it automatically gets turned into a digital PDF and is emailed to me.
5. Don’t keep a note pad on your desk.
This was a pivotal step for me! If the paper and pen is gone, that’s one less temptation. I installed a whiteboard on the wall and I use a small desktop write board for day-to-day notes.
6. Sign up for online bill paying.
This is a pretty easy and self-explanatory step. Most things now will accept online payment instead of a check.
7. Unsubscribe from catalogs.
If there’s anything non-essential coming to me in the mail, I immediately call the 1-800 number on the back and ask to be removed from the mailing list.
Now I have just 1 file box of “important” papers and 1 smaller box of “sentimental” papers. Beyond that, I make sure to toss anything that is not necessary. I recycle all holiday cards and birthday cards almost immediately, unless there’s a very special note written inside, then it goes into the sentimental box.
Do you think you can do it? Or have you already gotten off paper? Share your thoughts below.
{ 1 trackback }
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey guys, I have not had internet for more than a month (gulp) so I’m just doing a bit of ‘blog catching up’. Lovely to see how you’re both doing.
As for paper – when we moved into the camper a year ago I ditched the printer. It’s amazing – in that whole time I have printed NOTHING. Which just goes to show really how much stuff I used to print for absolutely no good reason. I, like you, keep sentimental bits and have to confess I always have one notebook to hand to scribble notes, but other than that if I REALLY need to print something (tax stuff) I head to the library or internet cafe. It’s a lot easier than people think to be a bit more paper conscious
Hey Alice! Good to hear from you. Yes, at some point I will have to ditch the printer too. I think libraries and internet cafes are great resources for printing. I just hate having to walk into a corporate-owned self serve print shop and needlessly pay loads of cash just to make a few high quality prints.
I came come not long ago from a trip to Afghanistan. When I got home, I found my computer room in such a mess. I didn’t realize that I had so much STUFF!!. Well, I started out on a mission. I threw away a LOT of stuff. I’ve been using my all-in-one printer to scan important documents for a long time. Some stuff, I either, didn’t throw out or just didn’t get it to the scanner. Anyway, I threw out about 15 trash bags of stuff. not just papers, but things I really didn’t need. Empty boxes of products I bought, thinking I could repack stuff when I moved… just took up a lot of space. I had a set of desks too. Three of them, you know, that wrap around a corner… BIG! I took them apart and downsized to a smaller single desk that serves my current needs. The big set, going to storage (for now).
During all this cleaning that I was doing, thowing things out, I bought a couple things that I thought were needed. 1st, was a shredder. It was good to shred the papers with personal info. It has worked out great so far… the other was a carpet cleaner… with the added space of sending things out, I have to keep that space clean now
Also, to keep things uncluttered on the computer, I have an external hard-drive. This way I can sort out what I need. And, if something ever happens to my computer (crashes) I still have the important files on hand.
Some good points you made. I’m still working to simplify my life. But it feels great to finally do it.
All the best to you!
~Dan
You bring up a good point — getting rid of clutter is one issue, dealing with the extra space you have re-claimed is another!
My TAX-RELATED file is larger than your IMPORTANT PAPERS box. I wanted to go paperless billing, but turns out you need that paper trail when you get audited. Too bad, too.
Thumbs down on the tax man!
Hey tinyhouse! I am a long distance Adventure Cyslist doing an expedition of the USA Perimeter. I always have to find ways to maintain an acceptable weight factor in my panniers. I receive ALOT of business cards and fliers from people. Also, I love to read and have come across alot of Goodwill and Salvation Army stores selling 25 cent paperbacks! My solution…I digitize everything with my Nikon camera! I take out a black t-shirt (black reduces glare), lay it on a flat surface outside under natural sunlight and take pictures of anything “paper” on the shirt. I lay the papers out in rows and use the “Sports” function on my camera to take quick “in focus” pictures! I then use MS Picture Manager and Photoshop (on my laptop) to crop and clean up the photos. I carry a lightweight battery charger and use both AA and AAA rechargeable batteries!
I will import numerous pictures into (1) Photoshop PSD file using numerous layers and name that file with date and filename for each day of the year (ie. 021409 Valentines Day.psd) I then convert each layer in the PSD file into an individual photo in GIF format. Sounds like work but it’s not because once you do that you can do whatever you want with them!! (ie. E-cards to friends, shopping receipts, PDF format E-Books, PDF Journals etc) Hope this helps!!
That’s a great idea to digitize business cards and flyers with a camera. I’ll think about integrating that… thanks for writing in and good luck on your adventures!
speaking of catalogs… In the US you can go down to your local post office and tell them to stop delivering junk mail to you and they will*. The catch is that it’s all or nothing, so if you actually like some of your junk mail (free coupons, catalogs from companies you actually buy from, etc.) this isn’t the option for you.
They used to do this at least. I assume they still do, but haven’t tried at my current residence.
That’s great — I’m going to try it. I think 50% of our recycling comes directly from the mailbox.
Thanks for the post and comments. We’re lugging around tax papers just because we’re still … American but I really love the IMPORTANT and SENTIMENTAL BOXES a good project before we mobilize the vardo again. I especially like the reminder to get to the point where we have an external hard-drive. My near ten-year laptop is workhorse and a vital link to the world for us on the ledge. An off-gassed external hard-drive … good idea. And to the Adventure Cyclist okay! The process sounds learnable and what a nice way to keep leaving the trees standing.
I’m all for purging as much unneeded files and paper as possible, but what do you do if you’re a teacher? I feel like you still are going to need tons of paperwork regardless of whether you’d like to or not.
You’re probably right Lisa, but I do think some teachers are moving to e-learning, videos, slideshows, etc. One of my teachers doesn’t even recommend books anymore, he says google has become a more important tool than a physical library. Virtual file storage is much less bulky than paper!