Conquering Paper Clutter with the Paperless Home

I am a piler. I pile papers into different groups but never get rid of anything. I think I have a system until I can't find the life insurance paperwork to make my payment. Days later I find it, and it's late, in danger of being terminated. I think it's time to tame the paper clutter.

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For a while now, I have been trying to get a handle on the paperwork in our home. Even back in February, we were able to take control of our filing cabinet, but I still wanted to eliminate as much paper as I could. Now that we are working on the office spaces (and my desk becomes the black hole of paperwork), I feel that it is time to conquer our paper clutter once and for all.

On our journey to make our home more efficient, we have been decluttering with KonMari and now freeing us from paper all over is just one more step in the right direction.

I was so excited to review a copy of The Paperless Home by Donnie Lawson. I was excited to use this ebook and videos because I have been following Just a Girl and Her Blog for a while and fell in love with Donnie's post of a paperless home (that is the original post). I have looked over the book and the amazing videos that come with it and here are my thoughts and how we are going forward.

My Thoughts on the book and videos:

You can go to the information page about the book to get more detailed information on what the videos entail and chapters of the book.

• The book really gives you a good idea about how to use Evernote, which is the system that Donnie uses as a 'virtual filing cabinet', and how to get started on this task.
• The videos are great as a step-by-step guide to getting started with Evernote. I love that he created a separate account just to show us how to get started and get our Evernote organized.
• I also appreciate that he gave us the tool recommendations that work best with Evernote and how to appropriately scan for best quality. 

How we will use the resource for our home

• The Great Purge. This is a chapter in the ebook. My plan is to go through the KonMari checklist I have for papers. From there, I will use Donnie's two categories: 'scan and trash' or 'scan and keep'. 
• Try Evernote. My husband and I use Google Drive to store most, if not all of our e-documents so Evernote will be a change for us. I am hoping I fall in love with it like everyone else, if not, I at least know I have a backup with Google Drive - even if it may not be as user friendly.
• Start Scanning. We do have a Brother printer/scanner that we use often. I will attempt to modify the settings to work optimally with Evernote because our budget cannot take a huge impact like a new scanner. If for some reason we can't get it to work, we will be looking into some other means - I'll keep you updated :)
• Create a Habit for our Paper. We need to create a workflow for our paperwork. Donnie talks about what they do in his home to keep paper from accumulating, so we need to figure out what will work best for our family. 

I am so excited to get started! I will be updating you throughout the month with our progress. If you want to purchase the book and videos and follow along with me, you can purchase them here.