There are so many ways to Go Paperless in the home office. Here are six paperless home office solutions you can start using today!
Welcome to week 3 of Going Paper-less month in the Organize & Refine Your Home Challenge.
We started the month by reviewing the basics of going paperless, including tools for scanning your documents. In week 2, we focused on your paperless workflow. In these last two weeks of the Challenge, we’re zeroing in on going paperless in the context of specific areas of your home.
Let’s chat today about paperless home office solutions.
Six Paperless Home Office Solutions You Can Use to Reduce Your Paper Footprint
1. Digital Planner and Calendar Tools
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A great place to begin reducing paper in the home office is by trading in your paper-based planning tools for a digital planner and calendar.
If you’re a die-hard paper planner fanatic, this is probably going to be a tough sell. If you’re not particularly wedded to your paper calendar or planner, why not give a digital calendar like Google Calendar or the Cozi app a try?
Likewise, consider exploring task management apps like Trello to take the place of the umteen Post It Notes and lists that might be cluttering up your desk and computer monitor.
Read more about digital planning tools here.
2. Digital Receipts
Receipts Ugh. It seems like they multiply like rabbits and collect all over our home office.
Why not put a simple system in place for digitizing and storing them online? Check out my system for organizing receipts electronically here.
3. Paperless Business Cards
Another common home office paper clutter culprit is the business card. Well, I should say business cards, because no one has just one card. Typically, we have boxes of them lying around!
There are many ways to ditch the paper cards in exchange for a digital system that transforms them into paperless business cards.
It’s such a smart way to organize and store your business contact information.
4. Paperless Billing and Paperless Bill Statements
Here’s an easy way to dramatically reduce home office-related paper. Carve out a few hours to switch from paper billing/statements to online alternatives.
Start by generating a list of accounts that currently send you a paper bill/statement and contact each business to request the switch to paperless billing and receiving paperless statements.
5. Paperless Tax Forms and Documentation
Keeping records for tax purposes generates quite a bit of home office paper clutter. Any type of tax record can be stored electronically (donation receipts, mileage documentation, etc.), enabling you to ditch the paper tax documents.
And if you’re wondering whether the IRS accepts digital documents, the answer is YES.
6. Paperless Product Manuals
Where people store their product manuals varies from home to home, but I’m guessing many of you are like me and store these in your home office.
Manuals are super bulky and can occupy quite a bit of home office real estate. Consider chucking those paper manuals if you’re able to find a PDF version online.
Related: How to Organize Product Manuals and Warranties
There you have it — six easy paperless home office solutions that will drastically reduce the paper piles!
Now that you’re on a roll, level up your paper decluttering efforts by adopting these 10 habits for reducing household paper clutter.
Your Paperless Home Office Solutions Assignment:
- Explore these six paperless home office solutions
- Select the options that you will commit to
- Create a list of action steps that you’ll need to complete for each specific paper-less option you’re committing to
- Complete the action steps and bask in the glow of less paper!
I’d love for you to share a photo of how you’re going paperless in the home office via Instagram (tag me @refined_rooms and use the hashtag #OrganizeandRefineChallenge) and/or share it in the comments below!
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This post is part of the Organize and Refine Your Home Challenge
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Megan says
How glorious would a paperless office be?? I’d love to implement these tools to help clear out my clutter. Thanks for sharing at Merry Monday!
Natalie Gallagher says
It’s really not that complicated Megan. In fact, I would argue that the process actually is fun once you get the workflow down! Thanks for visiting!
Sara Skillen says
Great ideas here! Evernote is definitely perfect for the business cards, and the tax documents as well.
Natalie Gallagher says
Thanks Sara! I think we all have a love affair with Evernote. It’s hard to image a world without it!
Sarah Soboleski says
I’ve been meaning to check out Cozi. I do like the app Todoist which at least keeps my to do lists digital!
Natalie Gallagher says
I’ve never used Todoist, but I’ve heard great things about this one!
Seana Turner says
Love the paperless manuals as these are so bulky and for many of them, rarely if ever used. I suggest clients create a desktop folder called “manuals” and just download them and keep them here. This way, if their appliance goes out of date or out of production, they will still have the manual. A real space saver!
Natalie Gallagher says
Yes, I totally agree Seana! They are a real estate hog for sure…
Diana Uricchio says
Google Calendar and Evernote, my favorite paperless tools;)
Natalie Gallagher says
Yey Diana! Mine too!