Top Ten Tips - Reducing Your Paper Usage
By Tip Diva | Mar 24, 2008
Categories: Activities, Backup, Baking, Behavior, Books, Cleaning, Electronics, Files, Goals, Home, Household, Mail, Office, Organization, PDF, Papers, Recycling, Technology, Tips, Websites, Work, Workplace, Writing
Look around you - Tip Diva bets that you can name at least five different sources of paper, whether mail, boxes, notebooks, magazines or newspapers. Paper clutters almost every aspect of our lives, but you can reduce your paper usage (or for the more enterprising, totally) easily, and here’s how:
- Create An Electronic Filing System - Scan important files you have into PDF documents and save them onto your computer. Remember to back up your computer regularly.
- Get A PDA Or Tablet PC To Jot down Notes - Instead of using a notebook or Post-Its, get a personal digital assistant or tablet PC, if you can afford one. You can just jot your notes down on here and save them to your computer.
- Stop Printing Every E-Mail - Tip Diva knows plenty of people who print out every single e-mail they receive. It’s unnecessary! Save the e-mails onto your computer, or sign up for a free e-mail account at Gmail or Yahoo!, which have great online storage capacities.
- Sign Up For Paperless Statements/Payments - Check if your bank and credit card companies have both paperless statement and electronic payment methods. Sign up - you’ll save both the clutter and a stamp.
- Use Paper You Have For Scrap - You probably have paper laying about, so use what you have already for scrap - lining a bird cage, a child’s crayon masterpiece or that quick phone number jot. Just remember to shred or burn any confidential information, like Social Security Numbers and account numbers.
- Put An End To Your Junk Mail - Stop all the clutter coming to your mailbox by terminating junk mail and mail-order catalogs. SmartMoney tells you how.
- Get A Dry-Erase Board - This is another great way to jot down phone numbers and other quick information.
- Use The Internet To Replace Paper Functions - Instead of sending certain letters, invitations and other paper functions, try using the e-mail or websites like Evites.
- Sign Up For Online Newspaper And Magazine Subscriptions - Read online instead of getting newspapers and magazines delivered. As a bonus, you usually get daily e-mails and interactive features you wouldn’t get in the hard copy.
- Re-Use Boxes And Wrapping Materials - Recycle boxes and other wrapping material, and you’ll save both money and space.
Other Tips To Check Out:
Another tip to consider try out http://www.VaultStreet.com. VaultStreet automates the process of gathering and organizing your financial documents. In the process it saves time, space, and headaches.
The reason I founded VaultStreet was because I hate filing yet I am unwilling to simply throw everything away. From my perspective the great thing about VaultStreet is that it lets me be super organized in no time at all. But don’t take my word for it, check out http://www.vaultstreet.com and see for your self.