Here are some quick tips to help you reduce the amount of paper in your home and work space :
1) If you get catalogues in the mail, email the company and unsubscribe. Then anytime in the future you want to order, you can simply look online for products and ordering information.
2) Don’t print your email. If you need to keep something, save it electronically.
3) Owner’s Manuals — once you unpack your item and determine that all is well, visit the manufacturer’s website and download the manual. Create a folder on your computer named OWNER’S MANUALS and store in there. If your item comes with a printed manual, see if it is available online and save, or scan it and store it electronically.
4) Rather than cut multitudes of recipes out of magazines, go to the magazine’s website and download the recipe to your computer. Save any you love online into the same spot. There are a few recipe collator websites available like Sesame, Yumprint and BigOven.
5) If you receive annual reports from investments, etc, visit their website to either discontinue them or change to email delivery. Very few of these types of reports are ever read!
6) One very important thing to discard when you are reducing the paper around you, is your fear. Ask yourself, ‘What’s the worst thing that will happen?’ What would I need to do if I needed this paperwork again? Storing electronically means that the piece of paper still exists, just not cluttering up your space. Cloud storage like Dropbox can then move it off your computer.
Any other ideas? Please share them with me!