Are you thinking of digitizing your paperwork but don’t know where to start? If you are (messy) like me, chances are that you need to do some pre-work before you are ready to go paperless.

Organize your paperwork

Paperwork has a way of sneaking up on you and multiplying like crazy. It tends to silently but quickly accumulate in a corner of the house and before you know it, your drawers are filled with useless paper.

And let me tell you this: the last thing you want is to digitize ALL of that messy paperwork.

Why?

Because you will convert your paper clutter into digital clutter. And clutter is clutter, physical or not.

If you want a simple and efficient digital ‘filing system’, you first need to sort everything out and determine what should stay and what should go.

Here are the 7 steps to take before you go paperless

1. Put aside half a day and do the sorting in one go.

Sorting paperwork is the type of thing that nobody likes to do. It’s tedious, it’s boring and so we tend to procrastinate to the point that it gets overwhelming. Doing it one go is like ripping the band aid off quickly. It’s less painful, quicker and you will be done before you even know it.

2. Set all of your paperwork on the dinner table or on your desk

And start sorting by category – make 3 piles, one for each category

1. Miscellaneous Paperwork
2. Personal communication
3. Important personal papers

What’s in each category?

What’s in Miscellaneous Paperwork?

This is the bulk of all your papers. Depending on how organized you’ve been over the past years, it would include:

Invoices
Pay slips
Work contracts
Life insurance paperwork
Pension fund info
Bank statements and other bank notifications (current and past)
Health insurance (current and past)
Others

What’s in Personal communication?

The name gives it away. Personal communication includes all private letters and messages such as:

Postcards from friends / family
Wedding invitations
Birth cards
Love letters
Other personal communication

What’s in Important Personal Papers?

Passport
IDs
Driver’s license
Social security card and data
Other important identification details

3. Take the “important personal papers” pile

And guard them in a safe place, one that only holds those papers.

4. Discard the “personal communication pile”

If you find it hard to let go because of the sentimental value it holds for you, remember that:

It’s a piece of paper, no more, no less
What matters is the present connection you hold with the person who sent it, not the faded memory of it
If the letter is from a relationship that brings up bad memories, getting rid of it allows you not to be constantly be reminded of it.

5. From the “Miscellaneous paperwork” category, make two piles A & B (keep and discard)

A/ Keep

Contractual documents i.e current employment contracts
Active contractual relationships (only currently relevant documents):
- Pension funds (contract number, bank account details, relevant contact info)
- Health insurance data (insurance name, contract number, etc.)
- Life insurance (life insurance name, contract number, validity, relevant contact info)
- Other relevant contractual documents
Warranty documents (for appliances with a currently valid warranty contract)
Pay slips (in case you ever need to justify your income) – consider asking your employer for digital payslips if not already done.

The keep pile should fit in no more than 1 or 2 folders.

b/ Discard

The rest of the “miscellaneous” paperwork should be discarded. That includes:

Credit card and bank statements
Paid invoices
Other irrelevant / non-legally binding documents (i.e advertisement)

Those documents are of no value to you long term. Once they have been paid or dealt with, they are just clutter. Discard them all and watch your paper pile shrinking dramatically.

Congrats! You are done organizing your paperwork!

Now please DO NOT start frantically scanning your remaining documents. You will first need to decide on what cloud-based tool you will want your paperwork to be saved.

The reason I am asking you not to scan quite yet is because (depending on the type of scanner you own) you should be able to send your documents straight into your cloud-based service.

And this will save you a ton of time.

6. Sign up for a cloud-based service

The one I use and recommend is Evernote.

Evernote is a cloud-based software service in which you can store personal documents, photos, notes and projects. It’s easy to sort everything out by category and access all of your documents from wherever you are in the world and from any device that has an internet access.

You can sign up on the Evernote page. The basic version (which is all you need really) is FREE and signing up will take just a few minutes.

7. Create categories in Evernote

Once you have signed up and accessed Evernote, make sure that you create notebooks. Notebooks are essentially used to organize your paperwork into different categories and make it easier and faster for you to find what you are looking for.

Organize it the way that makes the most sense to you.

If you need some inspiration, however, here is how I organized my files in Evernote:

Passport + ID copies
Work contracts
Pay slips
Warranty documents
Health insurance
Life insurance
Pension funds
Stock info

That’s it. You are ready to digitize all of your important documents. Thanks to the pre-work, scanning and filing your documents will be easier, faster and you will be able to find everything quicker. Once saved into Evernote, your documents will be safely stored away, nicely organized and can be accessed from anywhere you are in the world.

Enjoy your paperless home!

7 Things To Do Before You Go Paperless