Paper Paper Everywhere. Help I’m Drowning in Paper!

If you’re like me, you are drowning in paper both at home and in your office space.  Paper, paper
everywhere.  At home we have stacks and stacks of paper in the kitchen, family room and our office.  What is it all and why do we need it?  Truthfully, we really don’t need most of it and with a few tips we should be able to reduce the paper load substantially.  I’m trying to do it , too.

Rule #1: Have a recycle bin standing by and use it.  If you can, have one near your mailbox and drop in junk mail before taking it into the house.  If you can’t, put it into a recycle bag and take it out to the recycle bin.  At work use the recycle box regularly.  Clear out old files.  Try to keep as much as you can on your
computer and then back it up weekly.  If the item is truly important, burn it onto a CD-RW, so you can continue to burn important items to the disk until it is full.

Rule #2: Read it and put it where it belongs immediately after or share it with appropriate people.  This works at home and at work.

Rule #3: In-Baskets works wonders.  Remember those?  At home make an In-Basket for everyone in the family.  At work, have one on your desk and use it for anything new that needs to be dealt with.

Rule #4: A communal calendar at home saves time and paper.  Write everyone’s schedule on it.  Have a folder for all invitations or notices of meetings or events clipped to the calendar so you always know where
things are.  At work if you use Microsoft’s Outlook, use the calendar for all things both work and personal and you print out a weekly schedule to refer to or share your calendar online with others.

Rule #5: Pay as many bills as possible online.  The more you can do virtually the less paper you will have to deal with.  If you haven’t already set up a bill paying account through your bank you should do so as you
can automate many of your bills and save paper and time.

I always laugh about the Paper Reduction Act that Congress passed many years ago.  Since that time we have found ourselves trapped under reams of paper everywhere.  Train yourself to read everything you can online and stop printing it out unless it requires a signature for something.  You can order a digital signature that is acceptable in many places and that, too, can save a piece of paper and many trees.