Following on from my previous post about sorting out mounds of paperwork, this post will help you to prevent those mounds from piling up in the first place. There are some simple things you can do to reduce the physical bits of paper that keep arriving at your home.
Firstly, you can go paperless for your bank and savings accounts. Most banks are offering to do this for you these days, but you can log onto most banking systems and ask for e-statements instead. If you do need a physical statement for something, they will either offer to authenticate the statement for you, or you can request a physical statemement as as one off.
Secondly, you can also do this for your bills and credit/store cards, take the option to go paper-less and download apps or log ont their websites. You will get MORE functionality and information this way.
Thirdly, quite a few stores offer electronic receipts, go for this whenever you can, you get sent an email and this will serve as proof of purchase.
These three choices will significantly reduce the amount of paperwork you receive and have to keep each year.
Where you cannot go paperless, think about scanning or photographing your paperwork, and then shredding it unless you absolutely need to have a physical copy. There is very little that you actually need to keep as a physical item these days.
Other small changes to make are to add a no-junk mail notice to your door - this may not always work, but it will reduce those reputable companies from posting their flyers. Take your name off the open electoral roll, you cannot then be sold to marketing companies. Always check the NO for updated by post when signing up for accounts, and look for e-magazine subscritions rather than physical ones.
For Inland Reveue or government paperwork, ask for electronic updates, and sign up to a personal tax account. This way you won’t keep losing those important documents. Perhaps you want to keep one statement a year for investments or a closing statement from old accounts, but nothing more is really needed. This way, you can significantly reduce the piles of paperwork arriving, and you can slowly reduce the items you are keeping until they are virtually gone.
Reduce, recycle and re-use, a good mantra to follow in life. You can make a start on paperwork, by reducing what you receive and keep, recycle what you no longer need and re-use what you can. Surpisingly you can re-use paperwork, lining pet cages and using it to start fires are some common uses, and we all know about wrapping schoolbooks in wrapping paper or magazines, but there are other ways of re-using paperwork. Here is an article which may spark some thoughts.
Go-for it, don’t worry about having or holding your documents electronically, this is a tried and tested method and more and more companies are going this way. You will free up yourself from having to deal with paperwork if you don’t receive it in the first place.