paperwork

My Minimalist Filing System

May 3, 2012 40 Comments

Now that I have a permanent address, I once again have a mailbox. Yikes! I forgot how much paperwork can flow into your life through that little rectangular compartment.

To keep things under control, I’ve been employing the strategies I wrote about in The Minimalist Mailbox: things like signing up for online billing, keeping my name off catalog lists, and putting a freeze on my credit report.

However, some papers still make it through my defenses (and with a mortgage, child, and business, there are some I’m obligated to keep). And for that, I’ve devised a minimalist filing system which I’ll share with you today.… {Read more}

Minimizing Paperwork: Print to PDF

January 7, 2010 38 Comments

Like many people, I make the majority of my financial transactions online: from shopping to paying bills, from retrieving statements to managing bank accounts.

In the past, I used to print off a paper confirmation of each one. For some reason, I thought I needed physical “proof” every time money changed hands—be it a deposit into a savings account, or a receipt for a sweater ordered over the internet. So although I was conducting the majority of my business electronically, my files were still bulging.

Then I discovered the three magic words that eliminated 90% of my paperwork: “print to PDF.”

Oh, how I love this option!… {Read more}