Paperless Records in 2009
One of the most exciting developments of the past 20 years has been the continued innovation in the computer industry and the Internet, and eliminating the need for bulky paper records of all the important events and files in our lives. The biggest limiter so far has been our willingness to get everything on the computer to store electronically, feeling comfortable that our information is safe there, and then disposing of the paper originals.
Many of the people who have done the best at eliminating their paper ties have done so because extreme small space forced them to be efficient.
Of course, there are some paper records you really should hold onto (marriage certificates, birth certificates, Social Security cards, and tax records are some of the most important to keep), but you should be able to reduce your paper records down to one folder or binder at the largest.
The first step is to get your information on the computer. If you have a scanner, you could open it and place every individual item on the screen, wait for it to scan, and save it where you want to go. That gets tiresome pretty fast, though. Luckily, you have other options. You can purchase a self-feeding document scanner, some of which will even straighten pages and file the documents as PDFs for you, like this Fujitsu scanner.
There are also smaller, more portable scanners that do especially well for receipts, and can be uploaded to Microsoft Word and Excel, but they usually aren’t self-feeding, and you’re back to placing the paper in yourself again. If space is at a premium where you live, however, this might be the choice you need to make.
Once you have the files on your computer, you may want to upload them to the Internet. There are several popular devices for saving records electronically. The first is online database solutions, where you don’t need to worry about buying an external hard drive of your own and then keeping that safe. This is also a good option if someone/something destroys or steals everything in your house, while your most important records are safe at an off-site location.
Box.net is the only file uploading website I have ever used, and it is a good option for those who want to be able to try out the system and the interface for free before upgrading to a paid subscription. Prices per month hover around $6 monthly for around 5GB of information among the most popular websites for file uploading and backing up. If you won’t ever need more than 10GB of storage, and you don’t mind ads, check out Humyo.com for 10GB of free online space.
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