Paper vs. Electonic

As a professional organizer I help people make decisions on a daily basis. One thing that many people have struggled with recently is deciding whether or not to go paperless. Yes it does help the environment, which of course is what I stand for, but there is also some benefits to not going paperless depending on what it is. For me personally it is really hard for me to get rid of the paper bills even though I pay most of mine online because I always want to have documentation.

By having documentation of certain things like when bills are paid, concert tickets, etc. this gives me a piece of mind in case something does happen where I need that documentation. For me I have needed documentation several times and I was glad to have the paper copy. I am always afraid of "losing" something in cyberspace. I think I will eventually switch to paperless as I am able to receive all confirmations with bill, purchases, etc. through email.

With that said there is a difference between me and many of my clients. I know when having too much paper is enough and know when to recycle. There are very few things that I keep on paper they include bills and notes mostly. This is because I like to see these things in paper form. I keep them neatly stored in file cabinets or binders in order to minimize clutter. I go through mail immediately upon receiving it and usually end of recycling most of it.

I encourage many of my clients to go paperless because they have such a hard time with paper and it becomes a lot of clutter, which can affect how they operate and feel. I use online clouds like Dropbox with many of my clients to reduce paper usage and share files.