I put off going paperless in my home office for many years.

“It’s too much trouble.”

“People will need something on paper and I’ll always be printing stuff for them.”

“High speed scanners are too expensive.”

“Scanners are a pain. They jam and stuff.”

Etc.

Finally I broke down and spent $250 on a Fujitsu ScanSnap S300. I’m a frugal guy and I don’t like spending that kind of money, but it was one of the best $250 I ever spent. The scanner is very small, very fast, jams rarely and you can clear any jams very fast. It scans normal-sized papers and tiny wrinkly receipts at the touch of a single button.

I don’t think Fujitsu makes that particular model any more, but any scanner in the ScanSnap line will probably do the trick.  Highly recommend.

My entire office is now 95% paperless. The only papers I keep are for the IRS and state government for tax reasons. Gotta love the government’s craving for paperwork! Other than that, there is NO paper in my office other than checks and envelopes, and even those I keep in another room along with the printer.

Thanks right.  My office has no printer.  This is a another thing to consider since being in the same room with a laser printer is bad for your health.  They blast invisible toner particulate into the air, which ends up in your lungs.  Being by a laser printer while it’s printing is equivalent to taking a drag on a cigarette.  So there, I just gave you another reason to go paperless, at least in your home office.

When I get receipts, I empty them out of my wallet, stab them onto one of those sharp thingys that are designed to hold phone messages, then once or twice a week I scan them fast, back them up, and shred the paper receipts.

Every year I used to have a mound of paperwork to deal with for year-end bookkeeping and tax purposes. Now, I have…nothing. Just a few PDFs on a hard drive.

It’s awesome.

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