Evernote

Part of the connected home, at least for me, is going as paperless as possible. To do this I've been using the program Evernote. Essentially it is my digital locker. Anything I can digitize finds its way to Evernote.

The first step to going paperless, of course, is to not get paper in the first place! Most of the companies we interact with nowadays offer paperless billing, so I always sign up for that. When I do get a physical document I scan it and save to Evernote. Luckily I think I have a bit of OCD in me, so the task of scanning isn't overwhelming. The one thing I would change, though, is the scanner I bought. It does have a document feeder, but does cannot scan both sides at once. This bugs me enough where I'll probably buy a new one (or one of those fancy all-in-one setups).

I also ran across a service called FileThis.com. They grab invoices and documents directly from many sites (Comcast, Cigna, Chase, etc...) and send them directly to Evernote (other services are available, like Box). I don't need this service, because I could log into each account and grab an invoice if I ever needed to, but I like having everything in one place. FileThis.com doesn't have every business of course, but you can become a "sponsor" and have them login to your account and create a script that grabs the documents. It requires a level of trust, but after doing a bit of research I felt comfortable being a sponsor for my utility bills.

There are similar services to Evernote, but I've found their software to be easy to use and works on any platform you can think of (just go to Evernote.com). They just passed the 100,000,000 user mark, so I know they will continue to pay attention to - and more importantly, improve - their software. You can try it for free, or become a premium member for $45 bucks a year. Again, I think this is worth it because it gives you better search options and a higher monthly bandwidth rate (I've never come close to hitting the 1GB limit and I consider myself a fairly heavy user).

I like Evernote because I keep finding new uses for it. For instance, I needed to prove my residency for my library card in Seattle. I had scanned our lease document into Evernote, so I showed the librarian that. It was the proof I need and I didn't have to worry about running home and fishing the document out of some pile.

Also, you should take the time to go to the following sites. They allow you to opt out of unsolicited mailings. They really do work!

https://www.dmachoice.org/ - Unsolicited catalogs, charitable causes, etc... Make sure you choose the forever option.

http://www.optoutprescreen.com/ - Unsolicted credit card offers, loans, etc... I ended up doing the opt out for 5 year option, because I could do it electronically. To do it forever you have to print something out and mail it in.

https://www.donotcall.gov - While we're at it, do this too! Worth it.