Paperless Household

We became an almost paperless household shortly after LTSH (Long Term Suffering Husband) listened to the audio “@ the Speed of Thought” and fantasized about being Australia’s answer to Bill Gates (a new, sustainability-obsessed one anyway).

Here’s some of the paper saving methods we put in place that you might like to consider:

• a mini whiteboard beside the phone for jotting down phone messages rather than notepaper.
• a “No Junk Mail” sign stuck on your letter box.
• Contacting the companies who send you hard-copy marketing material and asking to be removed from their mailing list. Some even have a note at the bottom of their promotional material with a phone number and reference number that you key in to be automatically removed.
• Organise to receive your bills via email or through a web-based account.
• Use an electronic diary. 
• Receive your newspaper or magazine subscriptions electronically. Some magazines are doing ‘the right thing’ and printing on recycled paper. The Green Lifestyle Magazine uses Leipa Paper made of 100% recycled fibre (being an eco-friendly mag, I sure hope so!).  
• Receive your bank statements via email.
• Forget paper shopping lists and use a PDA instead (if you’re lucky enough to have one). LTSH has one of those super fancy phones that does everything apart from locating Wally in those ‘Where’s Wally’ Posters… they really need to strap a GPS to that pom pom on his hat so he stops getting lost. Anyway, I think poor LTSH has finally discovered that mathematical equation that quite possibly can never be solved: Deb + very expensive mobile phone. Outcome? Chaos.
• Avoid using paper towels. I used to be the Paper Towel Bandit a few years back. I used them to wipe down benches, clean the mirror in the bathroom, soak up doggy accidents and dry bird feeders. Now we use unbleached cotton cloth and some squeegy cloth-thing that soaks up doggy wee like a kid at the corner store sucking up a Slurpee during a heatwave.

When going paperless remember to back up everything that you store electronically. We back up at least once a week.

If you’re looking for ways to a paperless office, do a bit of research online – there are some really great ideas out there, from using electronic inter-office communications rather than sticky-notes and faxed office memos to entering details of all incoming phone calls directly onto a computer rather than the old telephone message pad.

…and if you have to use paper – use unbleached, 100% recycled paper.

Oh, and according to LTSH (the Aussie Bill Gates Wanna-be), “Going paperless not only saves the environment, but in an office it saves time and money through an increase in productivity.”