Be Efficient - Paperless

In this day and age, e-mail pretty much always trumps snail-mail. Sadly, impatience has replaced the excitement once felt when postmen rounded the block. I always enjoyed getting real mail as a child and for some reason, I’m still much more anxious to check my mailbox than my inbox. So when day after day, I came home to a bundle of envelopes with my name typed beneath a cellophane window instead of colorful, hand addressed ones, I started to rethink what I was so excited about and began accepting a (more) paperless society.

I quickly and easily got to work at reducing my mailbox clutter by first enrolling to receive paperless statements for all of my accounts. Not only are the current statements due emailed to me, but I have a paperless record of all my statements on electronic file in one place on my computer, which has resulted in reducing home office clutter, as well! Another benefit to handling your bills on-line is you never have to worry about someone getting their hands on your information because it essentially disappears once you’ve navigated away from the page or it’s been idle for too long. With secure login access that requires a username, password, and frequently a security question as well, it sure beats all the dangerous paper shredders people have around so they can “safely” destroy the paper counterparts to e-statements.  While you’re at it, go ahead and set up online bill pay with your bank. Making e-payments saves the checks, the stamps, and most of the hassle associated with paying bills. You can even set up reminders to be emailed to you so you can avoid annoying late fees, ugh! Why stop there? Remove yourself from catalog mailing lists and shop online from the retailers you actually like. And remember, whatever junk mail you may be solicited with should never, ever end up in the trash. If it’s paper, guess what? It’s recyclable; creating post-consumer material for the production of other things (I bet you’ll never look at your Starbuck’s sleeve the same way again)!