Living Room with Bamboo Garden (Photo credit: Jeremy Levine Design)
Magazines that pile up. Junk mail that’s never ending. Tables filled with books, ads, and school papers. For years it seemed impossible to tackle this kind of clutter in the home. Until we made the decision to go digital.
I always had visions that becoming a minimalist and making life simpler meant going back in time. The epiphany came when we looked at the latest digital wonders and realized that we could go completely paperless. Clearing the clutter became easier than ever.
Magazines
We decided to limit the amount of magazines that we subscribe to then go to just digital subscriptions that we could read on our tablet or smartphone anytime, anywhere. We donated the back issues of glossy magazines that we had as well as magazine racks and baskets.
Notebooks
We used to use notebooks and scratch pads for organizing and reminders. Now we use note applications on our phones such as Color Note and Evernote to make lists and reminders. We never have to worry about misplacing papers or messages.
Books
We donated all of our paper books and now use Kindle and Sony Reader for all of our reading. These applications have the added bonus of hundreds of classic books that are all for free. Using these applications has literally paid for our phones and tablets. Now we take hundreds of books with us wherever we go. Reading digital books has freed up space in our home as well.
Writing for me has never been easier than using cloud-based storage such as Google Drive and Dropbox. I never have to worry about losing my work and its available to me wherever I go so I can work away from home or sitting on my couch. Using these applications had done away with the need for a large filing cabinet. Keeping track of my work is easy.
Clearing the clutter by going paperless at home has given us freedom from the stress of having to constantly organize paperwork. We set the boundary of only buying digital from now on and using what is free on the internet first before we decide to spend money. The joy of space around us as well as extra time that used to be spent cleaning is worth it.
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- The little blog post for a minimalist life (thetaoofwealth.wordpress.com)
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Hej!
Why does it feel sooo nice to discover someone is doing precisely what I do… Digital life is so good! I even threw out my diploma… Next challenge is my boyfriend who thinks he can not throw 2y.o. car magazines (although he knows he will never read them twice :/
Once more thanx for the post and blog, it definitely gives me ideas for my russian minimalist blog.
Alexandra
Going paperless at home by transitioning to a digital life has been great! We are getting set to move in a few weeks and it makes things so much easier. (I did have to throw some gun magazines that he was hiding:) ) I would be anxious to see your blog. Keep me posted and thanks again for reading!