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Ask Slashdot: How To Go Paperless At Home?
THE_WELL_HUNG_OYSTER writes "Over the years, I've had numerous scanners equipped with automatic document feeders — and all of them jam or grab multiple pages at a time (thereby missing pages). Like you, I've got years of tax returns and legal documents to scan, but with these kinds of barriers, it would take months to scan everything. Enterprise-grade machines cost 5 figures. How do Slashdotters become paper-free?"
Try using Evernote and scan as you go, keeping up on all current items. Do extra ones when you have the time.
-Myke
Find someone who'll rent one to you.
to China
A sheet-feeder duplex scanner that'll scan and OCR to a PDF. Drop in your year of bank statements, press the button, come back in five minutes. Scan your receipts, product manuals, whatever you actually use. Throw out everything else.
All those tax returns, legal paperwork... Can't they just stay on a box or at the basement? It'll require lots of work, and get few benefits. I would understand for new documents; i.e. introducing to a spreadsheet some taxes/things to pay. But why care about the past? Or, at least, why scan? Just type the figures, it'll be more semantic and wouldn't involve machines (except for you and the computer).
Fujitsu ScanSnap S1500 totally rocks. I bought that refurbished for $250. Add in Yojimbo or Evernote and you'll be set. We've gone paperless in our office and at home, and this machine is the heart of that. We scan everything and shred it.
It's nice not having the paper around, but the BIG thing is not having to find it - it's always at your fingertips, searchable by document content or via the keywords in Evernote or Yojimbo.
I had this exact problem. With a scanner I was getting up to 3 scans per minute, and even at that rate it would have taken me months to scan all I wanted. I realized the problem was the physical moving of the element, and that if it were to take the whole snapshot at once then it would be a lot faster. A camera mounted overhead, with a trigger to snap photos dropped my scan time down so much I was doing 12-15 pages per minute. Assuming you get it well lit, with a decent camera that has little distortion, you can get images that are as good as a scanner MUCH faster. I posted about my setup here:
http://bobbaddeley.com/2011/05/fast-scanner/
Install a bidet.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Why the hell would you give the guy at Kikos a box of your tax returns and legal documents? Especially since you are asking him to scan them! It only takes a minute for him to make his own digital copy and poof! There goes your identity.
Seriously. It is much, much harder to keep records electronically than to throw the pieces of paper into a file cabinet and forget about it. This is well documented.
True. Equally well documented is how much easier it is to index paper by multiple keys, as well as rapidly resort and search file cabinets. Oh wait, no, that's electronically stored documents.
Seriously, storing paper is a ton easier and it works for many purposes. Until you move, or have a fire, or your basement floods, or you need a copy of that letter you received from your insurance company 18-24 months ago confirming a change to your home because they're now claiming they weren't informed you're using natural gas instead of electric heat and are declining a $250,000 insurance claim after the aforementioned fire.
But sure, paper is easier to throw into a file cabinet and forget about.
Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day, but teach a man to phish...
http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p17.pdf
Page 16.
Basic gist: can go paperless as long as the digital images are indexed, legible and retrievable.
although some paper work can be eliminated after 4 years, other needs to be retained much, much longer. Supporting documents for tax returns -- especially those not reported by third parties to the irs -- should be kept for a minimum of 3 years AFTER you file the return. Six years if you have under-reported or taken aggressive deductions that may reduce your taxes due by more than 25%.
In addition you should retain every receipt for the purchase and capital improvements to your house until (see above) years after you sell the house -- this includes new roofs, AC, appliances, remodeling expenses, etc.
Stock records should be kept as above.
Contracts (esp. big ones) should be kept until the contract is completed, and at least until the statue of limitations runs out.
This doesn't even get into business property -- where you can be audited on a desk you purchased up to 14 years later (in theory). Property related to assets (vs. expenses) should almost be retained indefinitely.
"Why scan them all?"
More than once I've needed a receipt a year or two later because something needed to be fixed under warranty. Oh, I found the original receipt! I think. Two years later, it's blank, the thermal print faded to nothing.
THAT is why I scan.