Going Paperless

[Le0]

So heres a little bit of the story. When my wife and I got married, our files merged. She has lots of stuff from multiple years of school and work etc. My files are slightly more organized, but I also have many files that are past there throw away date.

We want to travel and move etc. I want to be 'light weight' so the idea of digitizing everything and throwing out everything that doesn't matter too us happened.

I have pretty much decided to buy a Doxie GO go and a eye-fi SD card for the scanning. I think they are the cheapest and simplest out there, and once the initial scan is done it will be simple to continue scanning incoming paper.

I will also buy a shredder at some point. I figure picking up a cheap on in a nearby store shouldn't be too much.

My question for everyone, however I will take advice on the scanning system still, is file management on my computer. I have a mac and I want a free local copy of all my files. I have seen lots of options with evernote and other services that offer to sync your files etc. I want to create a copy on a portable hard drive and then have the option to backup that hard drive.

What I think I am looking for is;

1. Free
2. Simple organization that lets me organize the files similar to the way they are in my filing cabinet
3. Nice program or system that even the less tech members of my household can use and search
4. Scaleable as I get more and more documents I want them to be able to work

So far the finder is winning. Creating a folder structure and saving it within that.

Let me know if you have any suggestions.

[arebelspy]

This post has lots of discussion on this topic: https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/ask-a-mustachian/i-need-a-scanner

Reading it may give you some ideas.

[Greg]

I haven't gone back and scanned various papers, but over the years many of my banking and similar activities have become online activities.  I download statements, put them in folders by account, and those are in a banking folder on my desktop.  Easy-peasy.

I went many years without a backup, now I backup weekly or so using timemachine and a cheap 1T hp external harddrive.

Also, instead of buying a shredder, ask around for free shed-a-thons or other services.  Where I live, the solid waste utility has an event once or twice a year where you can do this, and also my bank takes documents for shredding every quarter.  I collect documents in a file drawer and then bag them for the bank.

[gooki]

Or just tear it up with your hands.

I wouldn't bother with the expense of a eyefi card unless you are using one of their supported cloud storage services.