As a minimalist being able to digitalize many things has been a great way to save time, get organized and reduce paper clutter. Here are a few ways I stay organized.

Online Financial Management

Create online accounts with your financial institutions, credit card providers, utility companies, insurance companies and others you do business with. You can pay your bills online and sign up to receive your statements electronically. This reduces paper clutter, and you will be able to easily access this information without sorting through a file cabinet or a stack of papers.

Computer File Management

Create a well-organized consistent file system on your computer that makes sense to you. Give files and folders short, meaningful names that identify them easily with just a glance. Adding dates to file names helps you find what you are looking for quickly. Keep folders to a minimum to reduce clutter. Avoid saving files on your desktop which can quickly become cluttered, instead use the documents folder as the main folder and create sub-folders inside.

Take Control of Your Email

An email inbox can quickly become overwhelming. Go through your email each day and reply to messages promptly. Create folders to save the messages you need to keep so that they are not cluttering your inbox. Empty your sent and deleted items folders regularly. Unsubscribe to mailings you no longer wish to receive.

Consider setting up a secondary email account just for subscriptions and registration purposes. Use it whenever you sign up for a service, a store rewards card, or other places where you are likely to be added to lists that send out marketing email. This helps to keep your primary email account free of spam and unwanted messages.

Home Inventory List

A home inventory list can be as basic or as detailed as you want. I keep a home inventory spreadsheet on my computer, it is an extensive list of almost everything I own even down to the smallest items which is so useful because if I need to find information about something I own it is on the list. The list includes appliances, computers, printers, phones, TV’s, video game consoles, streaming devices, kitchen gadgets, the paint I used to paint my house, the siding, windows, roof and gutters I had installed, curtains and window coverings, all the details about every home improvement I have done, furnace, water softener, well pump, furniture, vacuum cleaner, garage door opener, smoke & carbon monoxide detectors, lawn mower, car and more. I enter detailed information about each item including the make, model and serial number, date of purchase, cost, place of purchase and warranty information. Examples of other details I include are for my furnace I list what type of filter it uses, for the house paint I include the paint color, how many gallons of paint I used and the date each room was painted, for my lawn tractor I include the type of engine it has and what kind of oil it takes. Each item on the list can include specific details pertaining to that item. I can easily refer to the list when I need information, for example if I am at the store and I need to know what type of toner my printer uses I can quickly retrieve that information. If I call for service on my furnace, I can tell them the make, model and date of purchase.

When I purchase something new, I add it to the list. I also have a picture of each item on the list, a picture of the item overall and then other pictures of the sticker or tag that includes the make/model and serial number. I keep the list and photos in a folder on my computer named home inventory that syncs with my phone.

Digital Copy of All Documents

Creating digital copies of every important document allows for easy access and acts as a backup if the originals are ever lost. Documents you may want to copy are birth certificates, Social Security cards, driver’s license, vaccination records, wills, tax returns, home deed, car titles and registration, bank statements, financial account documents, medical records, medication list, list of doctors and medical facilities, utility bills, receipts and other meaningful information. You can take a picture or use a scanner to create the copies and then save them on your computer.

Digital Wallet

You can use a digital wallet to store credit and debit cards, driver’s license, insurance cards, library cards, store loyalty cards and more. This allows you to greatly reduce what you carry in your wallet. If your wallet is ever lost or stolen, you won’t have to worry about replacing all of your cards because you won’t need to carry them with you. Secure your phone so that no one can unlock it except you and carry it in a secure location when you go out.

Calendar & Contacts

I use a calendar and contact list that syncs between all my devices. I use the calendar for more than just appointments, anything meaningful that I did on a certain day is added to the calendar, for example if I fill a prescription, I log that including the medication, dose, refills, prescribing physician, pharmacy, cost etc. If I completed a project around the house I log the details of what was done, if I have a service technician come to repair an appliance I log everything about the call including the date, time, company, service techs name, how long they were there, the cost and what they did to repair the problems, I attach a copy of the invoice to the calendar entry so I can easily refer to it in the future. I log all online orders and attach the receipt, any important phone calls and the details of the call, all online bill pay and banking information. I can look back at my calendar and anything of significance that took place on a certain day will be listed.

I use my contacts list in much the same way. I have the typical information about each contact such as name, address and phone number but I also record important details about the person or business that I may need to remember.

Digital Notes

I have notes on almost everything I need to remember, for example notes about my home such as lot size, year it was built, date I purchased it and how much I paid, a list of all of my medications, notes about my son such as his shoe and clothes size so if I am out shopping I can buy something for him knowing it will fit, a list of all of the books I have read, a list of where I keep things in my house like spare keys and other important things so I never forget where I put them, a list of measurements around my house like the size of the doors and windows, floor measurements, appliance measurements and more. If I am away from home and want to purchase a new appliance or curtains for the windows I know the measurements.

Photos

I use my phone to take pictures, so they are saved in the cloud and synced with my computer. I have also scanned most of my old, printed photos creating a digital copy.

Password Manager

A password manager is a must have, when you use a password manager you will only need to memorize one password, the password used to open the program. All your other passwords will be saved securely inside.

Regular Backups

Setup an automated backup on your computer and other devices so that all important data is backed up to an external hard drive or other location. Ideally you want three copies of your data. The original copy and two others in separate locations.