My mother-in-law is simply the best; I don’t know what I did to deserve her but I’m not asking any questions. She has endless energy for the boys and played board games and read to them for hours … which allowed me to stress-test my scanner. My office doubles as a dumping ground second guest room which I have to clear out to make room for my mom’s visit. The Fujitsu is amazing at burning through stacks of paper and tagging is easy if you take a few minutes to sort the papers into categories, like folders of tax documents or business receipts. I could easily lock myself in my office for a couple days and rid myself of the majority of paper files forever.

I love Anita.

This project is one of those “it’s going to get worse before it gets better” situations. I have to haul everything out before I can get rid of them and parts of my house have that exploded bomb look. Hooking up with the local mom list-serve has kept things from lingering around for too long and I am starting to notice a difference in my surroundings. Twenty-four days into my project and I am reaping the benefits.

Before Fujitsu.

The loose papers on top are things sent home from school, random pieces of mail, etc. They are all gone. Not moved. Not neatened, GONE. Scanned. Tagged. Archived. G.O.N.E.

After.

Ahhhhhhh.

Micah – 6 years

The boys are pretty prolific artists. I call this The Dragon Period since they are obsessed with large, flying reptiles. I photograph whatever is too large to scan.

Casey – 7 years

You might say I am heartless for not keeping the hard copies around, but having them in digital form, where I can view them on an iPad or my computer, makes it far more likely that they will be seen again.

I made short work of this pile.

Casey is making his first movie with the help of James, Lonny’s eBay employee. Thanks James!

These have been sitting in a corner of my office for years. Tax stuff. Gone.