Packing Green for a Move

Question: What is the number one, most unnecessary item people focus on when packing for a move?

Hint: it’s the item that takes up countless boxes, space in your home, hours of your time and is completely unnecessary. Give up?

The answer is: Paper.

Going completely paperless always seems like a great idea. Who doesn’t want to be green? Unfortunately, many of us have this undying need to have piles upon piles of papers…. and sadly an estimated 80% of this paper trail we don’t need. Magazines, Catalogs, Mail, Receipts, Financial Statements, those stack of get-well cards from last year when you had your tonsils out…the unnecessary paper trail is endless. Whether you are preparing for a move or have no plan to move in the immediate future it is never too early to get on the path to being organized and ‘green’.

Follow these daily tips to become a more organized, eco-friendly you:

• Take a few minutes each day to weed through the papers. There really should be only two piles: ‘Need’ and ‘Trash’.
• Once you make your piles attend to the ‘Need’ pile immediately. Simple tasks that only take a minute (like scheduling a bill payment) will be complete and are a lot easier than doing a whole stack of them at once.
• Get a scanner and either an online, file hosting service like Dropbox or external hard drive. Scan items of importance and place into organized files. Your important files will just be a click away the next time you need them.
• Call your bank, your gym, your doctor’s office, your student loans, your mortgage company or any other person that sends you and invoice or monthly statement and set up online/green statements.
• Contact your magazine subscriptions and go digital. Sure, it’s not the same as holding that Cosmo in your hands but if you can bear it we recommend that you try to go digital. At the very least do not save these magazines as they just take up space and collect dust. Recycle or donate to your local school, library or even nail or hair salon.
• Get Off That Mailing List: have a stack of catalogs that you never look at and that you can’t figure out how you got on their mailing list? Look for an email, website or contact phone number on the catalog and eliminate that stack of catalogs that you ‘are going to get to one day’.

Being organized year round will save you time, money, a lot of work in your daily life as well as when you decide to move again. Most importantly, by eliminating the unnecessary paper trail you be helping support a better tomorrow with your green efforts.