After gradschool, I have honestly accumulated a lot of paper clutter in my life. But as the years passed, I have been minimizing the use of paper not only to be clutter-free but also save the environment. If you have been planning to minimize your paper clutter, then these tips are for you:

1. Don't buy a printer if you don't really need one. I bought a printer + scanner during my masters but I plan to sell it once I finish my "scan party" of all my gradschool notes. If you work in an office and you could use the printer for (a bit) of personal use, then its better if you don't purchase a printer.

2. Keep a digital copy of important receipts. If you own an iPhone, you don't need to download a scanner app, you can use the notes app. A new note has a camera icon and viola! you can scan anything.

3. Switch to online billing. This prevents extra monthly paper clutter at home. By switching to online billing, both bill statements and receipts will now be electronic.

4. Keep a folder or envelope of all important documents. After decluttering "most" of my paper clutter, I gathered my diploma, birth certificate, transcript, etc. in a folder as these are important documents when applying for graduate school.

5. Sort through mail before bringing it inside your house. When collecting new mail, sort through the things you should take inside and not.

6. Make sure to back up your files. It is important to invest in a good quality external hard drive to back up your files. If you don't have one, you can upload important files in google drive or dropbox.

7. When making a document use google docs. I rarely use MS Word or Excel in my laptop. I have been using google docs often because they immediately save the file and accessible to my phone and laptop.

8. If you need to sign paper work, use Adobe Acrobat Reader. As I have been working from home, I sometimes sign documents like my reports and DTR. I usually use the Adobe Acrobat Reader to sign these docs and send them to my boss.

9. If you use gmail, make use of the google calendar, to do list and its add-ons. If you prefer to have electronic copies of your planner, calendar, to do list, etc., Google has all of that and it is easily accessible at the right side when opening Gmail (add-ons).

10. If you and your co-workers need to work on a project (or need to access files) at the same time then use Google Drive. My co-workers and I have decided that all of our files will now be created and saved in our Team Google Drive. It is super easy and more convenient than using Microsoft Office and it is accessible anytime anywhere - as long as you have internet. Even with my personal files, I have moved to using Google Drive as I constantly change from PC, laptop and my phone.