One of the first things I noticed when I started cleaning up around the house is that I tend to create piles of papers. This isn’t news to me, as I’ve been doing it for most of my life. However, it always surprises me when I look around and realize that there is a stack developing in every room.

The first area I began to tackle, for the Minimalist Experiment, is to get rid of this clutter. I threw many notes, outdated todo’s, and random ideas into the recycling bin.

Next, I started transferring items that I wanted to keep into my Evernote.com account. I recently discovered this helpful website, and it has helped me tremendously. Evernote is basically an online place to store all of your notes, clippings, etc. You can copy and paste bits of text, pictures, and even entire websites. Best of all, it is then searchable! Instead of organizing everything, just save it and use the search bar later. It’s incredibly easy and fast!. ChristianPF.com has a list of 21 Creative Uses for Evernote that is worth checking out.

So I started copying my saved notes into Evernote. It was such a great feeling to throw away some of that paper! It’s quite a relief to get rid of the notes and scraps of ideas that I’ve been saving, “just in case”. I still have the comfort of keeping them available if I ever do need them, but they’re not taking up physical space now. Even better, they’ll be easier to find if I do ever want to use them. A quick search and they’ll be at my fingertips.

Since I’ve been using Evernote, I’ve discovered that I create less paper. I have a file full of blog post ideas, my reading list, saved quotes, and more. Before, these would have existed in multiple locations, shuffled around as I tried to organize them. Now, I might write something down and slip that piece of paper in my pocket. As soon as I get to a computer, however, I transfer that information to my account and have it readily available when needed.

I’m not done yet. There is still plenty of paper for me to minimize. However, I’ve made a good start, and already it’s a relief to have cleared out some of the clutter.