4 Easy (Digital) Ways to Banish Paper Clutter from Your Life

Last week, organizing expert June Saruwatari visited InStyle's offices to promote her new book, Behind the Clutter: Truth. Love. Meaning Purpose. As the gorgeous West coast–based neatnik discussed the psychological underpinnings of getting rid of excess stuff, she also rattled off the names of a handful of apps that make clutter-busting even easier. With tax season upon us, and the deluge of papers in our lives so hard to ignore, her words were all the more compelling: "Tax time is an excellent excuse to outfit your life with simply designed apps that will change the way you approach not only tax season, but shift how you manage the most important stuff of your life—permanently.”

Yes, please.

Here's Saruwatari's list of favorite apps and sites, some familiar, some less so, most of them free and some not—but all holding the promise of a Zen existence. Ommmmmm.

1. Use the app Shoeboxed to archive receipts, old bills, business cards and more. Take photos of them and send to the service or drop them into pre-paid, free envelopes. The service then sends you digitized, archived copies for whenever you need to access them.

2. Banish junk mail (snail mail, that is) with PaperKarma. Snap a photo of unwanted mail that you want to stop receiving and PaperKarma contacts them and has you removed from the mailer's list.

3. You may have used Dropbox in the past to send large digital photos to friends, but it's also a handy way to store paperwork, scan memorabilia, and even archive tax records.

4. Create digital "notebooks" to document your passions by using Microsoft OneNote or Evernote. Create your own library of anything and everything you want to remember and have access to, including ideas for your next party, medical records, decorating inspiration, and emails from a best friend.

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