Digitizing Paper Documents for a Smooth Move

When you’re preparing to move, you may find yourself faced with a lot of paper documents. Holiday cards, leases, letters, tax documents, notes, and doodles can accumulate over time. If your choices are limited to “keep” or “trash,” it can be challenging to let go, even if you opt for one of the more responsible ways to get rid of your stuff. Digitization simplifies these decisions by introducing a third option: create a virtual version for safekeeping and say goodbye to the physical paper.

Today, digitization only requires a smartphone or a tablet, but it is essential to optimize the process while minimizing the risk of data loss.

Decide What to Do with Your Papers

Based on my experience—having digitized numerous boxes of documents over the past six months—there are only a few types of records worth retaining after creating a digital version. These include original government documents, legal agreements such as a will or a current lease, items that might lose their form or meaning when reduced to images on a screen, and anything you may wish to display in your home.

Of course, there will be exceptions. For instance, you might decide to discard every birthday card except for the one from your Read the full story at The Verge..