But if you’re currently buried under piles of paper clutter, cleaning house can be frustrating and it can be overwhelming to know how to dig yourself out.

Not only do you have to clear the clutter you already have; you must implement systems to keep those paper stacks from coming back.

Luckily, it’s possible to completely clean house with nothing but a scanner, your smartphone, and a recycle bin.

Step One: Scan What You Need to Save

Nearly every document you need to save can be scanned and stored in its digital version. The IRS accepts digital receipts with your tax documents, and nearly every type of digital document is now accepted as legally binding, as long as it’s legible.

This means that you can scan nearly every scrap of paper in sight, freeing up precious space in your home or office and creating a more organized, harmonious environment.

If you have large amounts of paper to scan, you may want to use a service like Shoeboxed to scan everything for you.

Shoeboxed will provide you with “magic envelopes” for all your clutter. All you have to do is drop your papers into the envelope, drop the envelope in the mail, then sit back and relax as the Shoeboxed team scans and digitizes all of your documents to a secure cloud-based account.

Step Two: Recycle the Remains

Once you’ve figured out how to clean house with your scanner or a document scanning service, it’s time to truly clear the clutter!

Recycle all of the documents that have been successfully scanned, making sure you have high-quality digital versions saved on your hard drive and in the Cloud.

Keep in mind that you may want to shred sensitive financial documents before recycling them.

Step Three: Create a New System

There’s no point in cleaning house and going paperless if the clutter simply creeps back in over time.

In order to maintain a workspace that’s consistently free and clear, it’s crucial to look at how you got into this (paper) mess in the first place.

Once you’re able to identify where the majority of the clutter is coming from, you can tackle it head on and prevent it from returning.

For instance, if you seem to collect a large number of receipts, put rules in place for digitization as soon as someone hands you one.

Instead of stuffing the receipt in your purse or wallet, tossing it in your car, and dragging it back into your home or office, use a receipt scanning app on your smartphone in the same way you used a scanner in Step One.

Besides scanning your documents for you, Shoeboxed also has an app that lets you snap a photo of a receipt with your smartphone and automatically beam the information to your account. This means you can toss the receipt before you’ve even left the store, preventing paper clutter from returning.

If you’ve been wondering how to clean house, remember to scan and digitize what needs to be saved, recycle the hard copies, and maintain your clutter-free space by implementing easy-to-follow, clutter-free systems.

Well, the good news is that, if you’re in that situation now – even if you haven’t started tax preparation yet – it’s possible to finish the process quickly, easily and accurately.

And if you’re not currently in that situation, then the good news is that you never have to end up in it again.

So what’s the secret to swift, painless taxes?

Using a digital receipt scanning service like Shoeboxed to help you.

Forget hiring a Virtual Assistant or spending hours upon hours poring over deductions and write off’s.

With Shoeboxed, you can save hours of time on your taxes by letting their human verifiers scan, digitize, and organize your receipts for you.

Here’s how it works.

Step One: Scan Your Documents

Whether you have piles upon piles of paper receipts, or a single folder just for saving receipts for taxes, Shoeboxed will scan and digitize everything for you.

Magic Envelope

Use one (or five!) of Shoeboxed’s convenient Magic Envelopes to rid yourself of paper clutter in seconds. Simply toss everything into the envelope, drop the envelope in the nearest mailbox, and check your account a few days later.

Every single receipt, business card, bank statement, and tax-related document will be scanned and uploaded to your secure Shoeboxed account – all without you having to lift a finger!

Smartphone App

You can also use the Shoeboxed smartphone app to scan receipts right from your phone.

Open the app on your phone, snap a photo of your receipt, and Shoeboxed automatically populates your account with all pertinent information including the purchase amount, date, location, and tax category.

The smartphone app is a great option for staying organized throughout the year. Instead of letting paper clutter build up, simply scan your receipt the second you get it, then recycle it and go about your (paper-free) day!

Step Two: Organize Your Receipts

Once your receipts are digitized within your Shoeboxed account, double check to make sure they’re assigned to the proper tax deduction categories.

Shoeboxed technology does this automatically, i.e. assigning airport receipts to the “business travel” category, but it’s a good idea to double check for accuracy.

You should also assign tax categories to any receipts labeled “uncategorized” in your Shoeboxed account.

Step Three: Report Your Results

Here’s where the magic really happens. Once your receipts for taxes have been scanned and organized, use Shoeboxed’s one-click reporting tool to calculate your deductions instantaneously.

You can export itemized receipts with assigned categories to a variety of different accounting applications, including Quickbooks, Evernote, Outright, and more, or simply export everything to an Excel or Google spreadsheet.

The reporting option makes it easy to share your itemized receipt totals with your accounting professional, calculate the results, and instantly obtain write-off amounts for each business deduction category.

The next time you prepare to do your taxes, there’s no need to spend hours analyzing bank statements and shuffling through paper receipts.

Use Shoeboxed to scan, digitize, and organize your receipts to finish your taxes faster than you ever thought possible!

If you didn’t have the means to buy your own scanner and scan documents at home, you had to try and locate the nearest FedEx Office or print shop, drive there, and use your credit card to pay for each and every document you scanned.

Talk about the Stone Age!

So how do you scan a document in the 21st century? Like so many things in the digital age, the answer is whenever and wherever you want.

Scanners are now more lightweight and compact than ever. You can purchase a travel scanner to scan your documents on the go, scan documents in the comfort of your home or office, or even scan documents using your smartphone.

When using a scanner like the Fujitsu Scansnap, all you have to do is place your document (or stack of documents) into the scanner’s feed tray. The scanner will do the rest, scanning a page every 7.5 seconds.

What’s more, modern scanners create digitized documents at 600 DPI, ensuring the scanned copy will be crystal clear and easy to read.

Another great feature of modern-day document scanning is the ability to digitize your data. When you scan a document, the scanning software will capture the data from whatever hard copy document you’ve scanned. It will then present that data in a variety of searchable forms, making it easy to create reports using Microsoft Excel or export data to a PDF. You can then incorporate this data into expense reports or other tax documents, and easily share it with colleagues, co-workers, and your tax professional.

When you’re on the go, the easiest way to scan a document is to simply snap a photo of it with your smartphone. Shoeboxed is a company that offers receipt scanning software for your iPhone or Android via their smartphone app. Whenever you need to scan a receipt or document, simply open their app on your phone and snap a picture of it. The information from the document will be automatically scanned and synced within your secure online account. You can then recycle the hard copy and prevent paper clutter from collecting in your home, office or car.

Shoeboxed is also great if you have massive stacks of paper that need to be scanned. Instead of snapping a photo of each individual piece of paper, simply place the stack within one (or several) of their Magic Envelopes. Drop the envelope in the mail, and sit back and relax as the Shoeboxed team does the scanning for you. In this way, the answer to the question “How do you scan a document?” becomes “You don’t – you let someone else do it!”

Whether you’re scanning from home or snapping photos on the go, it’s never been easier to scan a document, go paperless, get organized and stay that way.

Just a few years ago, you would have to physically go into a FedEx Office store to scan documents, or invest in an expensive scanner and receipt scanning software just to turn piles of paper clutter into digital data.

While you can still use public workspaces like FedEx Office to scan documents, doing so requires you to journey to and from their store location each and every time you need something scanned. That’s a lot of work and a lot of wasted time!

Luckily, things have changed a lot in the past few years.

Now, it’s easier than ever to scan documents from the comfort of your own home or office. Scanners are more compact, more lightweight, and more powerful than ever. As more and more small business owners go paperless, scanners are becoming one of the most – if not the most – important office supplies to have on hand.

A mobile scanner like the Fujitsu ScanSnap S1100 weighs only about 12 ounces and scans everything from business cards to bank statements.

Fujitsu ScanSnap S1100 Mobile Scanner

When wondering “Where can I scan documents?”, the answer with ScanSnap is “anywhere you want!” Convert paper documents to PDF, Word, Excel, or JPG, connect directly to your laptop or mobile device, and organize full color scans by category or keyword.

Another great answer to the question “Where can I scan documents?” is “Nowhere!” That’s because there are receipt scanning services that will scan all of your documents for you, eliminating the need to buy a scanner at all.

With a service like the one available from Shoeboxed, you can dump all of your paper documents into a big envelope, drop the envelope in the mail, and watch as your account is magically populated with digital data. All of your documents will be scanned, digitized, categorized, and stored in a single secure account. This is a great option if you’re a busy small business owner and don’t have the time to spend hours scanning.

Shoeboxed also has an app for iOS and Android that functions in a similar way to the ScanSnap scanner. Instead of bringing a portable scanner along with you on business trips, you can use your smartphone as a scanner.

Open the Shoeboxed app on your phone and simply snap a picture of the receipt or document that needs to be scanned. The app will then automatically beam the document to your Shoeboxed account and sync the new data within your account.

There is no longer any need to leave your home, go back to the office, or try and find an open FedEx Office simply because you need to scan a few business cards. With the ScanSnap starting at just $199, and Shoeboxed accounts starting at under $10/month, it’s easy to start scanning documents (or not!) when it’s most convenient for you.

The benefits of capturing receipts via your smartphone or desktop scanner include:

Instant digitization

When you scan your receipts or snap a picture of them using a smartphone app like the one available from Shoeboxed, all of the information on the receipt becomes instantly digitized. This means that you’ll be able to search for purchases and transactions by date, amount, category, and even individual items. Cloud-based applications like Shoeboxed ensure that all of your expense information is available at the touch of a button.

Never lose another receipt

It’s easy to lose track of paper receipts when they’re stuffed in your wallet, purse or briefcase. By capturing your e-receipts and uploading them to the cloud as soon as you get them, you’ll never lose another receipt. You’ll also be able to search for and find receipts as needed when requested by your tax professional or the IRS.

Easy reporting

When the time comes to send information to your accountant or create an expense report, software that captures e-receipts makes the process seamless. Instead of shuffling through receipt after receipt and manually recording each total, simply select the date range or category of receipt you’d like to report, and voila! A comprehensive report created with the touch of a button.

Digitally sort into categories

Another major benefit of capturing your e-receipts is being able to sort and organize them into expense categories. Shoeboxed’s receipt scanning service automatically detects the appropriate tax category for each uploaded receipt.

For example, a scanned receipt from Office Depot would be automatically labeled as “office supplies,” and be available in searches for that particular expense category. If your purchase at Office Depot needs to be categorized differently, it’s easy to remove, edit, and change category labels from within your account.

Capture on the go

While a receipt scanner comes in handy at the office and when dealing with large stacks of paper, capturing receipts on the go prevents clutter from being reintroduced to your newly clean workspace.

When you receive a receipt from a retail outlet or restaurant, simply snap a picture of that receipt from within your smartphone application. The information will be instantly digitized and beamed to your account. From there, you can recycle the receipt and leave the establishment clutter-free. Since the IRS no longer requires hard copy receipts, the digital record is all you need to keep.

Eliminate stacks of paper clutter

Capturing your e-receipts in the office doesn’t have to be a painstaking process. Shoeboxed offers a service called the Magic Envelope, which allows you to eliminate enormous stacks of personal or business receipts and other paper documents in a matter of minutes. Simply toss anything you’d like to be captured into the big blue envelope, and toss the envelope in the mail. In a few days, the folks at Shoeboxed will have scanned and digitized each and every item.