Going paperless at home in five steps
Going paperless sounds like a project that needs a free weekend, which is exactly why it usually never happens. It's really a habit you set up in an afternoon and then maintain in passing. These five steps are ordered so that each one leaves you better off before you start the next.
Last reviewed: August 12, 2026
How do I go paperless?
In five steps: first let less paper in, second decide on one single inbox where everything lands, third spend ten minutes a week sorting, fourth work through the backlog one binder at a time, fifth sort out backups and emergency access. The order matters more than the tools.
Everything else on this page fills those five steps with detail. If you only do one of them, do the first: paper that never arrives is paper nobody has to file.
Step 1: stop the inflow
Turn off the tap first. Every letter that stops arriving is one you never have to file. Switch your bank, insurers, phone provider and energy supplier to digital delivery; in your account settings that takes a few minutes per provider.
Against advertising in the letterbox there are three levers, and they work on different things. A sticker on the letterbox keeps unaddressed leaflets out; anyone who posts them anyway can be required to stop. Free advertising papers only count once the sticker names them explicitly.
Addressed advertising is beyond the sticker's reach. For that there's the free Robinsonliste run by the German Dialogue Marketing Association: member companies check their address lists against it, and an entry lasts several years. For individual companies that keep writing, an objection under Article 21(2) GDPR works: direct marketing is the one case where the company may not weigh interests, it has to stop. Allow two or three months, because mailings are prepared far in advance. The Verbraucherzentrale explains the routes in detail and provides template letters (overview).
Step 2: decide on one inbox
Paperless living fails when documents live in five places: your email, the downloads folder, the desk, the photo gallery and a drawer. Pick one place. Everything lands there first.
This becomes practical when you can reach that inbox from anywhere. Forward invoices from your email into it, photograph paper into it. Nothing is sorted yet. Nothing is lost either.
Step 3: ten minutes of sorting a week
Set aside ten minutes once a week to empty the inbox. That's little enough that you'll actually do it, and often enough that nothing piles up.
Make it easy on yourself. A document needs an understandable name, a date and an area; everything beyond that is optional. People who try to be perfect while sorting give up after three weeks.
Step 4: take the backlog in portions
The box in the cellar isn't urgent. It can wait. When you do tackle it, do one binder at a time and in this order: current contracts first, then the last three years of receipts, then the documents you can never get again.
A lot of it goes straight in the bin as you work through it. A good part of the average binder is advertising, expired quotes and receipts for things that no longer exist.
Step 5: make the paperless habit last
A digital archive is worth exactly as much as its backup and your ability to get back into it. Settle two things before you rely on it: is it backed up regularly, and could somebody else reach the important papers in an emergency?
People tend to overlook the second point. If you're out of action, your partner should be able to reach insurance documents and powers of attorney; an archive only you can open is, in an emergency, exactly as inaccessible as a locked filing cabinet whose key nobody can find.
The folder for an emergency
An archive only you can reach stays convenient right up until you're out of action. So build a small set that somebody else can find in an emergency: powers of attorney, a living will, insurance papers, current contracts, the important contact details and a list of your online accounts. A thin binder does the job, and it can sit right next to the digital archive.
Two things turn that into something that actually works. First, somebody has to know it exists and be able to reach it: a partner, an adult child, a trusted friend. Second, a power of attorney or living will can be recorded in the Zentrales Vorsorgeregister run by the Federal Chamber of Notaries, so courts and doctors learn that it exists at all.
Online accounts are the part almost everyone forgets. They pass to the heirs like any other contract, as Germany's Federal Court of Justice ruled in 2018. That's no use to anyone who doesn't know where to look. A plain list of the providers is enough; passwords belong in a password manager whose master access your trusted person knows.
Is a paperless home realistic?
Almost no household becomes entirely paperless, and that needn't be the goal. Certificates, notarised documents and a small stack of papers you need in original form will stay. What's realistic is one binder instead of a shelf, and the certainty that you can find any document in seconds.
The real gain isn't the space you free up. It's that a question about an old contract no longer starts a search party.
Frequently asked questions
How long does going paperless take?
Stopping the inflow and setting up an inbox is an afternoon's work. The backlog is a matter of weeks if you take it one binder at a time, and it's never urgent.
What about documents I have to keep as originals?
Keep one thin binder for them: certificates, notarised contracts, references. Scan the contents anyway, so you have them to hand day to day without hunting for the folder.
Is a folder on my computer not enough?
As a start, yes. It has two weaknesses: it's rarely backed up, and you can't reach it when you're out. Both only become apparent when the device is lost or you need a document at the doctor's.
Is this worth it for a single-person household?
The effort scales with the volume, the benefit doesn't: even at thirty letters a year you'll eventually hunt for the policy or the tenancy agreement. With very few documents, though, a well-named folder often does the job.