Why Every Home Should Have a Scanner

In one of my previous jobs working in Ottawa, one of the tasks that I elected to take on for myself was to digitize the filing system of the office that I was working in. Before I started, I had been given a little Fujitsu scan snap desk-sized scanner. I ran that sucker for eight hours a day nearly for four years straight, and it never broke down for me. It was such a useful product that when I was looking for a scanner for myself, I know that there was only one that I wanted. With everything being kept digitally, there is so much need for everyone to have a scanner. Despite having digital options available, there are still a phenomenal amount of things that are sent a hard copy. I’m confident that there are legal reasons for this, but at the end of the day, it’s still more paper in our house. So what to do? Well, scan it naturally.

1) Holding hard paper copy is inefficient – I have, on several occasions, had to dig through my records for things. I have been in meetings where someone has asked me to go and find a document related to the meeting, as an example. I think what they were expecting me to do was to go back to my desk and dig through my files to find what they wanted. In reality, I was able to go on my phone, do a quick search and e-mail the document in question to the person who requested while I was in the meeting. No muss, no fuss, no missing any part of the meeting that I was invited to. Could you imagine being in a big meeting and having to leave to find a document for a while? Holding hard copy is inefficient because keeping records in one physical location means that you need to be able to access that location to access those files. If you are away from that location, then you won’t have access to what you need. If you keep your data digitally, then you will be able to access them anywhere you can access the internet.

2) They save so much space – From a physical space standpoint, digital filing saves so, so, SOOOOO much space. When I was scanning the filing system for my previous office, I was able to get rid of around 380 feet of paper. Stop for a second and think about that. Three hundred eighty feet is roughly the same length as 22 four-door sedan cars. Now think about all the paper that you have lying around your house, be it bills, records or whatever. If you had a scanner in your home, you would be able to get rid of all that paper and use the space for something else instead.

3) A good scanner will be easy to use – There is this interesting misconception that more expensive technology is more complicated. I’m not talking about the difference between hooking up your computer screen and piloting the space shuttle here, which I imagine is super complicated. I’m referring to scanners that are less expensive versus the ones that cost a little more. The thing of it is, all scanners have the exact same function, and quite frankly the cheaper ones are harder to operate. The reason is simple; you get what you pay for. If you get a $40.00 scanner, then the device itself is going to rely on you doing at least some of the work to get the scan done. I’ve seen inexpensive scanner wand, type things that I’ve never been able to get to work correctly. That being said, a more expensive scanner will work where all you have to do is load the document into the thing, press a button and you’re off to the races. It will have all the software loaded for you so it should be a relatively simple process.

The fact of the matter is that we are in the middle of a transition of a time where all of our documents are hard copy to a future time where everything will be digital. I believe that we are about 80% of the way there. E-mail has taken over for most of our correspondence, Pdf’s being the format that we use to hold our documents, and all of our photos being digital, there would be little to no room in our homes for everything that we have. For now, what remains of hard copy that enters our homes should be scanned so that it can be added to our digital systems. That way, we can have a complete picture of our filing systems, and not have to worry about our physical space being taken up by too much paper.

How do you keep your files?

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