Hasta La Ideas

Reader OB submitted the following to Ask Unclutterer:

I am in the process of scanning all of our tax returns older than seven years and am considering storing them on Google Documents. Do you consider that safe, since they contain a lot of confidential information? Thanks for your opinion.

To answer your question, I contacted Timothy B. Lee who is a computer science researcher at Princeton University. Here’s what he told me:

It really depends on the user’s tolerance for risk and what her other options are. If you place confidential information on Google Docs, the risks include: Google being compromised by hackers, Google itself using the documents for nefarious purposes, your account being compromised, governments or other third parties requesting and obtaining access to the documents, and Google losing your information. None of these outcomes are very likely, but they’re all risks to keep in mind.

Personally, I wouldn’t put confidential information on Google Docs because I keep regular backups of the data on my hard drive and I’m vigilant about the security of my machines. If you run a business or are in a profession where you regularly handle confidential data, you have an obligation to do the same in order to safeguard your customers’ confidential data. But I know that, in practice, ordinary users don’t always follow these best practices. For those users, there may be a larger risk of losing information in a personal hard-drive crash or malware infection than having something bad happen to data in Google Docs. So trusting Google Docs may be a rational, calculated risk.

If you do decide to put confidential information in Google Docs, you should strongly consider signing up for 2-step authentication. This is a free service that greatly improves the security of your Google account. It won’t protect you from all the threats I listed above, but it will at least protect you in case a malicious party gets your password.

Thank you, OB, for submitting your question for our Ask Unclutterer column. I hope Timothy’s information helps you come to a solution that is best for you.

Do you have a question relating to organizing, cleaning, home and office projects, productivity, or any problems you think the Unclutterer team could help you solve? To submit your questions to Ask Unclutterer, go to our contact page and type your question in the content field. Please list the subject of your e-mail as “Ask Unclutterer.” If you feel comfortable sharing images of the spaces that trouble you, let us know about them. The more information we have about your specific issue, the better.

Like this site? Buy Erin Rooney Doland’s Unclutter Your Life in One Week from Amazon.com today.

Continua la mia ammirazione per Bomboland. Questa illustrazione è stata prodotta per il mag canadese UP!Magazine.

Digitally organize paper piles with a handy all-in-one device

Tidying up your workspace might seem impossible with endless paperwork continuously piling up. To help manage the glut, I’ve been testing out NeatDesk, a scanner-and-software combo that turns clutter into organized files on your computer. In the week that I’ve used it, I’ve become kind of obsessed—the beauty of the solution is that it’s perfectly integrated hardware and software.

Just drop tax filings, invoices, correspondence and even business cards into the gadget, either one at a time or in a stack—Neat Desk can handle up to 10 double-sided documents at a time at up to 600 dpi.

From there, the NeatDesk rapidly scans and saves everything to NeatWorks, the companion desktop software, where you can edit and process as needed. Built for use with PC and Mac platforms, NeatWork’s intelligent OCR technology files information for easy exporting to popular platforms.

It converts business cards to text for effortless syncing with your computer address book; receipts can be organized directly in to an expense-report-ready spreadsheet; and documents can be filed or converted to pdfs and shared.

NeatDesk sells online for $400 from The Neat Company, as well as at stores like Staples and Office Max.

Mail has been a huge problem for us since we moved. One of the reasons we have a problem is because part of our system for processing mail is in one house, and the other part is in the new house. For a month and a half, I have found mail on the kitchen table, the kitchen counter, my desk chair, on top of the washing machine, and in the car (and, as much as I would like to blame my husband for this, I’m primarily the one responsible). It’s amazing how when there isn’t a set system for processing mail, it ends up everywhere except for where it is supposed to be deposited.

The other component to our problem is that we don’t have a good place to hide our paper shredder, recycling bin, and trash can in the new place (the tools we use to get rid of junk mail). The foyer doesn’t have wall space, so hiding these items by the front door is impossible. All the mail, including junk mail, has to come inside the house. This bothers me. And, instead of looking for a solution, I’ve been ignoring the problem hoping it will magically go away.

Obviously, the problem won’t magically go away.

The first goal was to put a sorting system in place so the mail has a place to go immediately upon entering the house. I had a sample of Peter Walsh’s “Inspired Message Board” system that is part of his You.Organized line for OfficeMax. Peter (or likely his publicist) gave it to me when the line was released, and I had been using the calendar in the other house but not the mail sorting components. Adding in some of the components, I created this to hang on a wall near the entrance to the office:

The second solution is to get a closed storage bin to hide the shredder, recycling bin, and trash can in the office. The bench will live immediately below the mail sorting system. Our current shredder is 18″ tall, so we need a storage bench capable of accommodating it. I’m thinking this is what we’ll use:

The toy chest is the right height and has a thin panel in the back that will be easy to drill through to make a place for the shredder’s power cord. The bench will also work well with a child safety latch, to prevent our toddler and cat from having an accident with the shredder. I don’t love this bench, but I have yet to find something I like more. I’ve made a deal with myself that if I don’t find an alternative by the week’s end, I’ll order the toy chest.

Having a set sorting and processing station will keep junk mail from over-running the house and will make sure everyone in the house finds his mail when he needs it. I’m ready to have mail in just one location and not strewn about the house and car.

What physical system do you have in place to sort mail in your home? Share your solutions in the comments.

Like this site? Buy Erin Rooney Doland’s Unclutter Your Life in One Week from Amazon.com today.

Dans le cadre d’un projet pour l’école d’art de Berlin Weissensee, la française Laura Junger et l’allemand Xaver Xylophon ont choisi d’illustrer le plaisir pris par l’homme à détruire. Un film tout en collage et en stop-motion qui démontre la place de la destruction dans notre quotidien.

Previously on Fubiz

• Paper Letters
• Electronic Paper Tablet
• Chanel : Robot

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