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Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

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Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#71

Post by bxparks »

A Fujitsu S1500 ScanSnap, dual-sided, document scanner (now discontinued, replacement might be the iX1600). Completely changed how I manage my personal documents (e.g. financial, invoices, receipts, product manuals, medical info, business docs, recreation and hobby stuff, etc). Anything remotely important, I scan to PDF, which triggers automatic OCR that is reasonably accurate, then I upload the PDF to Google Drive, which is organized into a hierarchy of folders.

Google Drive's internal search is not good enough when there are 100s of documents with similar titles, so I try to maintain a consistent naming convention "{yyyy-mm-dd} {summary of document}". Electronic documents (e.g. bank and credit card statements) are downloaded as PDF and uploaded to the same Google Drive folder hierarchy.

The originals go into a set of 12 file folders labeled "Jan" to "Dec". The folders become a ring buffer. Every month, I empty out the upcoming month, by shredding the originals from 12 months ago. I got rid of a 4-drawer filing cabinet by incrementally scanning the original paper documents over several weeks.

(Edit: fix typo)

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#72

Post by cranesnakecode »

kpennell wrote: post #41

Eye Mask - I sleep so much better and longer with one on. I recommend one that doesn't sit on your eyes directly (has a bit of concavity).

I second this. I sleep so much better with it on. But I do need one with concavity, otherwise it hurts my eyes after a while.

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#73

Post by cranesnakecode »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #10

Mail processor. I spend $20/month, they receive all of my mail, open it, and digitize it. They discard the junk mail if I want. I never have to visit a mailbox again. I can even register it as my address on my driver's license and for my vehicles. EDIT: The service I use is https://www.sbimailservice.com/ .

I might need to do this when I start my vanlife. What service are you using?

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#74

Post by [deleted] »

cranesnakecode wrote: post #73
toomuchtodo wrote: post #10

Mail processor. I spend $20/month, they receive all of my mail, open it, and digitize it. They discard the junk mail if I want. I never have to visit a mailbox again. I can even register it as my address on my driver's license and for my vehicles. EDIT: The service I use is https://www.sbimailservice.com/ .

I might need to do this when I start my vanlife. What service are you using?

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#75

Post by ortusdux »

bragr wrote: post #64
lloydatkinson wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow I’d be far too paranoid about them leaking things

Some people in my area use these services and I've considered it because mail theft is a big problem in my area. Organized rings doing package theft, identify theft, and all that. So for us at least, it seems significantly safer than having it delivered directly. Personally I just go paperless as much as possible and have the post office hold my mail (another popular response).

PO box?

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#76

Post by Scottopherson »

is0tope wrote: post #62

Two things: 1. Ultimate Ears Wonderboom 2 Bluetooth speaker. Compact and very loud, also has good battery life. Handy on hikes and similar. The waterproofing is excellent and I use it in the shower to listen to podcasts, etc. 2. Sony WH1000MX4 Bluetooth headphones. I was skeptical in getting a full set of headphones as I always preferred earphones. These things have amazing sound quality and noise cancelation which m…

Do you really go hiking with a ‘very loud’ Wonderboom speaker?

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#77

Post by falcolas »

For voice recordings - Izotope RX8 elements. Found it for $9 right now. Aggravating mouth noises be gone.

Magnetic charging cables. Some can't take advantage of the higher speed charging (only connecting V+ and ground), but it's unreasonably nice to have cables throughout the house that can support all of your devices.

A comfortable mouse with enough buttons. A comfortable keyboard that just works, even if you don't have the driver software.

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#78

Post by DrJones1098 »

bxparks wrote: post #71

A Fujitsu S1500 ScanSnap, dual-sided, document scanner (now discontinued, replacement might be the iX1600). Completely changed how I manage my personal documents (e.g. financial, invoices, receipts, product manuals, medical info, business docs, recreation and hobby stuff, etc). Anything remotely important, I scan to PDF, which triggers automatic OCR that is reasonably accurate, then I upload the PDF to Google Drive,…

I've used Google drives 'Save as pdf' feature where you can take a photo with your phone and it will be turned into a pdf. Prob lower resolution that yours but it's been working for me for a while.

But other wise...follow the same process.

Almost 99% paper free, no filing cabinets, no losing papers.

Awesome stuff.

Re: Ask HN: What tiny purchases have disproportionately improved your life?

#80

Post by [deleted] »

bragr wrote: post #64
lloydatkinson wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow I’d be far too paranoid about them leaking things

Some people in my area use these services and I've considered it because mail theft is a big problem in my area. Organized rings doing package theft, identify theft, and all that. So for us at least, it seems significantly safer than having it delivered directly. Personally I just go paperless as much as possible and have the post office hold my mail (another popular response).

[deleted]
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