This might be a bit off-topic, I don't know... when people talk about a "paper wallet", are they just saying that they're writing down their private key(s) and putting them in a safe, and then deleting all electronic traces until they re-establish a wallet?
Generally yes, it's a good way to safeguard your coin stash for longer periods of time.
They can be created entirely offline and then you send all your coins to the generated address without the wallet ever being online.