Entries Tagged as 'Clutter Control'

Keeping Up With Receipts: Keep Your Tax Accountant Happy

February 8th, 2008 12 Comments

retrochick.JPGIvy says:

I come from a very long line of accountants. In addition, I have a close family friend that is an IRS auditor. (Yes, he does have a pocket protector and calculator at his side all the time. No, he doesn’t have a sense of humor that he is aware of.) Because of that, I was schooled very early in my adulthood about storing receipts for tax purposes. The bane of the tax accountant and IRS agent is the shoebox storage method:

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Now, most people will take what is called “the standard deduction” and won’t need receipts. However, many of us who work freelance or have their own (very, very small in my case) small businesses need these receipts like cats need to sit in your windowsill. If you’re one of those people who needs receipts, read on.

Many people throw their receipts in a shoebox and at the end of the year, they have a tangled mess to either hand to their tax accountant or go through themselves when they’re doing their own taxes. This method not only wastes time, but potentially can waste money OR get you in trouble with the IRS by either deducting too little or too much. You can’t deduct that plasma screen television because you need to “research” the latest television shows**, kids.

So, what’s the easiest way to organize your tax receipts? By using a folder filing system. Now, I know you’re thinking, “But Ivy, how is a folder better than a shoebox? Isn’t that just a flatter version of a shoebox?” Sure it is, if you’re just throwing receipts in there. But you’re not. You’re going to make your receipts look something like this:

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Staple (or tape, thanks Kathy T!) the receipt  to a piece of paper, preferably one you have recycled from work or someplace so you’re not wasting paper. If the receipt only contains certain items that are deductible, circle those items on the receipt and add it together so you have the amount on the piece of paper. Also, make sure to write down what the receipt is for. This is especially helpful in the case of an audit- that way you can say, “Yes, sir, that widgety-woo was for the Home-Ec 101 giveaway we did back in April, 2002.”

Make sure to keep a special place in your wallet for receipts you may use for tax purposes. I usually check the receipt pocket on Fridays and then staple and label. Don’t let receipts languish in your wallet too long, you may lose one or forget what the heck it was you bought that was tax  deductible.

Just keep the file folders handy and make sure you keep up with them, and it’ll save you tons of headaches when it’s time to do your taxes.

*No, I don’t really store my receipts that way, I had to dig into my purse to find random receipts I’ve tossed in there. That’s not exactly good either, but those aren’t my receipts for tax purposes.

**Well, maybe not, I don’t know for sure because I am not a tax professional.

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Yet another reason to declutter

January 3rd, 2008 16 Comments

retrochick.JPGIvy says:

Here’s a really good reason to start decluttering your house right now. Eventually, someday, you’re going to die. It’s unpleasant to think about, but it’s one of the only sure things about life- eventually, you’ll die. And when you do, someone you love is going to have to go through your stuff and decide what to keep and what to throw away.

When they do, if you haven’t decluttered, they’re going to tee hee about the fact that you have 6 measuring tapes. They’re going to tee hee about your 50,000 peanut butter lids, and you won’t be around to defend it. Nobody will know why you have so many peanut butter lids, even if there was a really good reason.

You might say, “Well, I don’t care if they’re tee heeing about my peanut butter lids, Ivy, I’ll be dead.” And while that’s true, those 50,000 peanut butter lids will slow down the process of cleaning up, and your loved ones will have to be sunk down deep in cleaning all this stuff out for much longer than necessary. Truthfully, that makes your loved ones sad. They’re already going to be sad that you’re gone, don’t make the process of cleaning out any worse than it has to be.

Yes, Home-Eccers, I’ve been going through this for months now, cleaning out my late grandma’s stuff. Some of  it is absolute treasure. But a lot of it is 50,000 peanut butter lids and 6 measuring tapes. We’ve been cleaning out for months, now, and it is a hard thing to do. Harder than it has to be, because my grandma was a borderline hoarder. It makes me want to throw everything I own away, seriously. But it’s strengthening my resolve to not just declutter the main house, but my garage, attic, and all the hidden clutter I own. Because I not only don’t want my loved ones to have the burden of cleaning out my junk, but I also would prefer not to have them tee heeing about my 6 measuring tapes (I’m not even sure, honestly, that I owned even one before I inherited these from my granny).

Just another good reason to declutter your house.

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The Great New Year Clean-up: Books

January 2nd, 2008 21 Comments

retrochick.JPGIvy says:

If you’re anything like me (and hey, you might not be, I’m strange), you have too many books. Go on, admit it, you have more books than you really need. Go through them. Keep the ones you want to read over and over, and keep the ones you plan on reading in the next 3 months, keep the reference books you might really refer to and get rid of everything else. I promise, it won’t hurt. Much.

What to do with all those books?

  • Give them away on Freecycle
  • Post an ad on Craigslist, either giving them away or selling them for a very nominal fee
  • Donate them to Freecycle
  • How many Bibles do you have? More than you need? Contact your local church to see where they can be put to good use.
  • Contact your local library to find out where you can donate books to worthy causes.
  • Set up a book swap with your friends. But don’t get too many or you’ll be in the same boat!

Once you’ve purged all those extra books, resist the urge to get a whole lot more! That’s going to be my problem.

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The Great Pre-Christmas Toy Clean-out

November 30th, 2007 2 Comments

retrochick.JPGIvy says:

If you haven’t done this already, this weekend would be a great time to go through all the kids’ toys and  get rid of anything broken, anything they don’t play with, anything they just have too much of (my daughter had approximately 1,493 stuffed animals before we cleaned out her room), and anything else the kids choose to get rid of. You’ll find that this is the easiest time of the year to get the kids to get behind getting rid of their toys, since they know new ones are just around the corner.

While you’re cleaning out the kids’ rooms, go ahead and take a quick cruise through their clothing as well. Even if you’ve fairly recently done this when switching from summer to winter clothing, you’d be surprised at what you might find that needs to go.

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Spare sheet storage

November 6th, 2007 7 Comments

retrochick.JPGIvy says:

My husband usually does the laundry in my household. However, that wasn’t working out for us, and since he had surgery last month, I’ve been taking over the laundry responsibilities. I’ve learned many amusing things while doing the laundry, but the overwhelming thing I have learned is just the fact that we have too much clothing, too many towels, too many sheet sets.

I was talking to Heather about this in IM this morning. I was telling her that I needed to clean my linen closet out so I could start storing towels in there. Previously I had been storing blankets, tablecloths, and sheet sets in there, but with the overabundance of towels I have unearthed since the Great Laundry Rescue of 2007, I need to make space for them in the linen closet.

Heather said all you really need is 2 sheet sets per bed. I probably *do* only have 2 sheet sets per bed, but with 4 beds in the house, that still takes up some space in my linen closet. Heather then said something that, to me, is such complete genius I knew I had to share it with you guys:

Store the extra sheets under the mattress.

Seriously, I would have never thought of that in a million, billion years.  And it makes so much sense, why take up space in the linen closet when you can just put the sheets under the mattress? Not only that, but for those middle of the night, “I wet my bed” incidents, you can just reach under the mattress for a full, clean set of sheets, ready to go, no digging through the linen closet.

Genius, I tell ya. Genius.

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