Yard Sales, Good Medicine for Bad Economy

Spring seems to have hit early this year with yard sales popping up around town, but I think it’s more like making some extra bucks when the economy hits our pocket books.

Nevertheless, Spring season is approaching and it is time to haul out that accumulated unwanted stuff and put it up for sale. This activity often follows “spring cleaning” where people not only clean places that are not included in typical household cleaning, but places that became over-crowded or grew clutter over the year.

The usual places that grow clutter is the garage. But cabinets, cupboards, closets and drawers can get out of control too. I think the clothes closet is one area that usually could use some attention from time to time. I say that in a nice way :-)

Here’s a few tips in preparing and holding a yard sale:

• Group like items together in boxes. Price them with removable labels
• Plan when to hold your sale. Maybe invite others to join in.
• Get or make yard sale signage. Include dates of sale.
• Advertise your sale on Craig’s List and flyers around neighborhood
• Display merchandise items in a nice way. Tables and shelves make nice display surfaces. See tips on displaying items in this article at ArticlesWorld:

More tips on organizing a yard sale.

Organizing tax information

The not-so-fun time of year is approaching and that means it’s time for me to give you a realty check (and not one you deposit). The reality is it could cost you if your tax information is not organized.

I know you probably know this, but it’s that time of year for me to harass those that haven’t organized their accounting records throughout the year or kept accurate, accessible tax related records.

The fact is, missing income and missing tax deductible papers on your tax return may result in paying higher taxes. And if you have to file for an extension to allow you more time to get your tax information organized, you pay late penalties.

And then there’s the cost of your time having to sort through all your tax related items to organize them, or the fact that you may have to pay your tax preparer by the hour to sort through your bag of receipts, etc.

That said, let’s try to make tax preparation as painless as possible. As you gather your tax information, you will be de-cluttering an area of your life that will pay off in the end.

Sorting tax information:
A lot of people use a table for sorting, and some use small boxes or bins; anything that will contain the paper items you’ll be dealing with. These include:

Expense receipts
Bills paid
Income / payment stubs
Invoices
Sales receipts

While you’re at it, also gather the financials for the year that include:

Bank statements
Year-end insurance statements
Home mortgage
Retirement account
Brokerage / investment accounts
Employee Benefits statements
Loan statements

Logging / recording tax information:
After sorting the papers into categories, start with one category and do one of the following:

a) list each item with dollar amount on a ledger sheet or notebook paper. Total this category and go to the next.
b) total up each category and write it down on a sheet containing a list of categories with the amount next to
each.

You’ll provide your tax preparer with these sheets, either from the “a” method or the “b” method. When you’re done totaling a category, place paper items in a manilla envelope or #10 envelope and label what category the papers are (i.e., “Auto Expenses 2008″)

Keeping organized records:
Now that this tax year is organized, get ready to keep future tax information organized and accessible. Set up your accounting and financial files as such:

Banking (deposits, bank statements)
Expenses (receipt categories, donations, bills paid)
Invoices (for businesses that bill clients)
Income Tax (tax returns, tax payments)
Finance (finance reports)
Property (mortgage papers, mortgage payments)

The above lays the foundation for an Accounting and Finance filing system where you can easily store and retrieve papers easily and quickly. The folders within the categories will further define and group your papers (i.e., Utility bills and credit card files under Expense category).

You can keep your tax deductible expense receipts in simple categories like:

advertising
auto
equipment
meals & entertainment
office supplies
postage
printing
property
research

There are many more and you can check with an accountant for tax deductible categories.

If you really want to move into the world of computer technology, get accounting software like Quicken or QuickBooks to track your income and expenses.

I think that about sums it up in a nutshell. Please feel free to comment if you have questions or just plain
comments!

Get Organized for the Holidays

Some great Blogs and websites to help you organize your holidays:

• Decorating Lifestyles Blog
• Organized Christmas Blog
• Christmas Organizing

These are just a few I stumbled upon, and I’m sure there are plenty more!

Here is one of mine I wrote a long time ago that still applies today:

There are ways to take the hassle and stress out of the holiday season by organizing tasks, such as:

1.    gift buying
2.    entertaining plans
3.    sending xmas cards
4.    planning holiday guests
5.    preparing holiday meals
6.    putting up decorations

Tips:

1. Prepare a holiday task list — or checklist.
2. Begin marking calendar with deadlines for certain holiday tasks
3. Stock up early on decorations, greeting cards, and gifts
4. Beat the shopping rush.  Start a “wish list” that you’ll maintain year-round.  Use catalogs or the internet to shop.  Buy a few extra gifts for those you received a gift from, but whom you left off your shopping list.
5. Plan meals in advance, and prepare food ahead — set aside a day in late Nov or early Dec to make certain dishes you can reheat.
6. Or, let delis or supermarkets prepare holiday feasts for you.
7. Get the family to share in decorating tasks — get everyone involved.
8. If you’re planning a party, aim for simplicity. Use restraint and stick to a budget.

Another one, possibly a little more helpful:

Some things to consider for various activities are:

Meal plans.

• Decide on menu
• Stock up on food items early
• Prepare food in advance
• Let someone cook for you — have catered food
• Designate a “desert team” to do the holiday baking Party plans.
• Decide on type of party to have (Open House, Pot Luck, Cocktail Party, Day-after Christmas brunch, a big Social Party)
• Set the date, time and place.
• Book entertainment, photographer, decorator
• Get help and delegate, delegate, delegate (cleaning, catering, running errands, etc.)
• Purchase/choose outfit
• Plan food (cook or get caterer)
• Stock party essentials
• Prepare for overnight guests (keep extra amenities)

Gift plans.

• Make a “wish list” for people
• Give gift certificates (catering to a person’s interests or hobbies)
• Spread out your gift buying in advance (throughout the year, ideally).
• Do sensible gift-giving — get things that won’t add clutter to the lives of others you care about.
• Make a list of gift ideas.  Think of something memorable and personal, something useful, something consumable, something that grows, some excursion experiences.  Or, create a memorable video.

7 Holiday Tips

Do the holidays just seem to happen to you? Often, this time of the year can become quite stressful for many people. With all the fast-paced activities and tasks to do in preparation for the holidays, it can become quite overwhelming without some degree of planning and organization.

Creating a holiday is like orchestrating a major production. There are props, people, and agendas involved. Appoint yourself as the producer, and bring together the pieces of your production. As producer, you’ll be molding your vision into a reality.

Here are some tips to help make the holidays more joyous and fun:

1. Start a list of what activities would give you the most pleasure, and then decide what the main event(s) will be. Are you going to be throwing a party? Having a tree-trimming party? Doing charity work? Going on a light-gazing tour? You might need to do meal planning, party planning, travel planning, and/or gift planning. You might even need to prepare for family issues, like who hosts the family holiday this year.
   
2. Break down your holiday event(s) into action tasks. Set priorities and schedules of the activities that need to be carried out. It’s a good idea to keep all your planning information in a notebook binder. Put all your lists and information in this to use each year. Keep meal plans, special activity plans, party plans, gift ideas, and travel details in the binder. Create a holiday calendar and mark dates for things that need to be done ahead of time.
   
3. Get others involved. Delegate some of the tasks to family or close friends. After all, you’re the producer, and producers do their best when they have a team helping them with the production.
   
4. Plan meals. Decide on the menus and stock up on food early. It’s even a good idea to prepare any food you can in advance. Or, maybe you may want to let someone else cook for you and have your meal catered? If you have helpers, designate a “desert team” to do the holiday baking.
   
5. Establish a budget. Be realistic on your budget, as well as your schedule and skills. It’s best to try and break down a budget for each activity. More too often, people resort to using credit cards for their spending needs. But try to adopt policy to do cash-spending. You won’t have to look back “after the fact” that you’re heavy in debt.
   
6. Get creative with gift-giving. Make a list of gift ideas that you can create yourself (or buy at affordable costs). Think of something memorable and personal, something useful, something consumable, something that grows, maybe some excursion experiences. If you have some artistic abilities, make a drawing, put your song on a cassette tape, or write some prose and mount it. How about putting together some personal mementos, like an album of photo collections, or a memorable video? There are many creative gift-giving ideas once you sit down and give it thought.
   
7. Ship gifts out early. This is important in ensuring the gifts you need to send by mail arrive in time.

Basically, if you’ve experienced stress during the holidays before, take a look at what the circumstances were in the past that caused it. That will enable you to target what to do about it this time. You don’t need to get caught up being a victim of stress.

Organize Seasonal Clothes

Make closet space for Fall clothing

It’s a new season–Fall–and time to shift some clothes around to make room for Fall clothes. And, if you haven’t been storing your seasonal clothes, you probably have jammed closets (unless, of course, your closets are the size of a bedroom!).

For those with limited closet space, the best thing is to store your seasonal clothes. When summer clothing is no longer needed, you can start pulling out your Fall wardrobe and replace the clothes you needed for warm weather.

See related blog articles:

• Get more space in closet
• Spring into order
• Organize closet

Organize A Gift Exchange

Gift Exchange Event Planner

Hope this doesn’t come too late! I just came across a Secret Santa online gift exchange site that allows people to create and manage gift exchanges.

Secret Santa is powered by an email guest list. It makes matches, assigns a gift idea, and notifies participants. Participants can provide a “wish list” and a “do not need” list and secret givers can pose anonymous questions to get size info and color preferences.

Another site that does this is Draw Names. Check these out and have fun this holiday with gift exchanges!