Easy Tax Prep Tips

After filing taxes for how many years now (?), I think I finally have a system down for getting all the paperwork together. In addition to our regular taxes, we also have to keep up with housing allowance expenses and my business tax information, so our piles can easily grow into very unmanageable stacks. The best solution? Notebooks! 3-Ring binders continue to prove themselves as my most indispensable organizational tools.

As I separated our tax information into various categories for our accountant, I made a list of all these categories. For my business tax notebook, for example, I have website expenses, receipts for supplies, sales tax records, mileage, etc., so each of these categories became a tab in the notebook. Now whenever I process an order or pay a business-related bill, I just hole-punch the paperwork and file it. This way it's easy to keep the numbers current on a monthly basis, so at the end of the year I only have to tie up loose ends, not hunt/sort/add everything all up.

To keep an accurate record of receipts, I copy them and file the copy in the notebook (with the originals stapled to the copy). This allows me to keep up with which receipts have been accounted for instead of working with piles all the time. Also, many receipts are printed on slick paper, so the ink rubs off or evaporates, leaving me with lots of small pieces of paper but no real evidence. Copying the receipts keeps them legible and again makes things easier for me to keep on top of things month by month.

Then I made a checklist of all my tabs/categories to guide me as I gathered all the stuff to hand over to our accountant. This way I don't waste time looking for stuff I don't need, I can tell where I left off if I have to come back to it, and I have an organized record to hand to someone else (just in case he doesn't understand how my mind works!).

Hope this helps--I'd love to hear any tips from readers about how you tamed your tax paperwork monster.

Helpful Bargain Stories with Happy Endings

Before grocery shopping at Kroger yesterday, I had flipped through all my coupons so they would be fresh in my mind in case I ran across something on sale that wasn't on my list. (I try to save my coupons until items are already on sale, so the discount is even bigger!) One coupon was for a free bag (12 oz or larger) of frozen meatballs. Kroger puts them on sale often, so evidently I had purchased enough bags for them to send me a coupon. Anyway, I grabbed the biggest bag--which was $16.95. When I handed over the coupon to the lady at checkout, she said it probably wouldn't let me have that expensive of an item, but it went through and we were both surprised. That made me smile the rest of the day! The moral of this story is always read the fine print on coupons, then go for the biggest size. By the way, these are great for family and company. To prepare, mix together grape jelly and chili sauce (sounds gross, but it's good!) and pour over meatballs; use enough sauce to generously cover. Cook them in microwave, crockpot or on stovetop. Makes a very quick, tasty, easy dish!

Later I called Dillards to check on a clearance recliner (for $189) we happened upon over the weekend. Greg had taken a picture of it on his phone to show our son. Grant had just rearranged his room to maximize his reading space and wanted a comfy chair. This recliner was a small but funky design in the exact gray color of Grant's bedroom walls. He liked the picture, so I called yesterday to see if it was still there. The salesman found the chair and offered us tomorrow's extra discount off clearance items if I went ahead and bought it over the phone. Tomorrow I'll go pick it up and post a picture of it for you to see. The moral of this story is to check out all the sale racks at Dillard's tomorrow and get an extra 30% off their clearance prices store-wide. Or, go today and see if they'll let you pre-buy!

Organizing Coupon Alert!

Although I'm an adamant Oprah non-fan, I can't resist a bargain. Mom called today to tell me Oprah was urging her viewers to cut clutter by offering a 20% off coupon at the Container Store. My hubby's off tomorrow and thinks we should go use it! One of you readers asked how my Elfa closet was coming along and I must be honest and say the shelves look great but I have not had time to work on them. Both kids have had the flu and today was dedicated to organizing all our tax documents for our accountant. I've also taken up water aerobics and have spent hours shopping online for decent swim suits and swim caps. (My beautician says I have too much color on my hair to swim without a cap!)

Anyway, those are just some of my excuses for not blogging lately. Besides, if I don't have anything helpful to say, no need to waste your time.

Hope you're all having a well, warm February. In my next post I'll share some pointers on organizing your important papers to make tax filing easier!

The Value of a Squeegee

Do you squeegee? Bernard Walton from Adventures in Odyssey talks about it. All the cleaning experts recommend it. In our "Snatch Away the Dirt" seminars, Kathy and I advocate using a squeegee after each shower to lengthen the time between thorough cleanings.

We have one hanging in our shower and sometimes I remember to swipe the walls and floor with it, but I haven't been fastidious about using it. Honestly, how much good does it really do to squeegee? Well, I decided to conduct an experiment of sorts to determine the importance of removing all the water off the shower walls and floor and I was shocked by the results.

On the day of the test, I vacuumed all the water droplets from the shower walls, door, and floor with my Bissell Little Green Machine instead of squeegeeing everything dry. It only took about 2 minutes. When I emptied the collection tank's contents into a measuring cup, more than 15 ounces of cloudy water filled the cup! Gross! To give you an even clearer idea of how much that is, I poured the liquid into an old 16-oz. Pace Picante Sauce jar and nearly filled it. Suddenly, that occasionally used squeegee bought from the Dollar Tree seemed much more valuable to me. Now I faithfully wipe down the shower each morning, knowing there will be nearly two cups less of murky moisture building up on the walls, growing mildew, requiring stronger chemicals and greasier elbows to remove it. Seeing a quantifiable benefit of my work like that certainly makes me feel good about squeegeeing. Maybe next time I'll measure the amount of dust bunnies I vacuum up!

On My Own & Starving

I spent this afternoon with a young mom overwhelmed by all the demands of running a household, caring for a 6-month-old, and figuring out how to organize all the stuff that comes with real life. Since she's expecting another baby later this year, we talked about several practical things she could do to preserve her sanity. Cooking was one of her concerns, so I had prepared some basic recipes to give her. We printed them off, slid them into sheet protectors, and clipped them into her Family Notebook. Stored this way, the recipes are easy to find, handy to use, and easy to wipe off.

Most of the recipes were created by others but I have used many of them my entire married life. When we were poor newlywed grad students, barbecue chicken drumsticks was one of our favorites. Made from cheap ingredients, the dish felt like a meal mom might have made and it satisfied my hungry husband. I can still remember how fulfilling it was to just dump everything into the crockpot before I dashed off to work and to return home hours later to an apartment filled with a wonderful aroma. That barbecue smell truly made me feel like a real wife.

Over the years I've shared these recipes with many single adults, newlyweds, young moms and people who just don't like to cook. If you know someone on the brink of starvation because they're not sure what to do in the kitchen, print these off and share them. They also make great starter recipes for kids and teenagers learning to cook. Bon appetit!

Still Tinkering with the Blog

Okay, readers, please forgive my blog-gnorance. I've been working on this thing, trying to add new features for improved functionality and just discovered that some of you have been leaving comments about my posts. For some reason, this wasn't showing up for me so I haven't been responding. So sorry! If some of you are more blog-savvy than me, I'd appreciate any tips. Just signed up for TypePad Connect, not sure if that will be helpful or not.

I'm trying to add new blog post links to my Facebook status without typing out the URL address but may be working too hard on irrelevant details. My website designer is also working on a matching blog design, so please be patient with the appearance changes. I promise we have lots more tips to share if I can quit working on this tech stuff and concentrate on generating helpful practical stuff we all can use. Thanks for your support and have a blessed day!

The Curse of Closet Clutter

This week I've really had the urge to clean out closets and get organized. (Staying organized is an ongoing task, by the way!) Before Thanksgiving I lost part of the hard-floor attachment for my vacuum cleaner and had searched the closet where I kept it plus the house and garage, with no luck. After borrowing a friend's vacuum twice during the holidays, I finally ordered a replacement piece for $13 plus shipping. When we emptied the closet the other night to hang the new shelves, we found the missing vacuum wand (of course!). Dave Ramsey would say I just paid $18 in "stupid tax." This whole incident made me realize there are two main problems with cluttered closets.

1. They're a poor use of space. How much did you pay to build/buy that space? How much does it cost to heat and cool that closet each year? Don't waste your hard-earned cash paying for storage that's too cluttered to benefit you.


2. Stuff gets lost. You might as well throw your stuff away if you're going to keep it in a cluttered closet. Cramming or tossing too many items into a closet means we can't find what we're looking for when we need it. Worse, we can totally forget that we even have it!

Since installing Elfa shelving in our garage a few weeks ago was a smashing success, we decided to move Elfa inside and fix this closet where I lost the vacuum wand. Because of its convenience to the garage and kitchen, the closet is usually a mess even though I've rearranged it multiple times. (See the "before" picture, right.) It's the traditional poorly planned space--a long, narrow closet with a hanging rod and shelves across the back. I kept a bookcase in there to try to bring some order to it, but every time we opened the door we just tossed more stuff in. We took out the existing rod & shelves, patched the walls and painted, then installed the new Elfa shelves along one wall and even configured two hanging rods.

When I finish organizing everything, I'll post an "after" picture to show off. Until then, learn from my mistakes and work on your closets. If the thought of organizing your cluttered spaces overwhelms you, read the "Spatial Therapy" chapter in our How to Find Delight in Real Life workbook!