RV, VAN AND OLD PAPERS

Another week, another post.  Mom had 2 surgeries within a week and is now back in her apartment at the assisted living facility.  We will taking her Friday back to the doctor who changed her pacemaker for a checkup and I have to make an appointment for same with the doctor who did her cancer surgery as well as with the one involved with her leg scan as it still has not has been discussed with her.  We did squeeze in appointments with our doctor for us last week – dealing with mom, we had forgotten to make same until the doctor refused to renew our prescriptions because we were so late in doing so. 

Friday we drove to Pennsylvania and picked up our RV – the batteries are working and the entire electrical system was checked and was fine.  Husband is concerned about driving such a distance alone (as I probably mentioned when we had to drive it there) and also concerned about driving alone in the dark – the combination of the two, even more so.  We kept calculating when to go and what to do coming home.  We figured out that we had two choices – both involved trying to get the dealer as early as possible, having lunch at Wendys very quickly and starting home.  In one version we would immediately drive home, this way we would miss Philadelphia rush hour and hoping to avoid rush hour from NYC headed towards our home. The other version involved again leaving immediately after lunch to avoid the Philadelphia rush hour and driving to near the Golden Corral in New Jersey that I am sure I have mentioned before.  We would then go to some stores in that area to spend some time, then have dinner at the Golden Corral and then head home. With this version we should avoid the rush hour from NYC to home, but would be driving in the dark home from Golden Corral.  We figured we would decide after we picked the RV and while eating lunch.  The golden morning time to leave home and head off Long Island for us seems to be 8:30 am – we are following at the end of rush hour and are before the construction work on two of the major roads starts.  We we were out at 8:20 -since we were driving only our van, we did not have to waste time backing the RV out of the driveway (a process that involves walkie talkies and me standing in the middle of a 4 lane road road that has traffic that all speeds – which is why it a problem to begin with.)  We had figured we would get to the dealer between noon and 1 pm.  We got there just after 11 am.  We picked up the RV - “schmoozed” a bit, gassed up the RV and the van for the trip back, spent about 15 minutes having lunch and started home – confident that we would miss the rush hour traffic at both cities.  We did fine in PA – no traffic, NJ not bad almost no traffic.  One very quick stop at a rest area for me to use the facilities – so fast, I left my cell phone in the RV and husband waited out there so we did not have to shut everything did – I ran literally both ways and we were off again.  Then we hit Staten Island  (NYC) and there was traffic, but it was not bad – 15 minute part of the trip maybe was 25 minutes.  We then crossed the bridge to Long Island.  The limited access roadway we have to taken home was BAD.  How bad?  The signs on the bridge said not to exit to it, to exit to a local street that allows later connection to the roadway – which we take anyway.  It took us 2.5 hours to the dealer – it took us 5 hours home – and that was with arriving in NYC at 3 pm.  Another day of our lives – gone.

But the RV is home and working properly again – so all is well – right?  Driving home husband found that the brakes were squealing so today they were at our mechanic again.  He said they were okay to use – a problem sometime down the road as there is rust. 

Wait a second, have to run to the basement to switch laundry loads and check the heat in the PackTite.

Back.  Normally I have a load of clothes, a load of towels, and a load of bed linens each week with a load of jeans every few weeks.  With all this going on, I have not changed the bedding in a couple of weeks – no time to do so and saves a wash load (yes, I think ewwww also, but it will done soon).  This week I have a load clothes, a load of sweatshirts and nightgown – I bought 3 new ones and have worn a few of them and they don't fit in the general clothes load, a load of towels, and a load of jeans.  I also have a load of white reenactment clothing (much “small clothes” - undergarments, all of which are white) from our last couple of events and a second load of the rest of our outfits – next time we will need them is December and I want them clean so I don't have to run at the minute to wash them – some of the pieces need ironing also.  Just put the general clothes load into the dryer and the sweatshirt load into the washer. 


At the same time I have been going through the bags of stuff from the family home.  Being a crazy person who had bed bugs. I fill (lightly) our PackTite heater with some of the stuff and heat at it night – mixed with whatever fabric or paper items we have in addition to be heated.  Then the next afternoon I go through the stuff from the house after putting away the stuff from our house that was added in.  Today I went through the papers from our wedding – 40 years ago.  All of the response cards & envelopes – shredded, set up invitation with all the papers which were included and put it in the shoebox that I have as a “memory box” of the stuff I am finding and want to keep from all this, shredded the other invitations, tossed out the other response cards (no names, etc. on them), I kept the blank envelopes for the invitations – can always use larger envelopes, have set aside the unused response envelopes they do have my parents and name and address, but I will see if labels will cover same and decide if we are keeping them or they are being shred, shredded the receipt for the wedding (what a waste of $8,000 – I was right, we should have just gotten married & not bothered with a wedding), and shredded the seating charts and other papers.  I kept the box that it was all in.  Good box.  Apparently there is much more than my stuff in what my sister set aside for me – work papers of my dad's and other financial stuff.  I have a found a certificate given to my other sister when she graduated from high school (she is 55 now).  I scanned it, emailed it to her and asked if she wanted the certificate or what.  I found old bank statements and similar of mom's and even some of dad's (he died in the mid 1990's).  I found a dividend check for $4.50 that was never cashed – I will see if it can cheaply somehow be replaced – but 1994 was a long time ago.  More to do tomorrow after the current load is heated – this load also has some yarn husband bought for weaving project to sell and a new sweatshirt that I bought  - both today. 

At least every year I go through the papers from 10 years before and get rid of almost all of them – 25 years is a long time to keep bank statements and a check.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

So progress is being made on the stuff from mom's house. I am trying to keep up on household chores – dishes washed after dinner and after night snack (only meals we eat home).  Obviously laundry being done.  Towels changed and into the laundry.  (If only I did not hate changing the bedding and folding same after it is washed even more than more than cleaning toilet bowls – I figured it out – my arms are too short to deal with sheets easily.)

Any suggestions for my family and me about dealing with all of the stuff from the house?

CLEARING OUT THE FAMILY HOME.

I have several large plastic bags with stuff that we took from my family home.

I am not calling it mom's house as my sisters and I do as it is really the family home. My family moved there when I was 5. My (now) middle sister was 6 months old and “baby” sister was 7 years in the future. While I remember the apartment that my parents and I – and middle sister briefly – lived in before the house, my sisters have no memories of any other home growing up. It was a huge house to me coming from the 3 room apartment we lived in before. When middle sister was born I was moved from sleeping on the opposite side of my parents bedroom from where they slept (I often wonder how they managed to create my sister with me sleeping in their bedroom) to a cot in the living room. Since the only TV (a large 1950s console set) was in the living room I got to watch such late night shows as “the Late Show” (old movies) and the early versions of “the Tonight Show – back when Johnny Carson was just a page at NBC, California with my parents – or they could not watch them. I have been thinking a lot about those early days of our family lately – both as my mother is 90 and with the clearing out of our house for the sale of it. I have not taken a lot of family stuff as I am in my mid 60s and have no children to inherit any of the family house – it will eventually reside with my niece or nephew any way.

Since we had the bed bugs here in our home I am always concerned about getting them again. We have a device called a Packtite. It is the size of a very large softsided suitcase with a rack and a heater in it. It is intended to place suitcases in after one has been on a trip to heat the suitcases and what is in them to kill any bed bugs that might have come home with one. Because I am a crazy person, we have it set up with a laundry basket – that we drilled in holes in the bottom of to allow for air flow – in it and we heat any soft items – paper, fabric and the like that we bring into the house – that we are concerned might have bed bugs in them. So the items from my family home - mostly papers and needlework of mine from when I was much younger – all has to be heated.

I am doing so in small batches and have finished two large bags so far. I am going through these items I took when there or my sister set aside for me. (She said she had a box for me – I expected an office files sized box- there were two of them plus other stuff in the box she left.) It is a trip down memory lane and a record of what I considered important enough to keep at one or another point in time. I have found work appointment books from my early days in accounting (could have used one of them when I was positive that I knew a building in a scene on “Blue Bloods” and went crazy to find it and then figure out how I knew it – it was where a client had his factory – the work appointment books also have clients contact info). School grades – I did as badly as I remember. Lots of occasion cards – birthdays, engagement – ours and friends, anniversaries, Valentines (old boyfriends same went straight to the paper shredder), and so on. I have been weeding through – baby age birthday cards, one copy of wedding related paper items, cards from certain people – parents, sisters, husband, a few very good friends, a special aunt &uncle, my grandparents were kept – others were shredded. I found some remembrances of things such as graduation or awards programs – kept, articles I had published in the college newspaper – kept, personal diaries – kept.

Of course I am keeping my needlework – finished or not. I did leave behind two latch hooked throw rugs that were finished except for the edging as I figured they might sell and make a couple of buck for mom, plus husband said to me as I looked at them “Where would we put them?”. I did decide after leaving them if when we went back they were still there I would take them – but we did not get back while they were still in sight.

So I am trying to figure out what to add to the mess of stuff here in husband and my home, without going overboard. I was a bit “lucky”. My toys would have been the hardest to deal with and decide who “lived” and who “died” but the house was hit by Hurricane Sandy and the basement where most of the toys were flooded and they had to be tossed out then by the crew that came in and worked on the basement. Not only were they not there for me to deal with, I had already “mourned their loss”.

There were 5 items in particular that I was looking for. My Girl Scout sash -with my few badges and my annual star pins on it. I had put together a loose leaf book with hand copied lyrics to old folk songs. My dad had given me one of his army shirts from when he was in same during World War II during the late 1960s/early 1970s when wearing army shirts was popular. There is a stapled binding, thin, soft-covered book about our family in “the old country”. Lastly, when I was in high school I embroidered a table cloth. When I got married we could not find it, I figured if any of it ever would turn up – it would be as the house was emptied. I have the army shirt and the loose leaf book of song lyrics. The other items did not show up.

There has been a tag sale by a company that my sister found and much of the contents of the house are gone. We have to go in and clean and fix it up a bit before we sell it. The next day neighbor already is telling us about someone she knows who is interested in the house.

Just in case anyone is interested – mom has had her pacemaker (or its battery – story of what is to be done was different to my sister and me) replaced, so we won't have to figure out how to plug into a wall outlet if it dies. :-) She has also had (within the same week) surgery to remove a lesion that was causing her anemia. As of tonight she is back in her apartment at her assisted living facility – pretty good for a 90 year old woman I think.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK - If you were getting ready of your family home – or your own home – what would you be looking for as you would want to make sure that you kept them?

GOODBYE 2009

In between trying to get rid of ants in the kitchen and the refrigerator needing monitoring to stay in the small temperature range we need to get it to stay in, I had some time in our office to catchup on paperwork a bit - still 2 piles, but the “to do” one is getting shorter.

One job I have not have had a chance to do is store files from 2018 that I need/want to keep.  Before doing this I have to clear out the oldest box saved files - in this case it was 2009 that had to be dealt with.  2009 was an unusual year for us - it was the year that we had bedbugs.

I climbed up and took stuff off the front of the shelf in the office closet - 3 boxes of  computer disks stored up there (installed hardware, to set up the computers, old software that might needed, past years tax software). At the end of 2018 I stored the paid bills in an old manila envelope box (the one the envelopes came in) that I keep for this - that box had to come down also, as were 2 boxes of small manila envelopes.  (Did you know that 6"x 9" or less sized envelopes go at the same US Postage rate as regular #10 envelopes and can hold more in the same 1/4" thickness allowed for same than the #10's?)  Some empty, flattened boxes that I kept was the last of what was blocking access to the 3 boxes of old financial records on the middle of the top shelf of the closet.  There are additional boxes of same (9 in total) on the top of the closet, but the latest and oldest are the two I try to keep in the center stack - as the other stacks require moving the center stack to take out the boxes.  First, I took out the 2017 box and added some papers I had found during the past year from same (I have folder “old years files to add to box” that it has been in. ).  I then took out the 2009 box.

Going through the old box  is a trip down memory lane.  I start taking out papers.  There are bank statements, paid bills, old insurance policies, etc. in the box for us and for our businesses.  I have my paper shredder ready and also have spare garbage bags. 

I take the first item out - what is it?  In this case a stack of telephone bills.  Nothing needed from same.  I go pull the first 4 off the top - checking that nothing else is mixed in - and into the shredder they go.  Little by little more goes into the shredder.  Items such as the phone bills and cable bills which don’t need to be checked if anything should be kept just get fed in and shredded. 

In 2009 we got rid of my 1996 car and bought a new one.  (Which we hated and got rid of 2 years later.)  I pulled out the book (remember when the dealer handed out books with photos and info about the car that you were looking out) and the rest of the papers from the original 1996 purchase of the car that I pulled from the car’s file at the end of 2009 when I pulled files to keep from the year.)  I stuck all of them in the book to go through and added same to my “to do” pile.  I will keep the car registrations as I keep them forever.  (We once received notice that we had not paid 3 parking tickets on one of our cars.  We had never received any tickets nor was it in an area we have been to.  I requested copies of the tickets and it was a different car and a different license plate.  Some of the letters and numbers matched and some did not - but looked the same.  I had to prove what the license plate on the car was  - at the time the ticket was issued - having a different plate on the car when I was fighting this did not count.  I did not keep the registrations - in this area this is a small square of heavy paper that is changed every 2 years when it is renewed.  Each was tossed out after the new one was put in the car or our wallets.  It was a big problem to resolve, so I now keep the car registrations - forever.  I will go through the purchase papers when I get a chance. 

I then looked up in my Quickbooks what income taxes we paid during the year (including final estimate and final payment for 2008 and estimate for 2009.)  I saw that we had only made one payment in April.  I made a note.  I then checked what we had paid for our real estate taxes and made a note of them.  I then opened our corporation in same and checked what and when we had paid for corporation taxes and sales taxes that we had collected and paid.  I also checked for a certain payment we have to pay to the state corporation dept every other year with who is who in our corporation. 

I then started with the corporation bank statements.  I pulled out the statements that should have the checks issued above and pulled those checks out, paper clipped them together and safely set them aside.  I will scan front and back of these checks in my computer - again due to something that has happened in the past with clients - and my dad’s business.  I then started shredding the corporation bank statements, looking as I did for an unusually large amounts on them.  If I had seen any I would checked what it was for.

Next I went through the corporation’s charge card statement.  Again I looked for anything that is a large amount and feed the statements into the shredder.
                       
By now I have had to change the bag in the shredder once.

I now am at our personal bank statements, again I will check for any large amounts.  A lot more of these than for the corporation as we have accounts at multiple banks and each have IRA accounts. Our main checking account has a lot of checks, as well as deposit slips, so I remove the staple(s) holding them to the statement so I can feed them into the shredder in batch sizes that will not jam the shredder and also send the statement through.  As I go through I make sure to pull the checks for our income tax and the four for our real estate taxes.  When I come to July I find the check that paid for the bed bug treatment - gee, it was $2000 more than I thought I was! 

When the bank statements are finished I go through the several credit cards statements.  (All of which were paid in full every month, as is all.)  Again, I have to separate the slips from the statements as there are too many to go through the shredder all at once. 

Suddenly I realize that I am coming to the end of what is in the box.  I have pulled some papers and set them aside to check through - maybe scan into the computer, as I will do with the tax payment checks and receipts for our real estate taxes.  Last thing was I took the “2009" removable label from the box.

2009 is done and gone.  I have done it in 3 sessions of shredding - too much shredded at once and the shredder will overheat and I will have to wait for it to cool off.  I filled 4 kitchen sized bags of shreds.  (I put them in out by putting 2 bags each into a larger black bag and setting those two large black bags out.  The light colored kitchen bags can sort of be seen through and I did not want anyone noticing that the bags had shredded papers in them and it looks more like regular trash than same.)

On to storing 2018.  In my file drawer the files that should be gone through have red edged labels (those that are permanent and should stay are blue edged).  In our corporation’s file drawer the annual files are yellow edged labels and permanent are green edged labels.  I have a folder in our file drawer that holds items I found or received during the year that belongs in the prior year.  So I take anything in it - for 2017 and add it to the 2017 box.

 I pull the first annual folder - bank statements from our main bank - I take out 2018 statements and put into the box.  I do the same with the rest of the bank statements from 2018.  I then come to statements from our medical insurance - all of the 2018 statements are pulled out.  I switched medical insurance companies in 2018.  I go through the blue edged folder for same and pull the papers to keep - I shred the others.  2 empty folders (the annual and the permanent for that insurance company) to be recycled next time I need a folder - put in a sorter on top of the folder holder stack on the side of my desk with other folders waiting a new use.  I do this with all of the annual folders in our file drawer. 

I then do the same with the corporation file drawer.  Paid bills for the corporation are in folders in the file drawer and are pulled out also and fit into the box. 

I then go back and pull the box of paid bills which I mentioned I had put the 2018 bills in.  I then add the paid bills. 

When I am pretty sure that just about everything is in the box I take out my “this year folder”.  I use this folder to throw things in that I don’t know what to do with or do not go with anything and need to be held for short term.  I go through it and shred whatever is no longer needed.  I put in the box anything I want to keep from last year.  One example of what is in this folder - we get a large postcard (sometimes two during the same year) on when and where we are to vote - including our Congressional district, State Senate district, State Assembly district, and County legislator district on it, as well as our “voting district” infos.  I keep the card until we receive the next year’s card.  Since we have the 2019 card, I shredded the 2018 card as it is no longer needed.  (I keep it until the new one comes as 3 years ago we did not get the new card.  While the card is not needed to vote, it helps when the idiots, ummm, the people working at the polls cannot figure out that we belong at the table that we say we belong at.  (No, really, one year the woman at the table we were to vote at told us we were at the wrong polling place as our address was “not on her list”.  We had to show her the card with the info we were to vote there and she had to go and check with one.  Not sure if that is better or worse than the year we went to the primary vote and the man and woman at the table for our location and our party were not able to figure out anything to do and the fellow from the other party came and took care of getting us signed in and gave us our ballots.  If one did not have to be there at 6 am we would go down and work the polls because they need us - and one does get paid.)

When I was pretty sure all of what had to be kept from 2018 was in the box - I put the lid on and climbed up and put it away.  I then put back all the stuff that goes in front of the boxes that I had taken out.  Anything I find now that belongs in the box, I will put in that prior year’s folder for next year.

Something I just noticed in writing this piece - I never made a new label “2018" and stuck it on the box.  I will have to do so or be terribly confused in the future.

I also have a file drawer both for the files I keep for our reenacting unit and for same for my embroidery chapter.  (I am treasurer of both and need to keep files).  I have a metal file drawer divider so the embroidery files are in front of same and the reenacting ones are behind. 

I have not had a chance to go through these files in awhile and move out old years.  I started with our reenacting unit.  I pulled old paid bills from the paid bills folder, ditto the bank statements and insurance policies.  We have some copies of invoices that I sent to organizations that we did events for and they are pulled also if they are 2017 or before.  I then sorted what I had pulled out into stacks by year and put the stacks in folders.  The unit has several filing cabinets and a drawer in one of them holds the old records - more than 3 years ago - and I move the files there - by year - so I don’t have to take up room in our house for older files.  As I pull the older bills I check to make sure that there are not any that I might needs - items we don’t often need to reorder, but if we do, it is helpful to have the last one, so that we know what we ordered last time and from whom.  (This past Monday night these files were taken to our reenactment unit’s meeting and put in the file cabinets.) 

I did not get to the embroidery chapter’s files yet - those I keep 3 years in the drawer (plus the current year) plus another 7 years in box (another of those manila envelope boxes) in the closet - well labeled.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Sometimes just short periods of time are best for getting work done.  I could have put all this off, but had a bit of time here and there to shred the papers.  I pulled most of the papers to go in the box for 2018 while the computer was backing up for the day. 

Getting rid of ants and getting the fridge to stay in temperature range - much harder.

2018 SEEMS TO BE CONTINUING INTO 2019

Well, this year seems to be a continuation of last year.  Not only did husband hurt himself again (as I mentioned last week) - although a lot less than he did last year, I am doing things over again.

I still have one client who has an employee - herself.  I have to prepare an IRS W2 form for her each January, along with a covering form named (appropriately) W3.  Then since I don’t use a business name, I also have to prepare a similar form for people one pays that are not employees called 1099-MISC which also needs a covering form named 1096.  Unlike most IRS forms which one can download from their website and fill in, these forms have red markings on the copies which go to IRS and can only be filled in as a preprinted form - available from IRS for free and can also be purchased at stationary stores and online.  One can also buy software to fill in the forms, The alternative to filling in the forms is to do it online free at the IRS website (or various companies that charge to do so).  Most companies have payroll companies which take care of their payroll for them and deal with this for them.

Knowing I will need to do this and knowing that my typing is terrible, even with the word processing typewriter (lets one type a line, check it, and then print it) I have, I always order more forms than I need to have spares.  I do this in December so I will have them in January to fill them in.  I did so last month - in December 2018, ordering forms for the 2018 year.  The forms arrived within the 10 days they are suppose to arrive.  I opened the envelope - remember all the craziness last month - and I checked the form numbers and how many of them had been sent - all okay.  I put them under my desk where I keep the forms to wait for this month.  I am so organized about this since I do it every year.       

Last Thursday I decided to fill in the forms while I had some time.  I know what the client’s payroll is and can do so without having gone to her yet this month.  These forms used to be that the form to the employee/other person had to be given to them by the end of January and mailed to IRS by the end of February.  Due to the increasing number of fraudulent tax forms being filed, as of 2 years ago the IRS copies also have to be filed by the end of January.  So I fill in the forms before I go to my client so I can have her sign them and mail them out.  (I used to bring them to her in February and they were signed and mailed then.) 

It took me all 6 copies of the W2 forms I have, and at least 2-3 of the other forms to get a correctly typed form and over Thursday and Friday.  I breathed a sigh of relief and scanning them into my computer to keep a copy of them on same. I scanned in the W3 and W2 forms.  I then scanned in the 1096 form and was about to scan in the 1099 form when I noticed something and got extremely upset.  I had not received 2018 forms - I was sent 2017 forms and none of the forms I had typed were usable.  Not only that, but since one can no longer pick up forms at local IRS offices, I had to order them again - during the Federal government shut down!

We went looking online.  I can buy the forms - they will run me around $60 for all 4 forms as they sold in much larger quantities than even I with my terrible typing would need to make one form of each.  I also would have to make sure that the forms were attached multiple parts that allow one to type all copies at once (W2 forms are 6 part, the 1099 forms are 4 part and the others are 2 part) as if they are not I would have to type each copy of the form separately.  (The forms have extra copies as there are copies  for IRS, state, employer, and the W2 has 3 copies for the employee - the 1099 has one copy, and the other two have a copy to file with IRS and copy for the employer to keep.) 

I can file them directly online with IRS, but I don’t like the idea of putting the client’s and my Social Security number through the Internet, but if nothing else works, that will be what I have to do.

So, I am waiting to see if I receive the forms from IRS before I go to the client - and then start typing them all over again.  If I don’t received them in time, I will have to file them online.  If I do receive them in time - I have to type them all over again!!

I am not sure why we are in a “place” where it seems that everything we do - from something as simple to as buying a Barbie doll to tax forms that I prepare every year to ordering checks has to be redone. 

On the other hand, I did get the second order of the checks I ordered and this order seems to be correct.  I am currently shredding the incorrect ones.  (I held on to them in case they wanted them back.)  To make sure I did not “muck it up” I stored the second, correct set before starting to shred the first set.  I am shredding them a bit at a time to not overwhelm the shredder.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -

Sometimes when we are in a “bad” time it just goes on and on.  I know that at some point - hopefully soon - this will end and I will be able to go back to doing things once.  One just has to do what needs to be done until there is change in karma.

ACHOO!

Achoo!  Last week I was feeling fine.  Then it happened.  You know, you wake up with a scratchy throat and wonder - is it a cold or did I just sleep on my back with my mouth open and annoy my throat.  Then the coughing starts - and you still hope it is a just a scratchy throat from sleeping on your back, but you are pretty sure it is not.  Once the sneezing starts and your nose is clogged...  My husband lives in fear of me having a cold.  He is a bit of a hypochondriac so he won’t let me do anything if I might “spread the germs” to him.  But he doesn’t want to do what he is not letting me do either.  Everything takes longer to do as a result and wastes time. Don’t worry - you can’t catch the cold.

He doesn’t want to cook (although he used to love to cook and is the better cook).  He doesn’t want to do the dishes. but he doesn’t want me to do either as I will get him sick.  The first night he made dinner - ham steak that we shared and a packaged macaroni with mushrooms - add to boiling water and let cook - and canned soup.  I did the dishes afterwards with disposable plastic gloves on.  One night he was on the computer with a client and I asked if I should make dinner or wait for him and he told me he was busy - so I made dinner and he ate it, but not happily.  Then the weekend came and cooking was resolved as we eat out Friday through Sunday nights.  This week he cooked dinner on Monday.  Last night as we were trying to figure out what to have for dinner a rain storm hit.  I mean A RAIN STORM HIT.  He received a warning on his cell phone - I did not, although my, no cell service for over a year as it was not working for Internet or phone service and I had to switch,  Blackberry received a notice.  (I keep it charged for it games and camera.)  We had major lightning and thunder for about 2 hours - remember I have fired a reproduction 18th century cannon - the thunder was like cannon fire.  We lost our electricity - one of husband’s other great fears.  We stood/sat with the front door open watching “the show” .  We live on a main road.  A UPS truck went past to the right, then to the left, then two of them passed our house, then another one and so on.  Assorted emergency vehicles passed the house in both directions with lights flashing - police, ambulances, fire trucks, a couple of electric utility trucks...  Cars kept driving in the mess, some would pull over a few minutes and then go on.  I am a pretty fearless driver (scared husband the few times he had to drive with me as the driver) and I would have pulled over.  Sooo, what will we eat?  I was thinking - we have rolls, peanut butter - crunchy and smooth, jelly - strawberry and Ikea ligonberry, American cheese, mozzarella cheese - no problem.  I suggested this to him.  NO!  We cannot open the fridge or his insulin would go bad.  (Well, technically if it got too warm it would still be good for 42 days, but I was not going to argue.)   Luckily the rain let up around 10:30 pm.  We got in the car and drove to a nearby supermarket and bought more rolls and cold cuts for dinner.  On the corner passed a 7-11 shut down do to lack of electricity, employees seemed to be sitting in cars in the parking lot.  We got home and were getting ready to eat and - the lights came back on.  Apparently we were in the largest outage area so we were put back quickly.  I honestly do not remember a thunderstorm with so much or such loud thunder with rain that heavy for so long.

Tonight we took in Chinese food - simple right?  Not really.  The place we took out from for decades (while I was waiting for the gas company to come and turn on the gas in our first apartment I went and took out from this place for lunch - I did not even have tableware, dishes, glasses, etc in the apartment - I did have a borrowed bridge table and 2 borrowed bridge chairs) has changed.  The original owners ran it for a long time - we knew their children, I remember hearing a car stop short in front of our apartment and the father coming running to the corner because his younger daughter had been riding her bicycle and just missed being hit by the car.  When he died his older daughter would come home from college on weekends to help her mom.  Then the son took over for awhile - even though he really wanted to be fishing - and the place often had fresh fish due to same.  Eventually the place was sold - to the son’s sister in law and her husband.  They were also nice and the food was the same and we kept going there.  Earlier this year we went there and the husband was not there and an older woman (I presume one of their moms) was cooking.  The food was not good.  We tried another place and were not happy with them.  We went back to them figuring maybe it was the change in cook.  But the last time we took out the soup was too salty to eat and all the dishes were wrong.  We don’t know what happened.  This is the place we called on our way back from our 5 hour trip in July, 2017 to get dinner made before they closed - http://wheredidileavethat.blogspot.com/2017/07/treading-water-5-hour-trip-to-nowhere.html So, we never know where to take out from and as a result we don’t.  We receive an assortment of fliers from take out places and I keep them.  One recently caught husband’s eye and he had been planning to try it - so tonight we did.  Very nice people and food.  Three street parking spaces in front of the 4 stores was the only parking.  Then, since I was sick, husband did not hand me the food to hold on the trip home, he put it in a plastic laundry basket we keep in the back in the car, he did not put anything against the bag to hold it.  Yes, the bag went on an angle and was soaked when he took it out of the car.  After dinner we had to wash the vinyl cover I keep in the car, the basket, and back of the car.  We will go back again - and I will hold the bag.


In the middle of all this I had to go to Manhattan to a client for work - I should have gone last month, but she had a cold (could I have caught this cold over the telephone :-) ).  So I went yesterday.  I packed a zip lock bag with sucking candy, lots of tissues, and an old prescription bottle with one dose of the cough medicine I am taking.  In another zip lock bag I had a small bottle I filled with water.  Did I mention the temperature yesterday was over 90 degrees Fahrenheit?  Luckily I did not need any of the items. 

As a result of this normal housework and keeping things in order are only done if absolutely needed.  Instead of changing the bedding, I changed only my pillowcases.  I suggested he change his, but he said it was okay to just leave them until next week.  I had to talk him through changing the hand towels. We were in the downstairs bathroom - “Where are they?” “In the cabinet under the sink  - see those 2 whiteish towels?  Take them and the green dish towel below them.”  (I put out a green dish towel each week in that bathroom to use for quick clean ups of water around the sink - it matches the bathroom.)  Upstairs?  “Which towels?”  “The yellow ones.” (I figured yellow was bright and he would easily see them.) “You mean these yellow ones?”  They are the only yellow ones we have. 

Last week I had washed and dried the clothes the night before I got the cold.  A load of jeans were in the dryer drying overnight.  So we had clothes for the week.  I did not wash the towels or the bed linens.  Good thing I have 2 weeks of towels plus one extra set for up and down.  I was trying to figure out how to mention to him about the laundry when he brought it up.  I put the clothes in to wash.  He will put them in the dryer - with me talking him through it - and then bring them upstairs afterwards.  He brought up last week jeans load when I put in the load to wash.  He says he will fold the laundry.  I normally pull out his shirts as I put the clean, dry laundry in the basket to take upstairs so that they do not need to be ironed, as I put them over the top of the other clothes and if he does that, and sorts mine from his, I can deal with my clothes and he can deal with his or leave them in the basket and pull them out as he needs them. 

Hopefully either this cold will be definitely over with or he will give up by Monday so life can return to normal.

On the other hand, I had some extra time in the office as we came home quicker in the afternoons.  I managed to shred all of my 2008 records - other than few I kept such as the checks written that year for our income taxes - 3 tall kitchen bags plus, worth of shredding.  I then packed my 2017 records into the same box, relabeled it, and put it back in the closet - ah, room to fit papers in file folders again. 

I also had time to transfer my 2017 computer files to my archive file and make 2 DVD copies of the revised archive files.  I still have to change my back up files so that the old files are gone from them, but that will happen as I make backup files.

I went through an assortment of old computer instruction manuals sitting on a shelf in the office - why?  I needed space for 2 magazine holders.  I pulled a number of the manuals - mostly from programs or hardware that I had - and I will put them out over a couple of weeks with the recycling.  I still have a stack for husband to go through - understand this are DOS or pre Windows XP software and hardware that I cannot figure out what or where it is.  The magazine holders fit nicely in the shelf now with room for the manuals for computer things we are actively using.

The office floor is a mess due to my cheapness in not wanting to waste extra garbage bags when doing shredding and pouring from one to another - as well as throwing handfuls of shreds from one bag to another.  I had planned to vacuum up the shreds - but then caught this cold - maybe tomorrow I will get to vacuuming.

THOUGHT OF THE WEEK -
One gets ill.  It happens.  I am glad that it only a cold so all it has been is inconvenient.  In the larger world it is nothing, just an inconvenience. I am happy that is not serious and by next week either I will be better or he will give up trying to do things for me so he does not catch the cold.  (I have never pointed out to him that I touch the light switches and so does he.) 

Try to do as much as one can without overtaxing one’s self - this will vary based on what is wrong with one.

I leave you with a final achoo!  If I rambled too much - will, hey!  I have a cold! :-)
   

GETTING SOME FILE CLEARING DONE

I keep the financial records for the two organizations I am treasurer of. You know - bank statements, paid bills, end of the year reports, paperwork and returns filed with Internal Revenue and our state, whatever is required by the organization’s parent organization, etc.  I have one file drawer set aside for both of the organizations.  I have a metal piece which is suppose to go at the back of the files in a drawer to hold them to the front that I put between the two sets of files to keep them separated.

Do to the fact that I have personal files, business files (for our 3 small businesses) and both of these organizations files in my file cabinets I use color file labels.  I use red and blue labels for my embroidery chapter’s files (and also in another drawer for our personal files) and yellow and green labels for our reenactment unit (and also, in yet another drawer, our craft business files).  I use the blue or green for permanent files and the red or yellow for annual files. 

Huh?  Well, there are files which I will clear out each year - last year’s bank statements for example - these files get a red or yellow file label - depending on whose file it is.  Other files - such as government filings, copies of the meeting handouts or the treasurer’s reports - my embroidery chapter is required to keep those forever - do not get cleared out annually and basically just accumulate info in them these get blue or green labels and I know when I go through and clear out the folders for the prior year not to bother with these files.

While I am fairly good at clearing out our personal and business files every year, the organization files tend to just sit there and fill up.  They are not a high priority to go through and are in the bottom drawer of their file cabinet, so I need to sit on the floor to deal with them, etc.  Well, the drawer had become too full to use.  We had gotten rid of a lot of our reenacting files to the new “commander” when he took over from husband, but there was/is still a lot of stuff in the file drawer.

Last week I had a bit of time somehow and decided to go through the embroidery chapter files.  I found out that I had last cleared out the 2012 files.  I need to keep by the chapter’s national organization 7 years of financial records - except for those I need to keep forever.  (I will find out from them if I can scan these items into the computer and keep them that way when I get a chance.)  I have 2 large manila envelope boxes (I love these boxes they hold so much) in my closet with the prior years files for the chapter that I kept.  These go back to the prior treasurer. 

I went through the boxes.  While for our personal files I keep 9 years prior to the current year (making 10 years all together), I am only required to keep 7 years, so I pulled the records before 2007 - I kept 2007 and later.  I went through the paperwork from each year that I was getting rid of.  I shredded the bank statements and other related bank items.  If I saw something I thought I should keep, I did - less than 10 papers.  I then shredded everything else.  I relabeled the folders and sorted 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 files of the files which should be cleared each year. I stored these in the emptied box and then put the boxes back in the top of the office closet. 

Okay, it was not that simple.  Particularly the putting away part - the boxes would not fit back into the space they came out of in the closet.  The two boxes stand on one side, one in front of the other to the right side of the door.  I tried putting in the front box and then the rear box - rear box did not fit.  I took them out and tried putting in the rear box - front box would not fit.  I tried shifting items around - maybe they loosened up or shifted - a plastic box fell on my head.  I put that aside and tried again - the lid from another box fell on my head (more about this lid later).  I finally managed to get both boxes back in - the end of a brief case had to be moved - and then get the box and the unrelated lid back in where they belong. 

I was too exhausted at this time plus free time had run out to deal with the reenacting unit papers.  The reenacting unit has much more paper and files in the drawer than the embroidery chapter did.  The embroidery chapter files had been behind the reenacting unit files - but I had so much room in the drawer and so few of them were now from the embroidery chapter, that I now reversed it so that the reenacting unit files were to the back - or I would never see the embroidery chapter files again.  Amazing what just moving out the 4 years paperwork made in the room in the drawer.       

The reenactment unit actually has it’s own file drawers at our headquarters.  In the upstairs hall (under the edge of the teddy bear Christmas village - yes it is still out) there are an assortment of old papers for the reenactment unit which I pulled out several years ago to take to the headquarters and store there.  I need to go through them again and see what still needs or should be kept and then go through the files in the “current” drawer and deal with them.  I needed to give my poor paper shredder a rest and then I will do so.

The box lid - I have had for years (decades?) a box for computer CDs, DVDs, and floppy disks. , actually I have a number of boxes - this one is being mentioned specifically here.  This box holds the various system disks for the various computers we have as well as for other equipment - printers, scanners, wifi, etc.  It is a long box and the lid used to be attached on one end and lift - even a lock (who knows where the key is so it is not locked) to lock it closed for security.  A few years ago this box fell on the floor.  The lid broke off the box and further broke so there was just a large piece of it over the disks - hence why the lid fell off onto my head.  On and off I have looked for a replacement box.  This accident spurred me to look further. I found a nice box that has handles which snap closed on the end (to keep the lid in place) and bought it - less than $5.  I was not sure if all the disks would fit in - they did with spare room and the box was tall enough that I could transfer them with the dividers I had been using.  Much safer storage for the disks and my head.  Know what I did with the old box?  I threw it out - no holding on to it to see what else it can be used for.  I actually needed the box of disks today.  We had a problem with our wifi modem and husband was hoping the installation disk would resolve the problem.    I took the box down and handed him the disk.  It did not help, but there it was - found in an instant.
   
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -
Sometimes less than an hour’s work can make a huge difference in space for storage.  What seemed like a huge job went quickly.  Just watch out for (and replace) broken box lids falling on your head . :-)        

SHREDDING AND SCANNING

I have been very busy scanning bills and shredding papers - two separate, but slightly related projects. This has taken me only about 4 days - and by days I mean 4 sessions of a few hours each.

First the scanning - Last month I decided and posted about  - 4-13-17 POST
 - deciding to scan in bills as I pay them.  Understand if I pay a charge card bill, I am only scanning in the statement, not every slip - even I am not that crazy - this is to make it easier if I need to view or need a copy of what I paid.  Per the earlier post this is the result of needing a bill from last year and not being able to find it.  I was lucky enough to have a scan of the bill and was able to use that for reference. 

So I have since been scanning each bill as I pay it. For our personal checking account I am scanning them into my data drive.  I set up a folder for the year with a subfolder for each month to make it all easier to find.  For our business checking account I am just using a folder for the year as we write very few checks.  I will go back when I have a chance shortly and scan in the bills from earlier in the year.  

Once a year I empty out the oldest storage box of records - I have 9 boxes so it is the one from 9 years before - and refill it with the previous year.  I cannot do this in earlier in the year as I want to include in the new year’s storage, the papers needed for income tax and our bank statements through the end of the prior year and I like to have the last statement we have at hand - some of our statements come in quarterly, so this can not be done before mid-April at the earliest and generally later than that.  This year since I did not put our business return on extension I was ready to do this switch over now.  I have been getting rid of 2007 records to make room for storage of 2016 records.

I was already to get rid of the 2007 records when the thought hit me - why not scan in the 2016 bills so I have them for reference before I store them away.

Second, the shredding - Before I get rid of the old records (in this case 2007) I shred them.  I shred and shred and shred.  I actually ended up with almost 39 gallons (3 kitchen bags) of shredded papers. Some papers I toss in the shredder without looking at, others I check first. 

Which ones do I check?  I look through the checking statements - personal and business - and keep any checks which paid income taxes or sales taxes (for the business).  I keep these (or a scan of them - front and back) forever.  I set them aside in my “to file” holder on my desk to file at the end of the week when I do filing.  They will go in my tax files - personal or business - depending on what they are for.  I also go quickly through our credit card statements.  I look for any large amounts (over $100) and check what they are for.  If they are for hotels, food, etc. I just skip them.  If they are for a specific thing I look at them.  This is especially true for expenditures for the house which may add to its cost (technically its “basis”) when we or our heirs one day sell the house and will lessen the profit on that sale.  Anything else large I look at and sometimes discuss with my husband if we need to keep it for any reason.  Almost always anything other than house related bills go into the shredder.  For 2007 there were few bills that I looked at and those were large food bills or hotel bills.  One bill was for a clothing item for me to wear when reenacting.  I pulled that bill and made a note of the name of the company as reenacting friends have asked where I bought it and I did not remember.  Now I have the name to give them. 

Now here is where I took a big chance on being able to do two things at once.  I had the large plastic box of 2007 records and a cardboard box (that originally held large manila envelopes) which was holding our 2016 bills.  Two tasks to do - which to do? 

Both of course. I would put a bill from 2016 in the scanner and hit the scan buttons.  I would then take a handful of papers from the 2007 box and shred them - setting aside the bank and credit card statements.  I did this for 3 days - working in checking the statements and shredding them also.  I managed to not shred any of the 2016 records and not scan any of the 2007 records. 

As of tonight I have finished shredding all of 2016 and the 3 white kitchen size bags of same have been put into a large black garbage bag - so that one cannot see what is in the bags through the white plastic - and the large black garbage bag is out at the curb for pickup tomorrow morning by the Town sanitation department (the garbagemen). 

I have also finished scanning of our personal bills from 2016.  I have maybe 30 bills for our business which I will scan tomorrow.  The box from 2007 has been refilled with bank statements from 2016 and the personal bills from same - the business bills will be added.  The information used to do our and the business’s income taxes are also in the box (but not the copies of the returns - they are in my accounting file drawer for my accounting practice - although they are also scanned into the computer as I also do with clients’s returns.

Right now my office is a mess.  I end up emptying the shredded papers into our garbage pail in the office as the shredder fills.  While I have a fairly heavy duty shredder, it can fill our 13 gallon garbage pail at least 3 times.  Pouring this into the larger pail invariably ends up with shreds of paper all over - they have a good deal of static electricity and stick to things.  I have promised husband now that I am finished I will vacuum the office tomorrow to clean it up - okay, they followed me out of the office door (it is a spare upstairs bedroom) into the hall and partially down the stairs and that will also need to be vacuumed. 

After I scan the 2016 business records into the computer I will add them to the box.  I have already gone through our personal and our business file drawers and pulled any records which are not needed at hand for last year and put them in the box.  Before putting the box back into the closet I will take a folder in our file drawer marked “last year to file” and add some papers to the 2015 box.  These are papers which for whatever reason were not stored or were not able to be stored away when I did this last year for 2015 (which replaced 2006 in a box).  I know that something will always turn up which is why I have this file.

 I also have a file called “this year”.  It is the place I throw anything I want/need to keep and don’t know where to file - it is gone through when I do this switch over and the papers will either go into the 2016 box, be tossed or in some cases left in the folder.  To give an example - we receive in the mail a card each from our election board each year with voting information for the year - where to vote, what votes there are and when they will be.  I keep this card so when we go to vote we can figure out which of the, constantly changing in location, tables is the one for us to vote at.  I keep it until the next year’s cards arrive.  Last year we did not receive the cards when they were mailed for the primary (I telephoned and was told we should have received them and confirmed where we should go to vote) and we brought the one from the year before to help us figure out where to go in the room.  (Mysteriously they did arrive, several months late, before the actual election.)  Normally when we get the new cards I shred the old ones and throw them out - but they “reside” in this folder.

In past years in going through the records to be shed from the older year, I have found interesting items such as paper items from our 25th anniversary stay at a Colonial Williamsburg restored tavern - I did not keep any longer, but it was nice to remember the stay.  (Yes, one can stay in restored houses and taverns on streets within the restoration as part of their hotels.  It is rather pricey by our standards and this was the only time we did so - and even then, we stayed there for 3 nights during a reenacting weekend and stayed at a regular - much cheaper - hotel the rest of the stay.)  This time I could tell by various papers and checks I found that this was the year husband quit his job (which is when I thought he did).   Hard to believe that 10 years has passed.

Oh - you may wonder why 9 years in boxes - why not an even 10?  Two reasons.   The boxes were sold in packages of 3 boxes.  Also I can fit 9 boxes on top of the closet in our office, but not 10.  I figure that with the current year I have 10 years of records for taxes - and with scanning - even more.

THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

How do your store your old records?  Presuming that you are in the U.S. you need to keep at a bare minimum 3 years of records for income taxes.  Ten are generally recommended.  IRS and states can generally audit you or say that there is an error for 3 years after you file a tax return, 7 years if after the due date if you do not file a return.  (General rule - states can always have their own laws.)

I know that in the past our state has had “amnesty” periods when one can file a tax return which one has not filed and/or pay any taxes owed and apply to have any penalties on that amount waived so that one only pays the tax and interest (and sometimes one does not even have to pay the interest).  I know that clients, as well as us, have received notices during these amnesty periods for return which were filed and paid.  When I contacted the state about it being too long after the returns were filed and paid as no notices were receive before and it was past the 3 or even the 7 years I always got the same response - “We mailed you notices and we do not know why you did not get them so the action was started within the required 3 years.” 

As a result of this I tell clients to keep all payments for taxes forever.  This is the checks which pay estimated taxes or the final payment, W2 forms with withholding.  1099 forms of any type which have taxes withheld (these are the forms you receive in January for interest, dividends, stocks etc sold, amounts you received from pensions IRAs or 401k plans etc), Forms K1 from partnerships, small business corporations or LLCs, etc.  You can scan in them into your computer to keep them or keep them as paper copies or both.  I keep copies of same of ours.

CATCHING UP

Well tax season is behind me now and I am trying to catch up on everything which fell by the wayside. 

It amazes me that when I was working full time in the first 4 months of the year I would do payroll taxes for 10 business clients twice each - January & April - and the January ones involved typing W2s for all the employees of the clients, corporation or partnership returns for the businesses, year end sales tax for most of them (NY has a sales tax year which ends the end of February and is due in March), and personal returns for about 40 clients while also keeping house, dealing with Easter and Passover, a trip out of state for my husband’s birthday, and towards the end of April - a trip to Maryland for a reenactment event, plus dealing with my embroidery chapter and reenactment unit’s treasuries and renewal of membership for the reenactment unit.  It exhausts me to just list all of this.

These days I have about 6 tax returns, two corporations and a partnership (and only one of the businesses is not ours), three sales tax returns, payroll taxes for one company which has one employee, little to do for the holidays or husband’s birthday, and no trip to Maryland (too cold for RV to be dewinterized).  Still dealing with the two treasuries and the renewals for the reenactment unit.  Yet, I still have trouble finishing it all up timely.  It is true that work expands to the time allotted to do it.  Maybe this thought comes to mind just because I am watching the series on TV about Einstein and that brings to mind his relativity theory.

Think about it - you look around.  The house needs decluttering and cleaning.  If you have guests coming over on Friday - you are going to do what you do before Friday, if they are not coming until the first of next month - the same work will take you until then - right?  We used to have a room where no one could go when we had people in also.  When I was a girl it was my bedroom closet.  Mom would tell me periodically (I am guessing when people were going to be coming or she just could not look at it any more) to clean my room.  I would do as much as I could - then what was left would be tossed into the bottom of my closet.  (Sound familiar?)  Once or twice a year I would even be told to clear out the bottom of my closet - generally I would find items such as the bag with most of my Trick or Treat candy in it around May or June - that was a toss out as mom told us we would get sick if eat anything that old.  One problem was that no one ever actually explained to me the concept of throwing things out or passing them along, to me cleaning was put everything out of site.  I have since learned better. 

So now I am dealing with the catchup.  The stack on my desk - on top of my “todo folder”, which means that these items must be done before I can start on what I have to do - is shrinking. 

I spent an afternoon dealing with items waiting for me from our reenactment unit.  In addition to being treasurer I am also the membership chair as it is easier for one person to do so.  Dues are long ago collected, the dues collected for our national went out on time back in March. Membership cards had been typed up (yes, typed on a typewriter) and given to the unit commander to mail to members.  I had managed to get to the bank and deposit the dues check - and one for an event the unit did in January.  But, some members have been waiting to be paid for money laid out and I had to pay them.  One of our unit insurance policies had come in and I paid it.  I had the forms that members had filled in which had to be scanned into the computer so I could shred and toss the originals.  I had to make up the membership list for the year.  I worked on all this - all done except it took until today to get a clarification from one member as to whether the new phone number she gave me was her home or cell number that had changed.  I heard from her today - the new list will be out to the commander to email out by this weekend - I hope.

I managed to keep up on paying the bills for my embroidery chapter - most were to third parties, and were paid right away.  A couple of checks to members for, again, money laid out just were written.  Our national embroidery group has a membership year that runs from June through the following May (yeah, it confuses the heck out of me why that is the year for membership dues - the financial year is a calendar year, and somehow in the change from quarterly renewals based on when members had joined to an annual one - we paid for the month of June twice one year) and while I am not the membership chair, I help her as the treasurer.   I do serve as the newsletter editor and today wrote the May newsletter for the chapter, which is also the meeting notice for our upcoming meeting.  This one was a bit harder than most.  Last week chapter president had emailed her message for the month which included talking about the program for the meeting - which was not exactly what I remembered and had on our website as the meeting program.  I had a hands on project - she had a “fashion show” of what I had us doing - she had in mind the idea that we had sort of worked on this all year and members should show what they have done on the project.  I doubled checked with her and yes, that was the meeting program.  Yesterday I got an email from the VP of the chapter and she had the info to do the project I thought we were doing - and she was the leader of the project.  I also had an email from the chapter president saying a sort of “whoops - I guess I thought about it differently” and that I should go ahead with the project as the meeting and maybe include bring in items started.  I had to combine both ideas.  The president had told me to dump her message, but I managed to work it into a version of what she wanted for the meeting as a side to the hands on project.  Plus I had a lot of related exhibitions to list, so what should have taken half an hour to put together - 2 hours!  Then after it was emailed out (and I email out one version to our members and some region people and the same with a “you asked for this, let me know if you don’t want it” message to people who have asked for info about our chapter) I realized that I had forgotten something urgent.  Yes, I forgot to tell the members that it is renewal time.  So I sent out a separate addendum to the only the members. 

That leaves bank statements to reconcile, a month’s worth of filing for our reenactment unit papers (I managed to do the month’s worth of personal, business, and embroidery chapter filing over last weekend), and an assortment of other items to do - including scanning in our personal tax return and papers and printing a copy of same for my records.  (Right now there is a stack - you know about stacks right? - of the tax papers in front of the office closet waiting for me.)  If I had one day to sit and work....  Tomorrow I have to go to Manhattan to my remaining business client (other than our businesses) and do the books and payroll taxes. 

I also need to pull out the 2007 box of old records.  I will shred almost all of what is in the box.  I scan the credit card and other bills to see if there is anything I need to hold onto.  With the credit cards I will scan each for amounts over $100 to see what they are.  Sometimes there may be a reason to keep a larger receipt - generally not and they will be shredded also. I will also pull out any checks, W2, or 1099 forms which paid income taxes (for the business if it paid corporation taxes, sales taxes, or annual filing fee) and keep them.  I always do that.  It is good to always keep proof that taxes were paid. 

I will then refill the box with the matching paperwork from 2016, change the label on the box to 2016 and put it back in the top of the office closet.  To make this easier I have different color labels on file folders in my files for permanent (leave everything in this folder in it) and annual (check this folder every year to see if anything should stay in it - or be put in the annual box).  I use red or yellow for annual and blue or green for permanent - red and blue are used for our personal files and for my embroidery chapter files, yellow and green for our corporation files and our reenactment unit files.  I also have a folder with items which need to be added to the 2015 box.  Then I will be able to open the office closet door again without having to move stacks of paper. :-)
                                   
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK -

Take a deep breath and start doing a bit of  “spring cleaning”.  If nothing else switch whatever you need to from winter to spring.  If you put away winter clothes - see what you will not want next year and either donate it now or put it in a labeled box for the fall to donate then, if where you donate will only take seasonal items.  This way you can donate it without having to look at it again then.

Remember that time is relative, but one can only do so much.

And - if you live near where Carvel is located and you read this post early enough - Thursday, April 27 is free cone day this year.

USING OFFICE SUPPLIES TO HELP IN ORGANIZING

Growing up I used to love to go to my dad’s office.  Actually I loved it so much that I went into the same job as he had - accounting.  His office had such fun things (yes, I was odd even as a child) - rubber stamps and pads, pens, pencils - even in colors, stickers, paper, envelopes, staplers, clips, and so on.  So much fun to play with. 

I still love office supplies - the last time my husband went out to try to find a gift for me for some occasion or other was at an office supply store (before he finally gave in and realized there was nothing that I wanted and he should give up).  Office supplies can be used for so many things that they are not intended for as well as those they are intended for.  (We were at an event and the flag being carried in a color guard was too long for the height of the room and it touched the floor.  I asked at the desk of the venue - no pins - then I asked if they had any sort of paper clip or such - bingo, fixed the problem.)

So how do office supplies help one get organized? 

Labels - you do use them don’t you.  You can write info on things or make nice labels which make things look more organized.  There are computer labels which can be printed.  There are labeling machines - mine is a Brother TZ type - to make labels.  Some are permanent labels - be sure you want them as they won’t come off easily if at all.  Others are temporary. 

When I have a file folder which I will be keeping for awhile it gets a permanent label printed by computer.  I use different color edge labels printed with the computer in some drawers I use red edge labels for folder to go through at the new year and blue for permanent folders, in other drawers I use yellow and green for same (so they get used up more or less evenly) this cuts down on time clearing out folders for the new year (well, actually I do this around May, so I have info for taxes).  In my desktop file holder I have folders which are permanent for folders subjects which are needed on an ongoing basis which also get computer printed labels with color edges - in this case they color signifies what the folder is for - blue is personal, red for our business, green for one club, yellow for the other - no color on the end means it is for my accounting business and each color/type of file goes into a different section in the holder and some which are temporary - something which needs to be done and then the folder will no longer be needed - I use small removable labels - I write on it, put it on the folder and it remains there until it is no longer needed and then is removed from the folder which can be used again and the label is tossed out - I use markers on them to color code them to match the permanent folders in the desktop holder sections.  These removable labels can also be folder in half vertically and stuck on a page it becomes a tab to find the place again and it can then be removed when no longer needed.  I use larger removable labels on the boxes that I store prior years financial records and write the year on the label.  When I am ready to reuse the box - 10 years later - I pull off the old label and put on the new one.

I have marked the magazine holders we have with labels printed with the Brother machine this way we know which magazines and which years are in the holder.  (There are other similar label machines from other companies, this happens to be the one I have and use not an ad for the company.)  We have a number of zipper vinyl bags, which one cannot see through, in our RV and we label them with labels from the Brother so we know what is in them.  I put labels on my USB flash drives which I make on the Brother - so I know what is on the drives.  The blank ones get the removable labels from above with a label which reads “Blank”.  It goes across the drive and its cap - when the cap comes off to use it, the label has to be removed so I never forget and leave a “blank” label on a drive in use.  So wonderful to know which is which. I also use the temporary labels on the drives I take to the vault for offsite storage - they are labeled with the Brother tape as to what they are - “Offsite A” and “Offsite B” and then when I update them I put the date on a removable label and put it, again, across the drive and it’s cap so I know what date it is, when I again update it, the removable label has to come off and be tossed.

Folders - can not only hold papers in filing cabinets, but can be used to keep papers together in general.  A paper alone can get lost - in a labeled folder (even a temporary label) will be harder to lose and easier to see.  I have a pocket file holder for tax info for clients and another for my paid bills.  Folders do not fit in them as it is the same size as the folders - I cut about a quarter of an inch off one end and they fit!  I can use this to make what is in the pocket of the file holder easy to take everything out of the pocket at once without losing anything or I can use it to make sections in a pocket of the of the holder so it can hold more than one type of bill.

I have 2 sizes of paperclips.  I use the small ones for smaller groups of papers and the larger ones for larger groups - obvious. What else can one use them for?  Well, as I mentioned above, shortening a flag that will otherwise drag on the floor.  Christmas ornament hangers - I learned this in elementary school when the teacher did it - unfold the paperclip into an S shape and it is an ornament hanger.  In a related idea the large ones can be used to hang decorations around the rooms.  I hang my “roping” (plastic) on the curtain rod by turning large paperclips into the same S shape and putting one at each end of the curtain rod - one in the center on longer ones - and then hanging the roping over it - I also hang an embroidered piece in a hoop from the center of a curtain rod in the same way.  Also good when opened for getting stuck staples out of a stapler.  Oh, and they can be put together in a chain to decorate an office Christmas tree.

Staples are also great for what they are intended for - stapling stacks of papers together - If you have papers which belong together -STAPLE THEM!  Stapling is more definite than the paper clips mentioned above and won’t get caught and pulled off the papers.  What else can you use them for?  A hem that comes down - staple it together until you can fix it - this is an old trick.

Pencils great for writing what might need to be erased and pens for what needs to stay written.  A pencil, a piece of paper and a window can let you copy something by hand.  (I do this with fabric when I want to copy something to the fabric to stitch.)  Put what you want to copy on the window with removable tape (another wonderful thing) and then do the same with the piece of paper or fabric.  On a sunny day you will see the picture and be able to copy it to the paper - or fabric with a pencil.

Yes, tape.  I am talking about clear plastic tape - often called “Scotch tape” whether it is that brand or not.  There are several types.  (I don’t bother with the gift wrap version.)  I use the permanent one for what it is intended for - taping paper together - but it can also, again, be used for fixing clothing.  But removable tape of this type is great.  I tape my paper todo list to my computer desk with removable tape - when I am done I pull it off the desk, pull the tape off the paper, write a new list and put it back with the same piece of tape (there is a limit to how long one piece of tape will last).  I can stick a note to something with it.  (Yes, I know about the papers which stick to things on their own - last time I used one it left glue on the sales receipt it was attached to and others have not stayed in place.)  If you want to tape a check or cash into a card, removable tape lets it be removed undamaged and intact. 

Envelopes - of course they are used for mailing things, but they can also be used to hold papers and other things - and the larger manila ones with clips can be reused.  If I have to take papers some place I put them in a manila envelope and close the clip.  I then can take the papers out where I am going and then clip the envelope closed again and then when back at home remove the papers and file away and reuse the envelope. 

I have several envelopes which are just larger than regular # 10 envelopes each marked on the end edge with one of our regular trips.  I put anything related to the trip in the envelope as it comes along - a reservation made a year in advance sits in the envelope and then as the year goes along - discount tickets to an event? - add them into the envelope.  Coupon for a restaurant? - add it in.  A store looks interesting? - add it in.  When it is time for the trip, I just pull the envelope and all is there.  I keep these envelopes in date order in the middle section of the 3 section wall pocket - just under the bills to pay section - next to my desk. 

Oh, and in the bills to pay section above is another large than # 10 envelope - it is for what I need to do on Friday - the day we go out for banking and such.  I put the items needed in the envelope for Friday - checks to deposit, receipts to return items, etc.  I then use a small piece of paper (at one time when I carried a small memo book, which had been cut in half, in my pocket, I used the other half of the pages which my husband had cut off on an electric saw, now I am using up old business cards - always shredding them after, but any small pieces of paper can be used) with the errands listed for example PO (remember we go there daily); Bank - transfer $X savings to checking (actually I just write S-C $X), 2 deposits, withdraw $Y; Club bank - deposit, Return to store and so on.  I use a large paperclip to attach this to the outside of the envelope to follow as I go along. 

Paper can of course be used for all sorts of notes.  When we have paper which is printed on and not used - especially those annoying pages when one prints something and it runs 2 pages, but the second page just had the titles from the end of the page or such on it and is wasted - I put it aside.  Part pages are in one section and full pages in another on top of my desk file holder.  If I am going to print something which is just going to be used by me I use the back of these pages to print on or I can use them to write notes on - especially when one is calling a company and needs to make notes of the conversation due to promises made, information provided, or responses to what you said by the company employee for your records (always put date, time and employees name on the page too).  Small pieces can be cut into quarter or third of a page either vertically or horizontally to use as memo paper - great for shopping lists.   

So as you see ordinary office supplies can be used in a variety of different ways to help you get and stay more organized.  Any good ideas you have on using office supplies?           

BILLS, BILLS, BILLS

One of the problems that many people who are disorganized have is problems managing their money and credit.  Errors in same can result in wasting a lot of money on finance charges, lost cash, etc.  I am an accountant (not a CPA) and this is one of the few areas in which I rarely have a problem.  Following are some thoughts which might help you a bit. Oh, I know, you are rolling your eyes and thinking of clicking to get out of here and look at cat pictures, but I promise I try to make it easy and it is important. (Nothing here is intended to be specific accounting advice.)

First, you must have a system to collect all those credit card slips and the like that come into your life.  There are three reasons for this.  It is good to know where the receipt is if you need to return something.  It is good to know where the receipt is if there is a problem with something which needs to be fixed under warranty or if you need it for your income taxes.  Lastly, it is a really, really good idea to match the slips to the bills for them when they come in.  Especially in today’s world where one’s credit information may be stolen, it is a good idea to match the slips to your bills when you get them.  I have a section in my wallet set aside for them.  I take them out of my wallet on Friday nights and Sunday nights and sort them into folders - you can sort them into envelopes and hold the envelopes (small manila ones are good for this) together with a rubber band. (You may notice that I use all different kinds of office supplies - I like them and they can be used for all sorts of purposes, my husband has been known to shop in office supply stores for gifts for me.)

Second, you must have a system of some sort for your unpaid bills.  I am a paper bill person, I don’t trust doing anything financial online (I have worked with computers since I learned to program in Fortran in the early 1970's on a main frame computer and don’t think there is a safe website - as evidenced in recent years by hacking of the websites of large banks and insurance company.) If you pay your bills online this might be a bit easier for you as you will have all of your bills available on your computer - but still match the slips to the bills.  The system doesn’t have to be fancy, but you do need to keep track of your bills and pay them on time. 

I have a rather simple system - I have a plastic pocket attached to the wall next to my desk.  When a bill comes in I check it.  If it is a credit card or other bill for which I get slips for items charged I match the slips to it to make sure it is correct.  Even I will end up misplacing some slips over the year, but I have most of them.  After the slips are matched or the bill is checked (always check that your prior payment has been correctly posted to the bill) I put the bill and payment envelope back into the envelope and write the amount due and mark the date seven days before the bill is actually due as the date to pay the bill on the outside edge of the bill and put the bill into the pocket on the wall with the date and amount due showing. By using this date instead of the actual due date I mail the bill payment out a week before it is due and it has plenty of time to arrive on time.  If there are only a few slips I will put them in the envelope with the bill and envelope.  If there are a lot of them I will staple them together and put them in a folder I keep for this purpose in my desktop stack of files (I will get to what this is in a future post).  For you, get a large manila envelope, folder, anything similar so that you know where the matching slips are when you pay the bills.  There are some bills such as for my newspaper, snow clearing, heating oil etc. which need a quicker turnaround and I will send them as soon as possible.    If you are paying your bills online you might want to set up reminders for 7 days before the bills are due.   

When I sit down at my desk for the day (I do this at sometime during each day although not always on weekend days to check email and anything else I need to do in our home office) I look to see if any bills are dated as due “today”.  If there are I will make sure to pay them - write the check, circle the amount due on the bill, write the date and check number next to the circled amount and staple any slips which are listed on it to the bill.  I use a computer program for my bills, but will not get into posting them now.  If you have any payments which are tax deductible or for business purposes you should mark them with something to make them obvious - perhaps a red star  - in your checkbook (unless you are posting them right away).  If you are not going to have the chance to pay your bills daily or if you don’t want to deal with them daily, pay them at least once a week.  I know that many organizing books tell you to pay them once a month - I know I never have all my bills in the house at the same time during the month to do that.  ALWAYS list and subtract your checks from your checkbook.  Bounced check fees are rather expensive these days  - why give away money to your bank when you don’t have to and if you bounce a check to a company, it will know about it in the future and it does affect how the company looks at you, especially if you do it a lot.  Also do you want to take a chance on bouncing a check to your niece, grandson, best friend, etc.?  They will then be hit with a fee from their bank also.  (Also always make sure to list your deposits in your checkbook and add them in to your balance.  Mark the source of deposits, not just as “deposit”. - Write Deposit - gift from Aunt Joan, or Deposit - dividends from XYZ corp - in your checkbook so you can check back as to what has been deposited and what has not.)

Third, mail the bill payment in the envelope provided if there is one (or make sure to send it out electronically if that is what you do).  Make sure there is a stamp on the envelope (unless it is one of those rare companies which pay the postage for you) and that there is a return address on the envelope, just in case - if the company prints their address as the return address, I put mine on the back flap.  Always include the stub with the amount you are paying filled in - I will put a line across any space which is for a change of address, etc so no one else can fill it in. Seal the envelope with everything in it and mail it.  (I normally do this the day after I write the check.)  If the company does not give you the envelope preprinted to mail the payment (such as when there is a payment book) I put the address in the address book of my word processing program so it is easy to print an envelope when needed and I don’t have to worry about putting on the wrong address or the label with the address falling off the envelope.  Have a specific place to put outgoing mail so you don’t forget.  I have a wire pocket hanging from my desktop file holders which holds the outgoing mail.  If a piece of mail is too large to fit in the pocket, I have an envelope shaped card which reads “Mail to go out” which is put in the same pocket to remind me to take the other mail which does not fit in the pocket. 

Don't forget to shred any papers  you are throwing out from your bill payments - including envelopes.



We pay all of our credit cards in full every month. Neither of us is comfortable owing money.  Over the years we have had a mortgage, a few car loans, an RV loan in addition to our credit cards.  The mortgage was paid off in half the time it was for.  One car loan was paid off early as we got rid of the car, the others paid on time.  I often pay additional principle with the RV payments to cut down on the overall cost of the loan as I will pay less interest over the time of the loan. 



I know most people are making payments on their credit cards and not paying them in full.  I understand that average person in the United States owes $15,000 in credit card debt.  That is a lot of money to be paying off, especially since it is likely increasing at the same time.  We have been very careful to make sure that we do not buy things unless we can pay for them - this includes a driveway, a fence, siding, windows, and a new roof over the years.  If you are on the credit card payment debt wagon you need to get your accounts paid down.  When you are not paying finance charges/interest you have more money for you.  I will not go into what to cut out to bring your expenses down - it varies for everyone.  (I hate when there is an article about how to cut one’s expenses and the ideas offered are such as to stop buying coffees and to bring one’s lunch. We don’t drink coffee and we already bring lunch.)  What is necessary varies for everyone, but look at what you spend money on and think about if it is really needed or wanted.  So see where you can cut back to help you have more money available to pay off your bills and stop them from increasing so quickly.  I will go into suggestions based on what we do to save money in another article.

 Here are suggestions which will help with paying down your bills.  The first idea will actually speed up paying down the bills.  Figure out which of your credit cards has the highest interest rate.  Presuming that you are paying more than the minimum now on your accounts, pay the minimum amount on the accounts which are not the one with the highest rate and pay the difference of what you can pay for the month towards the one with the highest interest rate. This will lower the amount of interest you are paying monthly the quickest.  When that bill is paid off use it for the new amounts you are charging if you can, and pay it in full EVERY MONTH so you do not pay interest on your new purchases.  Then repeat with the next highest interest rate card.  Think about it , if you owed, say, $2,000 each on 5 credit cards by paying off the one with the highest rate first, you will have less to pay off on each of the others as their interest rates are lower.  In addition as one pays down the account one owes less interest on the account each month and by paying off the highest rate, one cuts down the additional amount one owes the fastest. Using simple interest (which credit card companies do not do, they make you pay interest on the interest you owe, so the difference is even more dramatic) -

If you have a credit card at 25% and another at 18%  -
You pay (at simple interest) $500 a year in interest on the 25% interest card.
You pay (at simple interest) $360 a year in interest on the 18% interest card.

If you pay the 25% card off first you will no longer be paying the $500, but will have added $360 (less any minimum payments) to your debt. 

If you pay off the 18% card first you will no longer be paying the $360, but will have added $500 (less any minimum payments) to your debt.

Therefore by paying off the 25% card first in full you will have gotten rid of more debt and paid out less in the interim than if you did it the opposite way or paid off part of each debt during the year.  Again, since I have used simple interest the effect is even more dramatic as in real life you would pay more than the amounts listed since you are paying interest on the interest.  ALWAYS MAKE THE MINIMUM PAYMENTS on the other cards which you are not paying off.  This idea is the one I like and the one that makes the largest monetary difference.
                   
The second idea is aimed more at making you feel that you are accomplishing something.  Pay off the smallest account first, paying the minimum amount on your accounts.  This will result in your seeing that an account is paid off quickly and is over with, but may result in your paying more overall and taking longer overall to pay off all your accounts in full.
                           
If you have a card which pays you cashback on purchases - have the cashback applied to the balance due.

As you pay off your accounts use the one which has been paid off and has the lowest interest rate for your new charges and pay that account in full every month - this will keep you from accumulating more debt.   

Now, I know there are times when one has to charge something and pay it off due to emergencies.  I know someone whose husband was hospitalized for an extended period when they were young and first married and they lost his salary while he was ill in addition to all the expenses that came about.  They were very careful afterwards and in 2 years they had paid off all their credit card balances from the period he had been ill and they used a different credit card while doing so.  This way the new charges they made while they were paying off the bills were paid in full and did not accumulate interest.

I will talk more about bills and banking and keeping track of both in the future.  The important thing is to make sure that you make a start at keeping track of what you owe and what you have and getting your credit card debt paid down - and don’t forget to pay any car, mortgage bills, etc. and your rent.  The better you are at paying your bills the higher your credit rating will be and the less you will pay for interest in the future. 

You may now go and look at the cats.