<p>We have kept all of our tax records since 1983. Overkill, I’m sure. I went through the financial drawer recently and shredded a lot of old stuff. I do keep annual mutual fund statements for cap gains in case we sell anything. Regular bills and credit card receipts (except for big items/home improvements) get shredded after a year, credit card and bank statements after five years.</p>
<p>Oooh! Just realized I am seeing my youngest sister in a month and I can take all my wedding supply boxes to her since her S is getting married this summer! :D</p>
<p>I’m purging books and comic books (many thousands of the latter). One thing I’m finding is that when you pull all the stuff into one place, and see that you can’t possibly even look at all of this stuff again in your lifetime, and that nobody in your family will ever want it, your philosophy about keeping it all begins to shift.</p>
<p>I’ve been trying to think of a way to sell these comic books that isn’t more trouble than it’s worth. Currently my plan is to donate them to the public library store, which sells them for 75 cents each. That would at least allow me to take a tax deduction for that much. That’s certainly the path of least resistance.</p>
<p>there are$250,$500and$5000 cutoffs that apply to diferent types of donations (cash, property, etc) and the type of <em>documentation</em> required, but there is NO daily limit of any sort.</p>
<p>Just when I think I might hire someone to do our taxes, I come across people saying things like “my tax person says XYZ” and it’s totally WRONG. This is particularly true when it comes to the higher education tax breaks - the AOC, 529s, Form 1098T, etc.,- but clearly quite a few tax preparers are misinformed in other areas as well.</p>
<p>I prefer to read the pertinent IRS Publications and do it myself. Good brain exercise, and I seem to have better reading comprehension skills than a fair number of the tax preparers out there. ;-). (I’m not talking complicated tax shelters or investments or other things that the 1% use, but deductions/credits taken by middle- and upper-middle class folks.)</p>
<p>Just donated two lovely gowns to our local HS for girls to wear for prom. Also donated a futon sofa that converts to a double bed (oak frame). Also have a large box full of clothing to donate in my car trunk (cleaned our my closet and all drawers yesterday). Got a receipt for the futon. I guess I should ask for one for the gowns too, but didn’t. </p>
<p>Happily, the lovely couch we ordered arrived and makes H and me both very happy! Was able to replace peeling Rx glasses at Costco at no charge, thanks to my many, many years of patronage. Was also able to replace failing allergy control barrier with two pillow encasing a, which will be MUCH more useful to us. </p>
<p>Shredded one box of confidential info and disposed of; disposed of another box of non-confidential info. Organized our financial docs for our nonprofit. </p>
<p>H is preparing to donate a working desktop PC to Goodwill. Is it OK to just find a comparable local Craigslistblistingbtomapproximate value? That seems to be easiest and it will likely only be about $300 or so. That is who I also plan to value the other items we donated in the post above–down sleeping bag, gowns, futon couch. Can’t figure out a better valuation. </p>
<p>$.75 for thousands of comics can surely add up to a nice sized donation and deduction–win/win!</p>
<p>I want to report the other good side of all this cleaning out. You know those plastic Rubbermaid bins. I have 10 empty bins and all have lids! (plus one with no lid). Everything I decide to keep will be stored in those nice bins, rather than willy nilly.</p>
<p>Wow, that is absolutely bragging, alh! I am still at the stage of buying more plastic containers for the things I am keeping. . . . although you said “a decade”? In that time frame, I might finally be giving away the containers, too.</p>
<p>I flatly refuse to buy storage containers. We have plenty of closet and storage space in this house, including a great utility room where we have shelves for glassware and dishes, etc. NO bins. I have found that once something gets into a bin, it is totally forgotten!</p>
<p>I have two large empty bags that I will fill this weekend. I’m feeling food about getting rid of things I really don’t use.</p>
<p>My negative feelings about the plastic containers have a lot of do with my hoarding sister who spends a small fortune annually on various storage systems for items that are worth less than the bins she intends (one day very soon) to store them in.</p>
<p>After watching that for more than a decade, I vowed never to store something in a bin that was available for purchase if I ever found I truly “needed” it.</p>
<p>On a more positive note, once the clutter is gone it’s pretty easy to clean house!</p>
<p>Okay guys…WHAT do I do with all of my old kid’s VHS tapes? Not home movies…all the movies (Think Disney / Barney here) that they watched when they were young. Throw them out? Save them? Would any org take as a donation or are they so outdated that nobody wants them…?</p>
<p>ETA. Of course. I asked H, who promptly responded “SAVE THEM!! Of Course save them!!” </p>
I am still at the stage of buying more plastic containers for the things I am keeping. . . . although you said “a decade”? In that time frame, I might finally be giving away the containers, too.</p>