YEAR END ORGANIZING

Another year is coming to a close and a new year is looming ahead.

There are a number of things that you can do now to get ready for next year.

Donations:
Go through your closet and the rest of your home and get rid of anything that you have not used all year or anything that you have outgrown (clothes, toys….) or anything that you just don’t want anymore. Take your items to a donation center (such as Goodwill or your church…..) and be sure to get a donation slip so that you can deduct it off of your taxes. It’s a win-win situation. You give things that you no longer use to someone who can use it and you get a tax deduction.

Get Ready for Next Years Taxes:
As the year winds down start thinking about the year end process of cleaning out your files and establishing new files for next year. Make sure that you have the needed supplies (folders & envelopes….) to store the past years information.

Getting ready for taxes can be painless if you’ve kept track of things throughout the year. If not, now is the time to start making your lists and spreadsheets so that you can start fresh next year .

You don’t need to wait for January to start copying all of your spreadsheets and lists and anything else and labeling them with “2010”. If you have Excel spreadsheets for your expenses or donations it’s a simple process to copy them and then blank out the 2009 data. You will be one step closer to being organized for 2010.

Once you have paid your last bills for 2009 you can pull everything out of your files and put them into envelopes with the appropriate labels. For example: have an envelope labeled “Household Expenses – 2009” and include your gas, electric, water, phone, cable….bills. Have another envelope labeled “Bank & Credit Card Info – 2009” and include all of your bank statements, checks, credit card statements….

These are just some examples of ways to organize and store your information.

Have an envelope all ready for your accountant labeled “Tax Info for Accountant” and as you get your W2’s and your year end financial statements and anything else that you usually give to your accountant immediately put it into your envelope. That way you won’t need to search for it when you are ready to do your taxes.

By starting to at least think about this before year end and leaving yourself time to get things organized at a pace that’s comfortable for you ….you won’t be stressed out come tax time.

Calendar:
Now is the time to transfer all repetitive events to next year’s calendar. Birthdays, anniversaries, meetings, doctors appointments….

Keep one main calendar that has the entire families schedule on it so that you can see everything at a glance instead of having to go to each person’s calendar.

Make notations on your calendar for reminders, such as scheduling all of your yearly check-ups, dental appointments, kid’s physicals….. Depending on your doctors scheduling policy I usually put a reminder note at least 3 – 4 months in advance so that I can book my appointments early (and get them at a time that’s convenient for me).


By thinking ahead for next year you can avoid the New Year organizing rush.

Happy Organizing !


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