Comments on: Time for a Quick Clean Up

By: tlily

tlily — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 17:23:49 +0000

I was all motivated by this blog to start my spring cleaning, took this afternoon (Friday) off to get started and it dumped a couple inches of snow on us and covered up all of the budding trees and blooming crocus! (This is Victoria, not a regular occurrence). I am not feeling all that motivated anymore. Sigh. Maybe I’ll just do my taxes to get started.

By: Cas

Cas — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 23:45:48 +0000

@Kat: Thanks. That’s the way I was thinking, it’s nice to get that confirmed.

Definitely got to get moving on that paperwork though. I have a lot of old insurance documents, bills, etc. that I have to get rid of.

@ Janet: I found my old pay-stubs from K-Mart… it really is amazing to see where my salary is at now, and think that if I had foreseen my future paycheques at that point, that I would have thought that I was going to be rich! SO not! LOL!

FYI: for those of you shredding documents all at once, careful it doesn’t overheat Mine always shuts down for awhile because I save up too much to do at one time

By: Kat

Kat — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 17:56:01 +0000

@Cas — I just talked with an accountant about paystubs because I never keep any. I make sure that my T4 is correct (it’s easy because I’m salary) and that’s it. She told me that there is no reason to keep a paystub, although financial institutions want to see your most recent stub if you are applying for credit. There is no reason for paystubs for tax reasons — if the T4 is accurate, it’s all you need.

For knowing what you’re netting — might help when you’re budgeting.

By: Cas

Cas — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 16:53:13 +0000

Hard to keep pay-stubs when they are online… and I don’t really want to use my ink and paper to print them out, the point being that this was supposed to save paper. I am going to assume that my T4’s are the things that I really need to save? I usually also print out my last paycheque of every year, to compare the cumulative numbers with the T4 — is that good enough?

By: Janet

Janet — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:07:35 +0000

I have kept the last paystub of each year since I started working. It is fun to look through the years & see how my starting wage of $2.50 per hour has increased over 35 years of working

By: Monica

Monica — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 02:25:26 +0000

Decluttering is very cleansing…of your home and your mind. Decluttering finances is even better! Shred even those ATM receipts!

By: SimpleSavings

SimpleSavings — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:14:45 +0000

I guess financially I’m ahead of the game because when I started on the Gail Program I went through all my files and shredded tons! Plus I do my taxes as soon as I get my T4 slip because I want to earn the interest on my return rather than let the government do so…

On the home front my daughter and I have a great understanding. A couple times a year she goes through everything in her room and toybox and makes 3 piles: keep, toss and give away. She really gets into it and usually ends up with about 1/2 of the stuff she started out with. We then make a trip to VV Boutique (Value Village) and she helps me unload it all. We then go inside and she gets to choose 1 toy to take home as a reward

By: Tara

Tara — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 19:13:59 +0000

I declutter at tax time too – shred old documents, rebalance my stock portfolio, redo my yearly budget. So far I’m on track and doing well, thanks to Gail’s regular encouragement.

Have a great vacation!

By: Dawn

Dawn — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:57:15 +0000

Some great blogs on the topic of simplifying and minimalism are zen habits and mnmlist. Both are by Leo
Gail has mentioned them on this site before and when I checked them out I found them very inspiring.
I got rid of piles and piles of stuff that I never use over the last couple months, and I feel great for doing it!

By: Catherine

Catherine — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:53:47 +0000

As always, great tips Gail!
Enjoy your March Break with Alex and Malcolm.
Safe travel!

By: Dawn

Dawn — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:35:21 +0000

@Manisha – There is actually a 2 year statute of limitations to start a claim on a car accident. If it’s an on-going case however I would keep all records from the time of the accident

By: Cassie

Cassie — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:21:19 +0000

I look forward to spring cleaning every year! Does this make me weird?

By: Manisha

Manisha — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:47:09 +0000

RE: insurance documents. I’d recommend holding on to them for four years.(industry standard) The reasoning behind this is that claims can be brought against you after the term has expired, but the policy in effect at the time of loss would be the one that pays out. Your policy is your proof of coverage. (Particularily for car insurance policies where injury claims can take years to close.) Its also helps if you are writing off part of your home/car insurance costs as business expenses.

By: tlily

tlily — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:38:55 +0000

And this book also had a section on organizing/decluttering your finances.

By: tlily

tlily — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 17:37:12 +0000

Slightly off the topic of finances; I once borrowed a book from the library called something like “Uncluttering your life for Dummies” or “Organize your life for Dummies” and it was terrific – simple and straightforward.

We had a borderline hoarding situation because we were broke students for a long time and did not like to give anything up. One of the hard parts about decluttering is letting go of things – and I found that one way to make it easier was instead of tossing stuff in the dumpster, if we could give them to the Salvation Army or Big Brothers and Sisters, then it felt like we were being generous. This book helped us make various piles: to keep (and use), to fix, to throw away, to give away, to recycle. Big turning point in my life.

As a side note, the book suggested doing these things in marathon sessions, rather than 1/2 hour per day if you can manage it. This is because as you get tired of organizing, you tend to throw more things in the trash/give away piles (which is what you want). This works for me, but obviously not everyone.

Now that I think about it, it’s time to go through this exercise again as junk has been building up …