donated your goods: what now?

Yeeeahhhh....nothing at ALL fancy about this. 

Here is how I do it, the Bovagoods way.

Grab a binder.

 {Does my Tolix chair make the binder seem a bit more exciting?}

Fill your binder with some notebook paper and keep a pen or pencil nearby it at all times.

Keep your binder in a convenient place. Mine resides in my sewing room which seems to be the dumping ground for anything and everything unwanted. When I am working on my 40 bags, it goes where I go. 

Every single time you put something in a box or bag to give away...

...Write. It. Down...NOW. Not later. Got it?

And while you are at it, jot down the value. (See below for helpful links if you need suggestions for valuation.)

 {See my hash marks at the top? That's how I keep track of my bags, for my 40 bags project. Every time I tie up a trash bag I mark it on the top of the page.}

If you wait until tax time to value everything the task will seem daunting. I had 3 sheets back and front full of donations this year...I am so glad I priced as I went.

Don't stress about the value of the items. Basically, I glanced over the Goodwill Donation Valuation Guide (see below) to get an idea of the value of certain items: shoes, pants, kitchen items, etc. and now I have an idea and I just make my best guess. This system has to be simple or you won't follow through with it.

When tax time rolls around and your husband says, "Hey do you have all the information for the donations for this year?"  

This is what you do:

1. Grab your binder, a pencil, a calculator, and set aside 5 minutes. (This could be more or less depending on your math calculator skills.)

2. Add up each page and write that number at the bottom of the page.

3. Add the totals from each page together and write that big final number on the front page and circle it. (Pat yourself on the back for donating so much, blessing others with your unwanted items, and actually logging it so you can get a few bucks back. Yeah!)

4. Locate the receipts that the donation center gave you when you gave them your items. (We keep these in a file folder labeled, "2011 Tax Donations".)  (Other suggestions might be: bottom of your purse, wallet, glove compartment of your car, under the rug in your car along with 52 stale french fries, etc.)

5. Staple the above receipts to the pages from the notebook.

Celebrate! You are finished. Now hand it all over to the really smart tax person who will do whatever it is they do with all that information.

{By the way, I am NOT a really smart tax person. This is simply a suggestion...a method that works for us and that our really smart tax person says is OK.}

Now go find your binder and get started for 2012!

xoxo,

Elisabeth

Helpful Resources

Goodwill

Salvation Army

Donation Guide 


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