Professional Organizing in Madison, Wisconsin

     Have you been bitten by the Spring Cleaning bug?  I know I have!  This time of year, just as the trees and the grass are renewed, I get the urge to clean out and renew my home.  I open up all the windows and start a fury of cleaning.  Well, actually not just cleaning, but also purging.  This is the time for fresh starts - out with the old and in with the new.  Or better yet, out with the old and in with NOTHING - just some fresh breathing room!  So what do you do with all your unwanted treasures?  You have a few choices - you can throw them in the trash, you can recycle them, you can have a yard sale, you can give them to friends or family, or you could donate them to a locat charity (which happens to be my personal favorite.)

     Donating your gently used, unwanted treasures to a local charity serves so many purposes: 

1. It is an added tax benefit if you itemize deductions on your taxes.
2. It helps you free up much needed space and breathing room.
3. By freeing up the space, you can more fully enjoy and be grateful for the treasures you keep.
4. It helps the environment by reusing unwanted treasures instead of placing them in the landfill.
5. It helps someone else who will use your unwanted treasures and be grateful for them. 
6. By learning to let go of excess material goods we can learn to place our values on relationships instead of things.
7. Find out how your donations can have a direct impact on the community at: http://donate.goodwill.org/ 

    If you decide to donate to a local charity, how do you keep track of what you donate?  How do you know how much it's worth?  Will you be able to prove you donated it if you are audited?  That's where this iphone app has helped save me lots of time and headahces.  Check it out here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/idonatedit/id341013253?mt=8

     This is how it works:  First, I choose a donation location.  Then, I add items that I am donating by choosing from a list of categories.  The application automatically figures out how much it is worth and about how much of a tax savings it will be for me.  When I am done adding in the items that I am donating, I can take a picture of the donation for the record as well.  That's it!

     To store the information so it's ready for tax time, I e-mail the report and picture to myself (with one click) and I take the receipt from the charity and scan it into my computer.  Now I have all the information ready to go for next April 15: donation receipt, value list, and picture.

     What's your favorite way of purging unwanted goods?  I'd love to hear some stories!

Joyfully,

Dannie