Creatrope

A spot check among friends showed this this handy technique was not nearly so common or well known as I thought, so I thought I’d share it.
Getting reimbursed for business expenses is ‘found’ money and a lot of people don’t do it very well or don’t take it seriously enough. If you’re in the 35% tax bracket and the company owes you $100, you have to earn $153 just to make that up if you forget to get reimbursed!

This hack went a long way to getting reimbursement for 100% of my expenses in a timely manner.

My company seems reluctant to issue corporate-billed credit cards even for items and travel that are reimbursable. When I had this at previous companies, it made expense reporting a snap. For some time, I reluctantly mixed my business and personal expenses on the same card, but never liked this. I’d sometimes miss transactions, or some would take a long time to appear, and sometimes I was genuine unsure whether it was reimbursable a month after the fact. Being extraordinarily conservative in this matter, I would not claim them.

Then it struck me one day after getting the usual inundation of credit card offers in the mail. There was no reason why I should not have a separate credit card and use it exclusively for reimbursable business expenses. When it comes time to pay that bill (which I still must pay on my own, and in a timely manner), I know that 100% of the items on it need to be claimed. I kept this copy handy and if necessary can check it off as reimbursements arrive from the company.

An extra benefit arises if a receipt is missing. First, you know that you still have a valid claim, second, if you’re a bit privacy-oriented as I am, you don’t need to submit the entire personal credit card statement - just your business credit card statement .

Clearly, to maximize the organizational benefit of this, you need to put everything reimbursable on this card (and not use your personal card or cash).
If you keep a separate company phone or use your phone predominantly for business, consider assigning the charges for your phone to this card as well.

I don’t claim enough expenses where I’d pay to get a second card with benefits (like frequent flier miles). One of the freebie cards works well enough.
This strategy might also make some sense even if your expenses are not reimbursable.  Depending on your tax situation, you might be able to claim these business expenses, and having them on a separate statement might still be convenient.

There’s no reason why this method couldn’t be extended to other types of expenses that you want to ‘bin’ - landlord, home improvement, etc. Just remember to pay them all!

I’m a big fan of these shoe box size Rubbermaid 6.5qt plastic boxes. Per volume, they are more cost effective than most bigger boxes - probably because of the quantity and demand for them versus the odder larger sizes.

I made a big dent in organization and productivity by moving items out of larger boxes into these boxes and labelling them properly.

This particular brand is well made, but a little tough to open especially with one hand if you’re trying to get something in. They do snap shut with authority. I thinkthis a much more flexible solution than the ‘built-in’ units or pre-stacked units as it’s convenient to reorder or stack them, pull one out to sort the contents or work in a different area of the house, replace them with larger sizes as your needs change. Having a label maker is handy too. The plastic labels stick a bit better than the paper.

Getting a little space back from an overflowing book collection doesn’t mean you need to compromise on the usefulness or enjoyment o f your book collection. In Guilt-Free Book Collection Trimming I’ve collected a bunch of tips to help you review your library of books and decide what’s worth keeping and what’s not.

As a seasoned software developer, we often do beta tests to launch software that is almost ready but perhaps still has a few rough edges. Many complex systems use this idea. The idea is to set the expectation with the customers that things may not be quite perfect yet, expect some surprises.

However, I was surprised while visiting IKEA this weekend, that they decided they needed to take this cautious step with a hanging planter:

Not just the planter - apparently various saucers and plant pots are in an equally
risky state.

This is a small thing, but I’ve found it helpful. I’ve encouraged you to toss a lot of stuff, but if you can avoid it ending up in a landfill, it’s definitely worth some extra effort.

My kitchen is neatly sorted out with recycling and non-recycling wastebaskets, but it only occurred to me recently that this would be a timesaver to have in every room.

I thought about making a ‘dual wastebasket’ or buying one of those ‘multiple basket’ things, but this seemed so much simpler. The combined unit is nice, so if you have the space, you might consider it in the kitchen, at least:

I put two wastebaskets in all the areas that used to have a single wastebasket. Recycling goes into one and non-recycling in the other. They are not necessarily emptied at the same time, and it’s amazing how much more ends up in recycling when you don’t have to walk to another room.

It’s much more sanitary/pleasant/safer than trying to divide it out again as you are throwing it away. The third wastebasket for glass (assuming your service asks you to separate it) may or may not be worthwhile. I don’t think i t is.

They don’t necessarily need to match, but it doesn’t hurt.

Here’s Amazon’s selection of wastebaskets.

I got some good feedback on on the ceiling mounted kids gym so I’d thought I’d show you this Indoor Kids Playhouse

During dicey weather, this lets the kids burn off a little energy or have a quiet spot indoors to read or hang-out. Nothing to put away, and nothing to clean-up! A good decluttering project…

Here’s a plan of attack to assault the castle of clutter that is the child’s toy collection:

Become a Toy Declutter Ninja.

Feeling indecisive about what to attack first?

Make a declutter decision maker see what fate has to say about it. Perhaps it will let you off easy, you don’t know unless you try!

As you settle back in the chair after a multi-hour decluttering session you realize that the ‘outbox’ - things to be garbaged/donated/recycled is pretty darn small.

You’ve just spent your afternoon in the classic situation of orbiting around decluttering and instead just Moved Stuff Around. I’ve done that more than a few times…

Don’t get me wrong - getting things in the right place is a big step toward home organization, and it can achieve good results if used judiciously. But if you’re like most people, the real gains and satisfaction are only gotten by the physical removal of items from the house.

The great thing about focusing on removal versus moving stuff around is that it is far more virtuous: It puts you one step closer to Living Simple, makes that that next decluttering phase easier, and you don’t waste your time and effort cleaning/shelving/organizing items that you probably shouldn’t have in the first place.

Food for thought: the next time you get a head of steam to declutter and find yourself moving an item from one room to another, stop for a moment and consider whether you really love it, you really need it, it improves your life or has a good possibility of doing so in the near future - and if not - perhaps tossing it into the donation bin is the right solution.

Decluttering isn’t just about stuff in the closets, the floor or the garage. Sometimes the clutter is right in front of you.

When I used to do a semi-professional magic act, an old friend who was a professional told me that the best way to improve your magic act was to remove your worst effect (non-magicians call them ‘tricks’).

Decluttering walls to improve the look of a gallery of photos or wall-hangings is worth considering. Perhaps removing your worst or least favorite item is the best way to improve it?

If so you might find yourself a bit puzzled on how to remove the drywall anchors.

I’ve written about one way that worked for me in Decluttering Walls: Removing Drywall Anchors