GON Reader Tip #1
Keep Grass and Weeds from Growing in Your Driveway
To keep grass and weeds from growing in my gravel driveway I now use driveway salt. It burns the grass, does not come back, and is much easier and healthier
than using roundup.
--Nancy Austin, Marion, IN
I am a long time reader and I enjoy how you get right to the subject. Your reader comments are always so helpful!
GON Reader Tip #2
Letting Go of Memorabilia
Maria,
I love your positive encouragement. Regarding letting go of memorabilia that we all let pile up in drawers, cabinets, boxes, etc., for a while now I have been on what some would call a "heartless" clean-out of unnecessary chattel. (Why am I keeping this?)
I snap pictures of the items I wish to remember and store them in a file on my computer which I call "Keepsakes." Whenever I go into that file, I can smile and remember the person and the occasion.
-- Mary
Gonzalez
GON Reader Tip #3
What I Do To Avoid Extra
Paperwork
Thinking about filing sparked a realization in me--many people may feel equally perplexed about how to file something, or categorize it, and thus don't
file things.
I have to keep receipts and various records for a business for taxes, and thought I'd share what we do to avoid extra paperwork.
1) We get binder clips and sticky notes in a variety of colors. Anything that comes in during the year that will be needed for taxes gets a sticky note in that year's color stuck on it and it gets filed in
the appropriate category in the file cabinet.
2) After completing our taxes for the year, we gather all the supporting documents in a given category for the year (for example, Bob's medical expenses) and clip them together with a binder clip. Because all the medical expenses for the given tax year have the same color sticky note, it is
easy to spot them quickly in the folder to clip them together.
3) The tax papers, like W2s and 1099s, also get clipped together with the corresponding colored sticky note and the year written in a marker on the
sticky note so we know at a glance that 2021
was green, and 2020 was pink, for example.
4) Any items that get emailed, like our student loan 1099, go into a separate email folder labeled with the year and color (2022 taxes--yellow) so we can
print out easily if needed.
The sticky note system started when we were buying our house because so many random pieces of paper were coming in as we were packing to move, and it made it so easy to identify what needed to be kept at a glance.
-- Christine Buckman
