My First Decluttering Project for This New Year

 

My First Decluttering Project of the New Year Awaits

Yes, I have to deal with all that paper and a couple more stacks of it. Somewhere in this room sits the envelope with my husband's 2021 Medical ID card. I asked him to put it in his wallet when it first came a month ago, but he didn't want to do that. So he asked me to keep it until now. 

Now is here and I can't remember if I filed it or if it's in one of my to-to-be-filed stacks. I need to start sorting for filing 2020 taxes anyway, so I guess I'd better stop procrastinating and start sorting. 

I'm a bit bummed out that my favorite tax receipt organizer seems to be unavailable this year. The substitute I bought last year because it was cheaper didn't meet my needs very well. I found the one I liked on another site last week but I had to order a dozen at once to get them. So I did. I figured it was as cheap as buying three of the other options I've seen. This week the company notified me they were refunding my money. Guess even that package of a dozen was gone. 

 I want something I can keep on my desk organizer I bought last year. I put the folder with the open end up in the top of the organizer so I can just slip papers in as I sort them. You can see my organizer, along with some of the paper I need to file, below.

My Loaded Desk Organizer in Use, © Barbara Radisavljevic

Here's how  it looked just after I assembled it and  before I filled it up. Even I managed to assemble it without calling Hubby for help. Now it's one of the most useful items I own.

My Newly-Assembled Desk Organizer, © Barbara Radisavljevic

I knew you'd want one, too, but I'm not sure if my exact model is still available. I got it at Costco in September of 2019. I don't see it on the Costco website now. I didn't see this  exact model with the drawers anywhere on line. But you can find something very close at Amazon.  

Click here to find this product on Amazon with photos of all its component parts.

               

I can't find a tax deduction organizer that I like anywhere this year, either. Amazon is totally out of stock on anything similar. So I'm doing what I should have done in the first place. I just emptied out my Dome Tax Deductions File from 1998. That's well past the seven years I need to keep receipts. It's still sturdy and will do the job. I don't need anything but the pockets with categories. 

Meanwhile I'd better finish this and post it. I still haven't looked for the ID Card as I'd planned and it's almost time for our family Zoom meeting. I'll have to look for the medical ID card after that. The Zoom meeting is one good thing that's come out of the pandemic. I wouldn't miss seeing how much my eight-month-old grandniece has grown since last week for anything. 

Hope your new year is off to a more exciting start than mine. Hope you stay happy and healthy in 2021.        

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Best Photo of 2020 That Reflects the past as It Looks to the Future

Circle of Life Sculpture, Charolais Corridor Trail, © Barbara Radisavljevic, 2020

 Is this the best photo I took in 2020? It's the best one to show the contrast between past and the future I hope for in 2021. It features Robert Roemisch's metal sculpture, "Circle of Life" which you can find at the beginning of the Charolais Corridor Trail in Paso Robles. That trail happens to be behind the tract where I live, so I walk it often, usually in the late afternoon or as the sun is setting. 

You can see in the sculpture that life goes on. The dark cloud of 2020 with all its storms seems to be disappearing into the horizon and leaving the sky above it clear and blue. I hope this will be the case. I hope some of the conflict and death that marked 2020 will be replaced with seeing what we have in common, the end of the pandemic, and a return to normal life. 

That being said, those things aren't under our control. We control only our own thoughts and the  actions that spring from them. Whatever is ahead, I will trust God to bring good out of it. I will pray my leaders will be wise in their decisions and seek divine wisdom. I will try to do what's right with what I have and in the way I treat people. All that God requires of me and others is to do justly, love mercy, and to walk humbly with Him. (Micah 6:8) And that's what I want to do. 

Let's all walk courageously into 2021 and see what awaits us. 

In case you're wondering, the most popular post on this blog in 2020 of the six I wrote was this one: Spring Begins with Wet Sidewalks and Gray Clouds. 

This blog is part of the City Daily Photo Blogger Network. See what other members considered their best photo of 2020, the theme for this January.