Sunday, June 21, 2009

Why do we keep this crap?!

OMG!!! We started clearing out our home offices today, and are overwhelmed with the amount of extraneous random crap that we found stashed in drawers, filing cabinets and bookcases. Seriously, we found stuff that we didn't even remember what it was or what it went to... but had obviously been packed up for at least one previous move.

We have adapters to upgrade seriously old computer accessories & ports to only vaguely old accessories & ports; and then about 20 various adapters for both to the last generation of the current stuff. Crazy!! About 2000 ft of random length Cat5 cables, RJ6 coaxial cable, and more RJ11 telephone wire than we can shake a stick at. Someone please explain to me why we have about a dozen more AV & component patch cords than we've ever had AV equipment? I swear, they breed in the closet when we're not watching! We paired all the electronics we're keeping with all the cables that go with them, and did the same for all the electronics we're recycling/donating/selling and we still have a milk crate full of random cables and connectors... but we're still missing a few we need. Maybe they fell prey to and were consumed by the AV component cables?!

We ended up with a paper recycle box bigger than the box of files to keep, and our shred box runneth over! I think I can actually take back one whole pack of the portable banker's boxes I bought to hold our files. Why on Earth did we feel it necessary to keep a McDonald's receipt from 2002? Even if we were going to be bold enough to use it as a tax-deductible business expense, why was it in with the equipment instruction booklets? Crazy!! Let's not even get started discussing all the random software booklets that don't have disks and vice versa.

Ugh!! So glad we're going through all this flotsam properly this time around. What crazy, paranoid hoarder gene was at work?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Plickety -
You may want to consider keeping a backup set of cables for the gear you are taking with you.

Murphy's Law says you'll wish you had when your gear has a problem the first time you try to use it! ;-)

Also, in spite of what jerrydon10 said in the forums, I wouldn't keep more than 3-years of back IRS stuff. If they want to track you down in the wilds of Alaska, let 'em try to find you! Like you said, if they don't have paperwork and you don't have paperwork - let 'em try to prove whatever it is that they want!

Sam....

Plickety Cat said...

Hehe Sam, we kept 2 sets of spares for everything and still have a full crate of random stuff to sell.

And I'm keeping all the Tax Returns, but only keeping the supporting docs for 7 years per my CPA. Jerry's even more paranoid and ractionary than I am sometimes LOL!

Anonymous said...

Wow, I didn't realize that Plickety and Gungnir were a couple! Am I dense, or what?

Best wishes to you both!

Christopher Peters