Do you need cash from the car for another purchase or expense? While donating a car comes with tax benefits, you won’t see those benefits until the following tax season, said Mark Scoot, spokesman for AutoTrader.com.

Donate your car if it is a clunker or your goal is simply to get it out of the driveway. Most charities that accept car donations will pick them up within days of your call, Scott said.

If you’re donating your car, make sure you keep a good record of its condition and any evidence you can find for its market value, Soctt said. If you get audited, the Internal Revenue Serivice is going to want you to prove you didn’t inflate the value for the bigger tax break, he said. If your car or boat is worth more than $500, the IRS is going to want to see evidence of how much the charity got for it. (Most charities that accept these donations turn around and sell them for cash.) You’ll need to get a receipt from the charity revealing exactly how much money it made.

You won’t need evidence of the sales price if the charity keeps the vehicle or vessel and uses it in its charitable work, or if your donation is worth less than $500. Then you can report its fair market value based on listings from Kelley Blue Book and similar sources.

You can choose from an extensive list of some of America’s most respected local and national charities such as American Diabetes Association, American Kidney Fund, Cancer Research Institute, American Red Cross, United Way, United Breast Cancer Foundation, Humane Society, SPCA and many others. For a complete list visit http://www.donateacar.com/alphabetical.php

On the site listed above they even offer you a free travel gift and provide the paperwork for you to do take the tax deduction.

Make sure you avoid middlemen. Numerous for-profit intermediary organizations advertise aggressively offering to help you donate your vehicle to charity but they typically keep about 50 percent to 90 percent of the vehicle’s value for themselves.

In order for you to qualify for a deduction, the charity that gets your donation must be an IRS-approved 501(c)(3) organization.

Make sure you formally re-title the vehicle to the charity, and report the transfer to your state’s department of motor vehicles or licensing. Never agree to leave the ownership space on the charity donation papers blank.

Experts advise keeping a thorough paper trail. If your donation is worth more than $500, you’ll have to attach IRS Form 8283 to your tax return. If it’s worth more than $5,000, your documentation must include an outside appraisal. You’ll also need proof of the donation, such as a receipt from the charity and a copy of the title change.

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If books are overcrowding shelf or basket space, it’s time to reassess, says professional organizer Erica Ecker, owner of the organizing company The Spacialist. Did the book change your life? Do you get nostalgic when you see the binding?

Out-of-date paperbacks can go into the mixed paper bin at the recycling center or at curbside if the city or county picks up paper. Some take hardcovers, too, so check.

Sell newer book on sites like Amazon.com or Half.com an eBay company with fixed prices and no listing fees.

If the book is autographed, a first edition or was written by a high-profile author who has passed away, consider listing it on eBay. Half.com sellers can choose to have their listing show up on eBay product pages at no extra cost.

You can also donate books to a charity, such as an organization that promotes literacy, or take them to an independent book seller for money or credit.

Another option is to register your book with BookCrossing.com. Just visit the site, register your book and print out a label to stick inside the book. Then, send it out into the world by leaving it on a park bench, donating it to charity or giving it to a friend. If someone comes across your book, they can visit the site and let you know where it ended up!

You may also want to consider exchanging books with friends. You could simply have a shelf of old books that you don’t want by the door, and encourage your friends to take books that looked interesting. You could also have a book swap party, where everyone brings a box of old books to a central location for the others to look through. After the book swap, box up the remainder of the books and donate them to charity.

Arrange the books you have left on the shelves by category, grouping like with like. For fiction, you can categorize by novels, short stories, plays, and children’s books. Good non fiction categories include reference, biography, history , reilgion, English, arts, science , math, health/medicine, craft/hobbies, travel and photo albums, scrapbooks and yearbooks.

Within each category, alphabetize books by author. Keep heavier books on the bottom shelves and lighter books on the top shelves.

Want to find out how to get cash for clutter read our post on Cash for Clutter

One of the reasons we have clutter is because of the emotional attachments we have to some of our possessions. Some of us are still holding onto the rock our child picked up off the ground and gave us as a “present.” Here are some great solutions to emotional attachment clutter from Womansday magazine:

Think Big – When you’re tempted to keep everything your child brings home, try this visualization exercise – Imagine how the volume of stuff will grow until your child is 18. After picturing the mountain of “child craft” you will be less tempted to save everything and save only the truly worthy.

Scan it – Use a scanner to create digital files of paper ephemera, like letters; toss originals. For bulky items, take digital snapshots and compile into a photobook at blurb.com

Re-purpose favorites - One woman hung onto a beloved maternity dress for 13 years. (Erma Bombeck says if you don’t save at least one box baby clothes you will immediately become pregnant no matter how old you are. I’m sure the same goes for maternity clothes) An organizer suggested the woman frame a swatch of fabric and a few other keepsakes in a shadow box.

I have been saving all my kids t-shirts from activities (camp, band etc.) and plan to have a quilt made by someone other than me (since I don’t sew well) for each of them. You can also make this memory quilt with baby clothes, college sweatshirts etc. The online crafts store Ticche & Bee has a kit you can order if you want to try this yourself (kits run $35.00 and up). Ticche and Bee will also do the sewing for you for an additional cost.

See our sister site Fasthowto.com and see our post on How to File Paperwork Faster

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Remember when we were going to have a paper-less society? Well, there is still a great deal of paper floating around and we still have to deal with it. I came across one organizing system called “Taming the Paper Tiger.” I think that what it was called. So here are some ways put your paper tiger on a diet and tame him too.

Reduce the amount of paper flowing into your home

- Stop junk mail from coming by writing to this address:

Mail Preference Service
Direct Marketing Association
P.O. Box 9008
Farmingdale, N.Y. 11735-900

- Check your magazine subscriptions and make sure you are only subscribing to ones you read on a regular basis. You will save time and money if you eliminate magazines you don’t read anymore.

- Limit credit cards and bank accounts to just one or two. This will limit the number of statements you have to deal with each month and you may save money on fees.

-Go through mail standing by your recycling bin, shredder or trash can and drop junk mail in immediately.

-When you receive a flyer with time sensitive information (ex. date of a school or church function) jot the important information down on your calendar or input into your PDA. Now you can throw away the paper or if you can’t bring yourself to do this at least you can put the paper in a pending file. This way you will have a back up if you can’t locate your calendar.

Have an easy to use filing system

-Make sure your files are roomy. If you have to push and shove to get a piece of paper in, you will not be motivated to file anything.

-Make sure your filing area is easily accessible. If you can’t get to it easily, you will probably put off filing things.

- Make sure you have a place for every category. Stuff from my kids schools goes into a binder that is already filled with page protectors (useful if paper is not hole punched), bills go into to the “To be Paid” file, party invitations go on the fridge etc.

Purge paper on regular basis

- Take five minutes a day to purge files or 30 minutes a week whatever works for you. Set the timer and just work on cleaning files or clearing up a paper mess you see. You may have places in your office or home where paper piles up. When the timer rings – STOP.

- Have a box for papers you can’t decide about. If your just not sure if you still need it, put papers in a cardboard storage box and store them in an out of the way place.

- When you see paper just floating around, pick it up and put it in a one location. That way it is contained and you can deal with it all at once.

- Clean out your purse once a week or least once a month. I find a lot of stray papers floating around in mine.

- Have a specific file for receipts you might need to keep and clean it out once a month. Receipts will probably go into to your tax or medical file or be thrown away.

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1. Buying the supplies will get you organized - Don’t assume if buy organizing supplies such as containers, file folders, binders etc. you will be instantly more organized. To quote an old saying “You are putting the cart before the horse.” First rule of organizing is to go through the area you want to organize and get rid of the things you don’t need or want anymore. Once you do this you will know what organizing supplies you will need to purchase.

2. Multi-tasking – Studies have shown that multi-tasking is not efficient. What happens is you lose time because you have to keep readjusting your focus. Set time limits for your tasks if you have trouble sticking to one thing.

3. Assuming a store bought organizing system will work you – Everyone’s brain works differently. What works for me may not work for you. Personally, I like a paper calender book but I know people that would die without their electronic organizer. Sometimes you have to try different things until you find what works for you.

4. Telling yourself your just an unorganized person and nothing will help - Everyone can achieve some degree of organization. We may not be all have perfectly organized homes but we can do small things to change some of our habits. Remembering to put your keys and cell phone in the same place when you come home is a step toward being organized. Remembering to empty your deleted items file in your email is a step toward being organized. Small steps…

5. Getting organized means getting rid of things you love - If something has value to you, even if it is only sentimental value, you don’t have to throw it away. I consider myself fairly organized and I still have some stuffed animals that belonged to my son (he’s in college). They are tucked away in a bin in his closet. Getting organized means changing some habits so that your life will run smoother not throwing away everything that isn’t current or useful.

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on How To File Paperwork Faster

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