I’ve already donated a car this year, it sold at auction for $3,000 (which, BTW was less than the estimated repair cost for it to run again – which is why we donated it).  I’ve been working on de-cluttering the house.  I got rid of a bunch of books (4 IKEA full-size bookcases worth actually) earlier this year, and now I’m going through my guest room closet getting rid of all the clothes “I might fit into someday” – from about 10 years ago.  They’re not out of (my) style, they just don’t fit or I haven’t worn them in the last two years – so they’re going.

Last month, I went through and donated all of my maternity clothes, and all of Daughter Person’s clothes that didn’t sell at yard sale.  That was still about 5 trash bags worth of clothes.

This month, I’ve been attacking the guest room closet.  I put *all* of my clothes down there last summer – and brought clothes up to my closet as I wore them.  So, if one year later, they’re still in the guest room closet – I’m obviously not wearing them.  There are a few exceptions – dressy clothes, which I hate to wear, but I do occasionally need.  So as long as they still fit, I’m keeping them – really those are the ones that I wish I could get rid of the most, but most people frown on wearing jeans to a wedding or other “dressy” occasion :(.

I’ve run into a bit of a “problem” though, and I don’t know what I want to do about it.  There’s a $5,000 “threshold” on total like donations throughout the year – I say “threshold”, since you can donate more than $5,000, but you have to have extra documentation and appraisals.  I’m using Its Deductible to come up with the fair market value for things, and I’ve reached $1,981 on the estimated value.  That plus the car at $3,000 puts me really close to the $5,000 threshold (I think – I need to call my accountant).  And I haven’t finished going through the closet yet.

So, do I donate more than the $2,000 and deal with the IRS requirements, or just leave those things in boxes until next year?  I can still make donations in money since that’s a different kind of donation (and the car might be a different kind too, checking on that), but I really don’t want to deal with all of the IRS red tape of > $5,000 donations.  Although, I’d rather deal with the IRS than freecycle/craigslist/etc, so maybe it’s just time to suck it up and fill out more paperwork.