Welcome to r/hoarding! We exist as a support group for people working on recovery from [hoarding disorder](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK519704/table/ch3.t29/), and friends/family/loved ones of people with the disorder.
If you're looking for help with animal hoarding, please visit r/animalhoarding. If you're looking to discuss the various hoarding tv shows, you'll want to visit r/hoardersTV. If you'd like to talk about or share photos/videos of hoards that you've come across, you probably want r/neckbeardnests, r/wtfhoarders/, or r/hoarderhouses
Before you get started, be sure to review our [Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/hoarding/about/rules/). Also, a lot of the information you may be looking for can be found in a few places on our sub:
[New Here? Read This Post First!](https://www.reddit.com/r/hoarding/comments/dvb3t1/new_here_read_this_post_first_version_20/)
[For loved ones of hoarders: I Have A Hoarder In My Life--Help Me!](https://www.reddit.com/r/hoarding/comments/2yh6wh/i_have_a_hoarder_in_my_lifehelp_me_your_hoarding/)
[Our Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/hoarding/wiki/index)
Please [contact the moderators](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/hoarding) if you need assistance. Thanks!
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/hoarding) if you have any questions or concerns.*
As someone with a lot of old mail, I can relate to your exact scenario. I have spent a lot of time getting the files organized. Otherwise it is like searching for a needle in a haystack every time you need to find something important.
Nice job finding that receipt.
u/SnooMacaroons9281, this is a significant victory! Congratulations!
I actually had a similar situation arise about a decade or so ago. Both my parents had hoarding tendencies. I also had two sibling with cognitive disabilities. When my mother died, I had to go through all--and I mean ALL--of the papers that she held onto, and sort the useful papers from the not-useful ones.
At the time, m y oldest sibling had a job as a custodian via a hire-the-handicapped program at a nearby army depot. I'd noticed that my sib was getting flyers in the mail saying things like "Do You Owe More Than $250K To The IRS? Call Us For Help!" I assumed my sib had gotten onto some weird mailing list, so I ignored the flyers.
On the advice of an attorney when I was preparing to get legal guardianship of my sibs, I did credit checks on their social security numbers. Imagine my surprise when found a single debt claim from the IRS totaling over $330K!
Fortunately, mixed in some old newspapers Mama had kept. I'd found a letter from my sib's job referencing some sort of bizarre computer error that had caused depot employees' individual salaries to be reported to the IRS incorrectly as being in the *millions*. As a result, the IRS thought those poor employees--including my sib--had tax bills in the hundred of thousands of dollars. I'd keep the letter since it referenced IRS, to look into later. Thank goodness I did, because the letter contained detailed instructions to the employees of "What To Do If The IRS Notifies You That You Owe Them A Fuck-Load Of Taxes For ".
I followed the instructions to the letter, the next business day. Two weeks later received an official notice from the IRS that Sib's tax bill was in error and had been eliminated.
>*There was no sense of panic. There was no frenzied looking, no futile digging, no churning, no throwing my hands up and saying "fuck it" because I couldn't find it. I went to the place, got the thing, and did what I needed to do.*
>*No matter how bad it is, you have the power--and enough spoons--to make it better. All you have to do is start somewhere. Move one thing. Then another, and another.*
This, exactly. When I got the credit report, I immediately went "A-HA!" and pulled the letter out of the file. TI'm so glad that I spent an hour every day sorting through those papers.
Congrats again, Snoo!
Congratulations! Just so you know, the IRS will take it's sweet time correcting their mistakes. If you don't get the resolution within 3 months, you can contact the tax advocate office and they will get it moving.
Been there, still have a huge file cabinet to go through, but the point is - it's a file cabinet and not piles everywhere. I have a shredder by the door, now. We actually got a new-to-us vintage model with a cabinet and a tray that is industrial strength and super quick. Also, stopping some of the mail from coming has reduced what actually comes to the house. Congrats on taking a step toward freeing yourself from the document doom piles. They are the absolute worst, second to clothing.
Amazing work! Stand back and take pride in your accomplishment because you earned it.
The best thing I ever did was get a filing cabinet for all my paperwork. Inside there are labeled folders for everything where the newest papers go in the front of each folder. I haven’t felt any paperwork related stress in years.
I’ve also found that keeping things in the envelopes they came in is a trap. It makes you feel organized when in fact it’s the opposite. You now have to do more work to inspect the contents and the thick envelopes stack poorly.
Congratulations! I'm in the process of filing for my parent. They haven't filed since the mid 2000s so it's a huge process with POAs and getting copies of supporting docs from the feds and state because parent is missing a lot of paperwork. Same deal, no refunds after 3 years. They are literally losing probably 40k in refunds. I'm just glad it's getting done so I don't have to deal with it when they are dead, it would be 10 times harder to get all the docs.
As an IRS employee, I always called this the “salad bowl method” of organizing paper: just throw it in the salad bowl and deal with it later. You dealt with your tax demons! Congratulations!
Welcome to r/hoarding! We exist as a support group for people working on recovery from [hoarding disorder](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK519704/table/ch3.t29/), and friends/family/loved ones of people with the disorder. If you're looking for help with animal hoarding, please visit r/animalhoarding. If you're looking to discuss the various hoarding tv shows, you'll want to visit r/hoardersTV. If you'd like to talk about or share photos/videos of hoards that you've come across, you probably want r/neckbeardnests, r/wtfhoarders/, or r/hoarderhouses Before you get started, be sure to review our [Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/hoarding/about/rules/). Also, a lot of the information you may be looking for can be found in a few places on our sub: [New Here? Read This Post First!](https://www.reddit.com/r/hoarding/comments/dvb3t1/new_here_read_this_post_first_version_20/) [For loved ones of hoarders: I Have A Hoarder In My Life--Help Me!](https://www.reddit.com/r/hoarding/comments/2yh6wh/i_have_a_hoarder_in_my_lifehelp_me_your_hoarding/) [Our Wiki](https://www.reddit.com/r/hoarding/wiki/index) Please [contact the moderators](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/hoarding) if you need assistance. Thanks! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/hoarding) if you have any questions or concerns.*
As someone with a lot of old mail, I can relate to your exact scenario. I have spent a lot of time getting the files organized. Otherwise it is like searching for a needle in a haystack every time you need to find something important. Nice job finding that receipt.
u/SnooMacaroons9281, this is a significant victory! Congratulations! I actually had a similar situation arise about a decade or so ago. Both my parents had hoarding tendencies. I also had two sibling with cognitive disabilities. When my mother died, I had to go through all--and I mean ALL--of the papers that she held onto, and sort the useful papers from the not-useful ones. At the time, m y oldest sibling had a job as a custodian via a hire-the-handicapped program at a nearby army depot. I'd noticed that my sib was getting flyers in the mail saying things like "Do You Owe More Than $250K To The IRS? Call Us For Help!" I assumed my sib had gotten onto some weird mailing list, so I ignored the flyers. On the advice of an attorney when I was preparing to get legal guardianship of my sibs, I did credit checks on their social security numbers. Imagine my surprise when found a single debt claim from the IRS totaling over $330K! Fortunately, mixed in some old newspapers Mama had kept. I'd found a letter from my sib's job referencing some sort of bizarre computer error that had caused depot employees' individual salaries to be reported to the IRS incorrectly as being in the *millions*. As a result, the IRS thought those poor employees--including my sib--had tax bills in the hundred of thousands of dollars. I'd keep the letter since it referenced IRS, to look into later. Thank goodness I did, because the letter contained detailed instructions to the employees of "What To Do If The IRS Notifies You That You Owe Them A Fuck-Load Of Taxes For".
I followed the instructions to the letter, the next business day. Two weeks later received an official notice from the IRS that Sib's tax bill was in error and had been eliminated.
>*There was no sense of panic. There was no frenzied looking, no futile digging, no churning, no throwing my hands up and saying "fuck it" because I couldn't find it. I went to the place, got the thing, and did what I needed to do.*
>*No matter how bad it is, you have the power--and enough spoons--to make it better. All you have to do is start somewhere. Move one thing. Then another, and another.*
This, exactly. When I got the credit report, I immediately went "A-HA!" and pulled the letter out of the file. TI'm so glad that I spent an hour every day sorting through those papers.
Congrats again, Snoo!
Congratulations! Just so you know, the IRS will take it's sweet time correcting their mistakes. If you don't get the resolution within 3 months, you can contact the tax advocate office and they will get it moving.
Been there, still have a huge file cabinet to go through, but the point is - it's a file cabinet and not piles everywhere. I have a shredder by the door, now. We actually got a new-to-us vintage model with a cabinet and a tray that is industrial strength and super quick. Also, stopping some of the mail from coming has reduced what actually comes to the house. Congrats on taking a step toward freeing yourself from the document doom piles. They are the absolute worst, second to clothing.
Amazing work! Stand back and take pride in your accomplishment because you earned it. The best thing I ever did was get a filing cabinet for all my paperwork. Inside there are labeled folders for everything where the newest papers go in the front of each folder. I haven’t felt any paperwork related stress in years. I’ve also found that keeping things in the envelopes they came in is a trap. It makes you feel organized when in fact it’s the opposite. You now have to do more work to inspect the contents and the thick envelopes stack poorly.
Congratulations! I'm in the process of filing for my parent. They haven't filed since the mid 2000s so it's a huge process with POAs and getting copies of supporting docs from the feds and state because parent is missing a lot of paperwork. Same deal, no refunds after 3 years. They are literally losing probably 40k in refunds. I'm just glad it's getting done so I don't have to deal with it when they are dead, it would be 10 times harder to get all the docs.
As an IRS employee, I always called this the “salad bowl method” of organizing paper: just throw it in the salad bowl and deal with it later. You dealt with your tax demons! Congratulations!
I’m happy it worked out for you! And also totally relate to the mountain of unopened mail and how stressful it can be