Recyclables

[AngelinaCatHub]

epiphany, I'm sorry you are being audited. Here is what I am doing with all the records for my bk as well as all the communications. Scan them into you pc. Then shred them (if practical).

I once played at "skip tracing" and we were looking for a party that we needed to locate. With the owners permission, we stayed at their just vacated apartment. I put a sheet on the floor and dumped their garbage can onto it. Within ten minutes I not only found where they went, a map to it, but all their bank account numbers, where they last worked, who they knew locally, and phone numbers galore. All from one bag of garbage.

On the way home from the "project", we went by the address left in the garbage and yes, there they were unloading their car into their new place. It is remarkably easy to capture someone’s info especially on the Internet. Public Records are a source for SS numbers. Until recently, they were not blacked out and many records such as Deeds had SS on them. NO......I have never used this info for anything other than legal. 'Hub

[Cali]

I would never shred anything I know I might need later on, like the last 10 yrs of tax returns.

By everything, I hope you don't mean everything. My 2005 and 2006 returns are now beng audited by the IRS..while I am pretty good about keeping records, I am not so good at finding them

However, I never tossed them or shredded them so everything is here somewhere.. You can't believe the stuff they want, and you just never know.

ep

[mgmadara]

Scan them into you pc. Then shred them (if practical).

This is not a good idea unless you do regular backups of your hard drive to several different places, are very protected from hackers or you use a PC that is not connected to the internet, and are absolutely positive your computer will never be stolen. I'd be more inclined to get a safe deposit box at a bank and store important paperwork there.

[Cali]

All my important stuff is in a safety deposit box.

[PaKettle]

This is not a good idea unless you do regular backups of your hard drive to several different places, are very protected from hackers or you use a PC that is not connected to the internet, and are absolutely positive your computer will never be stolen. I'd be more inclined to get a safe deposit box at a bank and store important paperwork there.

It's a good idea to back up data (documents and photos (and maybe music)) to a couple cd's and/or dvd's.

I also started using carbonite.com recently and so far it seems like a fairly good service for $50/year. (They back up all documents and photos on your C drive). However, their regular customer service (non-premium) is so bad that I almost cancelled my account. I was on hold 15 min and never got an answer. Finally found out how to resolve my issue by digging through their FAQ online. Not sure if their premium $20/year cust. service is better or not because I ain't paying it.

I'm also concerned that they might be like the cable co. and as soon as they get tons of subscribers "hooked" on their system, then they'll start raising the price every year until you're paying like twice what it started out as.

On my system my docs and photos are running about 8 gigs. I could easily back this up onto 2 dvd's, so I'm not sure carbonite is really worth the money. However, if I could back up my 200gigs of music, it might be worth it. There is a way to do this, with them, I believe, but it is not exactly "kosher" and I'm not sure one can get away with it, though they DO advertise "unlimited back up".

[AngelinaCat]

We do weekly 'father-son' backups in several different places, as well as a portable hard drive that is kept off site. We had to give up our safety deposit box because it had gotten so expensive.

[BigJohn]

Everytime I catch somebody going thru my garbage I tell them I have a peanut butter sandwich in there and it is mine.
When the city has a day for big junk, I sit the junk out by the road a few days before pick up. When the city picks the junk up, there is no junk.

[AngelinaCat]

Our county has pick-up once a week. Small stuff like batteries, or old computer monitors, that aren't picked up by someone who thinks they can use them, may or may not be picked up by the county service. If it isn't, we have to make special arrangements to have someone drive 20 miles to and from the landfill to pick up our stuff--we get to pay for this--or, we drive the stuff into the landfill ourselves--same mileage, our gasoline plus tipping fees. We are glad when someone takes what we set out.

I should also add that we live at the end of an 800 ft. long lane that has a locked gate at the road, and the garbage, recycle containers, etc., are not put out until the night before the day of the scheduled pick-up.

Anything that we can take to the scrap yard for a few dollars we do. We save up our aluminum cans, and any other scrap metal that we can then do a ‘can run’ and get a few dollars.

[Cali]

My house was like the gold mine house for stuff. I used to watch people take my big items. I had a few ask if they could have it.

Everytime I catch somebody going thru my garbage I tell them I have a peanut butter sandwich in there and it is mine.
When the city has a day for big junk, I sit the junk out by the road a few days before pick up. When the city picks the junk up, there is no junk.

[AngelinaCat]

Hi BigJohn and Cali:

Here, in our county, our Property Taxes pay for the garbage / recyclable pickup once a week. That is all. Anything extra WE must PAY for.

Actually, the recyclables are only picked up every two weeks. You would think that we could recycle glass and paper here, but no. Glass, we have to carry in to one specific destination, and paper must be carried to another.

Guess what? The paper gets shredded and burned in our yard, and the glass gets thrown into the general garbage for our Property Taxes to pick up and process.

Pleaassseee…. understand that we are some of the most recycle friendly people around. I was secretary for more than two years for the local recycling education group. It’s the county fathers and funding matters that actually killed any real recycling effort in our county. This is a Political non-funded effort set out many years ago, and what we are seeing is the ‘token’ effort to comply.

[AngelinaCat]

I hope it's not too long a time gone by to add to this thread: I thought anyone interested might like to know that last night the local Baptist Church (closest to us) had their outdoor A/C unit vandelized for the copper tubing. A couple of weeks ago it was the Women's Club and the AMVET Lodge across the street. So far, there are no real clues as to the culprits.

[Cali]

Now that is just wrong.

I hope it's not too long a time gone by to add to this thread: I thought anyone interested might like to know that last night the local Baptist Church (closest to us) had their outdoor A/C unit vandelized for the copper tubing. A couple of weeks ago it was the Women's Club and the AMVET Lodge across the street. So far, there are no real clues as to the culprits.

[AngelinaCat]

Yep, it's the charitable entities that are being hit.

[Flamingo]

Big article in today's paper about how people are dumpster diving all the recycle bins for public recycling and getting the aluminum cans, newspaper and cardboard because of high returns now on those recyclables (the newspaper and cardboard is in high demand by China and other overseas counties hungry for paper and the ever increasing need). Video cameras are now being installed at the recycle locations in our area due to many complaints. Also, in our area you have to pay for the state to come get recyclables at your house (they provide the rolling bins) or your trash collector, for an extra fee also, will provide bins for your recyclables. Now the curb dumpster divers are increasing taking all your valuable recyclables out of your bins on the curb the night or early morning before pickup, taking what you pay the state to haul away for you.

Backyard sheds are increasingly being broken into and anything metal taken. A new law had to be enacted requiring salvage yards to hold items for 10 days in the event they were stolen and photo IDs and and other identification and proof of ownership of the recycled materials is now required if taken to a salvage yard.

Things are becoming bad out there as more people scarf the dredges for any cash they can find, and theft for that cash is increasing.

[FLBK7]

Most sociologists will tell you that crime inevitably increases as the economy begins to decline. This is why in these times of heavy budget cuts and personnel reductions, most areas in the country are sparing their police force from layoffs.