A taxing time

Clean-the-shop day can be a difficult time. There are so many things in there that I use so often, I don't want to put them away to the point where it's time-consuming to get them back out for use.

In cleaning yesterday, I noticed that just the tools and supplies I bought last year alone could keep me busy tidying up for days, let alone the stuff that I've had for years. There's that dado set I got just before Christmas. A half-dozen new 36" clamps from November. In the lumber rack I still have some 60 board feet of cherry I got in the fall. On the power-tool side, I still haven't found a place for the 23-gauge pin nailer from last summer, or the heat gun I bought when I was building my storage shed.

The thing of it is, is that I really need to get the shop in order before beginning on a new book, and in between the shop cleaning and the all of that I need to finish my 2008 taxes in time for April 15th. Doing the taxes has been difficult, with a lot of paperwork. Fortunately, I'm almost done. In fact, all I have to do now is the itemized deductions part and then I'm finished.

Fortunately, since being a freelance writer is considered a small business by the IRS, I can deduct shop stuff that I use in my work. In many cases, if I buy something with the intent of writing about it, then get that writing published somewhere – like, say, on a blog – and it's deductible.

So, let's see, what have I written about? Well, there's that dado set, half-dozen clamps, 60 bf of cherry, a pin nailer, heat gun, storage shed …

Till next time,

A.J.