Expert Tips For Home Organizing On A Budget

Do you ever fall into the trap of thinking that if you just find the perfect organizing product, your life will suddenly fall into order? Often folks think that to create an organized life and home, you have to spend hours researching products on Pinterest and Amazon, or that getting organized requires an investment in specialty products. NOT SO! Budget organizing can keep your pocketbook and your spaces happy!

Buying products for organizing is the easy part. The real work of organizing is taking the time to sort through the objects in your home and arranging them in ways that make them easy to store and find. So before you purchase any products, whether budget or luxury, mindfully sort and declutter!

In this post, we share easy home organizing ideas and expert tips on how to organize on a budget by:

• Repurposing containers that you already have
• Finding used items locally
• Budget shopping

Repurposing common household containers is something that our thrifty ancestors did regularly before today’s era of abundance. Millennials are re-popularizing this practice, sometimes out of necessity and sometimes out of respect for Mother Earth.

The kitchen is a great place to find free or inexpensive containers to repurpose for many uses throughout the home. Empty jars, cans, and boxes from food products can be cleaned out and used as clever storage containers.

Need a utensil holder? You can use a vase, a piece of pottery or a metal or plastic can or jar to hold spatulas and other large utensils next to your stove.

First a pottery vase, then a metal can, then a plastic gelato jar!

(Feel like you have too many kitchen utensils? Learn how our client cleverly decluttered her kitchen supplies using “cozy minimalism!”)

How to Create a Joyful, Warm Minimalist Lifestyle

Cardboard boxes from previous purchases can easily be used to create storage in attics, garages, basements, and the tops of closets.

“How to Create a Joyful, Warm Minimalist Lifestyle” — Mindful Decluttering & Organizing

Be sure to label closed boxes so that you know what is in them!

Find “new to you” used items locally

Find great bargains and help the planet by shopping at your local thrift store, checking on your neighborhood listserve (such as NextDoor), or searching for items on Craig’s List or Freecycle.

Another smart way to find cheap organization products is by visiting yard sales. I rarely pay full retail price for baskets; instead I shop for them at the thrift store and at yard sales.

Budget organizing – yard sale and thrift store baskets

If you don’t enjoy yard sale or thrift store shopping, there are bargains to be found at Target or your local dollar store. If you feel embarrassed about shopping at a budget store, remember this: no one will know where the items came from!

Below are two bargain shoe storage solutions. The shoe storage rack was less than $10 at Target and the soft container for the flip flops was $1 at my local dollar store.

(Check out the two-storage solution we created for a client’s shoe collection here!)

We used inexpensive soft storage cubes from Target to organize my husband’s shirts in his closet until we were able to get new shelves made. Now that the new shelves are installed, the cubes have been repurposed throughout the house.

You may find that budget solutions at retail outlets are often made of plastic and produced in China. Sometimes there is a tension between organizing with environmentally-friendly (“green”) solutions and organizing on a budget. Using recycled containers or cardboard and paper solutions are often more earth-friendly. But if you’re in a bind, dollar store purchases may get the job done.

Do you have budget organizing ideas to share? Let us know by posting your comments below!

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