Organizing your home helps you reduce waste, feel more relaxed, and helps you keep it clean and spacious. Unfortunately, organizing your home can become time-consuming and expensive if you’re not careful. The good news is you can organize your home on a budget without buying expensive containers and label makers or putting up shelving. After all, cleaning and decluttering your home is free, and you can find more affordable products to help you organize.
Organizing your home is part of having a clean house and allowing you to relax. Clutter can easily become a significant source of stress by just simply existing. Having too much stuff in your home can make you feel boxed in. Plus, nobody likes bumping into things.
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Organizing Your Home on a Budget
Overall, clutter makes it difficult to enjoy yourself in your home and can make your home feel smaller. Organizing your home doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive. Follow these tips to help you organize your home on a budget.
Plan Ahead
Before you start rolling up your sleeves to start organizing, try planning to keep you from feeling overwhelmed. Instead, chunk large organization projects into smaller tasks. For example, if you want to organize the kitchen, consider starting with a single cupboard. Once you’ve accomplished one small feat, you’ll feel more motivated to continue.
There are a few ways you can organize:
By Category
Organizing one thing at a time can help you feel less stressed about taking on the entire house. Instead, you can categorize your larger project into smaller tasks. The easiest thing to start with might be clothes, depending on the size of your closet.
By Room
Going from room to room can help you finish one area before moving on to the next, helping you stay motivated. If you’re organizing by room, you can also choose to organize by category first, especially if the room is cluttered. For example, if you own a business and have a home office, consider starting there to make your workspace more organized and efficient. Starting with our home office can also make you look more professional at video conferences as there won’t be stacks of paper as your background.
By Project
Organizing by project means tackling one very small part of your home, such as a junk drawer. With this method, you can work in quick bursts to avoid feeling overwhelmed.
No matter which method you choose, remember that organizing your house will take time. Most people can’t organize everything they want to in a day. If you only have a few minutes or a few hours each day, try organizing at least one thing, even if it’s just a shelf.
Get Rid of Stuff
If your home is cluttered, you might simply have too much stuff. If you have enough space, set up storage bins labeled with “keep, toss, donate.” and begin putting things into the bins. Start with a single room so you can see everything you own. Instead of simply trying to remember what you should donate or throw away, go into your closet and drawers to get a clear picture.
If you’re working in the bedroom, start with your closet. If you notice any clothes hanging up that you hardly ever wear, consider the quality. If they’re still in good condition, you can donate them to your local shelter or sell them at a thrift store. Once you’ve finished the closet, your bins should be relatively full.
Next, take a second look at your “keep” pile. Remember, just because you’re keeping something doesn’t mean it has to be in your house. If there’s anything you don’t regularly wear but want to keep, such as an expensive dress you only pull out for special occasions, consider putting it into storage. Once you go room by room and determine what you’re keeping and what can go into storage, you can call local movers to help you get all of your stuff to a storage unit in one trip.
Once your donation pile is full, contact your local donation center to schedule a pickup. You can put the donations into storage containers or trash bags if you still need the container to continue organizing.
Begin Sorting
Now that you’ve gotten a ton of stuff out of your home, you can start organizing everything you decide to keep. Before you begin placing items, group them by category. For example, if you’re working in the kitchen, you can put items into piles and sort them by dishes, utensils, food items, food storage, and more.
Assign Locations
Once you’re done sorting, you’ll assign each category its location. For example, utensils typically go in a drawer. However, assigning involves more than simply putting things away after sorting them; you’ll need to remember where everything goes and ensure your family puts things back in the right places.
Part of assigning locations may also include using containers. After all, you might not be able to store all of your clothes, shoes, or accessories in your closet. Organizing your home should be about hiding your things from sight and ensuring they don’t take up too much space. If you don’t have any containers that look nice in your home, you can go out and purchase some at any home goods store. The good news is that great-looking containers don’t have to be expensive, and you might not need too many to keep your belongings out of sight and off the floor.
Organizing on a Budget
The first step to successfully organizing your home is learning the benefits of purging items you don’t need. While it can be difficult to get rid of stuff that works, it’s a necessary step to ensure your home doesn’t stay cluttered after you’ve put in all the effort to organize it. Also, be mindful of items that don’t belong to you. While you’d love for your son to keep his skateboard somewhere other than near the front door, you should never donate or toss it without permission.
About The Author
Marné Amoguis holds a B.A. in International Business from UC San Diego. She is a contributing writer at 365businesstips.com where she loves sharing her passion for digital marketing. Outside of writing, she loves traveling, playing music, and hiking.