Lately we have been getting frustrated with all the time it takes to corral and clean the clutter. It is inferring with keeping things simple and enjoying our days. Who wants to spend the bulk of their time taking care of their possessions, or ignoring them completely to the point where they become a problem?
You probably already know that I am a fan of keeping clutter in check, but I still have plenty of hot spots where things aren’t the way they should be. Disorganization can waste money, such as when you are paying for storage, when you can’t use rooms in your home as living spaces, when you re-buy things that you can’t find, or when you spend too much time dealing with unfriendly organizational systems.
The first thing to do is to take things room by room and area by area. One thing with frugal organizing, or any organizing, is to resist the temptation to go out and buy a bunch of organizing materials. You often may have what you already need, such as boxes and bins. I helped my daughter organize her small toys using some colorful beach pails that we already had, for example. Small items, such as doll shoes, puzzle pieces and kids meal toys can also be stored in clean plastic food containers.
If you do need some boxes for storage, visit your local book store. They usually have sturdy mid-sized boxers that are uniform and stackable, and they will give you these boxes for free. Label them well and use them to store out of season or next size clothing, keepsakes, children’s artwork or anything you need to keep but aren’t actively using.
Look around for simple frugal solutions when you run into an organizational issue in your home. For example, my daughter’s hair clips kept traveling all over her dresser and floor. To solve this problem, I didn’t run out and buy a fancy box or organizer. Instead, I simply nailed a sturdy but pretty length of ribbon to wall and clipped all of the hair clips to it in pairs. They are organized and easy to access.
You can read more blog posts by Mary Ann Romans here!
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