How To Organize Your Home (On a Budget!)

January is a good time for a fresh start, and organizing is one of the activities that always makes me feel energized, prepared, and ready to tackle life. But when you’re working with a post-holidays budget, it can be hard to convince yourself to shell out cash for organizational tools.

The first step of organizing actually doesn’t require any money at all. Begin by sorting all your items in question and discarding all the extraneous ones. Too many cords? Ditch the ones that you haven’t used in years. Too much paper? Get rid of the extra. There’s really no sense in putting everything in place if you’re not going to use it anyway. Organizing is just as much about letting go as it is about having a beautiful, ordered space.

Once the sorting, grouping, and discarding is done, then you can think about tools to get everything looking tidy. Below, you’ll find some easy ways to organize all that stuff, often without spending a dime. And, in my experience, even if you do have the budget for all the lovely, pricier organizers, it’s best to live with cheap, temporary solutions for a week or so to see if the method works for you. Then you can invest!

Top Row:
1. DIY Dish Drainer Filing Center
2. Use Toilet Paper Tubes to Transport Bathroom Cords
3. How To: Cereal Box Storage Bins
4. How to Make a Coat Hanger Bag Organizer
5. Here’s How to Make Your Own Plastic Pipe Desk Organizer

Bottom Row:
1. How to Corral Electronic Accessories with Ziploc Bags
2. How to Organize Your Home with Everyday Items
3. Organize a Desk Drawer with a Cereal Box
4. Reader Tip: Quick and Cheap Record Collection Organizer
5. How To: Desktop Organizer (from a Phone Book)