How many times do I hear from people the excuse that they would organise more, but it’s just too expensive to buy all the containers to keep things organised? A lot! And it’s just that – an excuse!  Well, today you don’t have that excuse anymore! I’ve come up with ten ways to organise your home on a budget! You can even create a personalized Tutor Map to help you track your progress and identify areas that need the most attention.

Hangers

You would be amazed at what you can do with a hanger. You can use it to organise scarves, baseball hats, boots, sunglasses, mittens, ties, flip-flops, posters, jewellery and more!

Cardboard boxes

Take an ordinary box you get in the mail or from Costco and leave it plain or dress it up with pretty paper or washi tape. Then, you can use it to organize toys, mail, clothes in your closet, under-bed storage, and more!

Jars

I think jars are a fantastic and inexpensive way to organise lots of small things. You can keep the price down even more by reusing spaghetti jars or pickle jars you get from the store. Organize buttons in small baby food jars, pencils or school supplies in mason jars, use large mason jars in your pantry to organize your goods and pantry staples, or use them to keep anything small inside.

Cups

Cups that you may have just lying around that are mismatched or mugs that you don’t really need a hundred of – use them to hold things in your pantry, crayons, and more similar to jars but are open tops.

Shoe Boxes

Shoe boxes are similar to cardboard boxes in they are the same thing, BUT they have lids on them so you can store things that you may not want to see or that you don’t want the dust to get into.

Trays

I love trays! I think I secretly collect them, but they are so useful. You can use them to corral all kinds of things and group jars or cups filled with paintbrushes, and other tall items in those.

Binders

Binders are such a great way to organise your family’s important papers and schedules, cleaning schedules, teaching schedules {for working from home, especially}, bills, manuals and much more! Binders aren’t expensive – at a couple of dollars a piece, it’s a cheap way to get things in order.

Cereal Boxes

If you have leftover cereal boxes, you can turn them into organizing containers! Use them to make a file folder organizer, cut them up to use as small drawer organizers, or even hang them in a closet as a divider for kids’ clothing.

Hooks

We have a bunch of hooks around our house – we use them for hanging up purses, behind the door for organizations, inside a closet for hanging brooms and mops, or inside a cupboard to clip recipes on or organize schedules.

Freecycle

If you aren’t part of a freecycle group, you need to start one or find one. We have a freecycle group at our church and it has been such a blessing to see people in need receiving things and people who are clearing out clutter, blessing others for free! Google “how to start a freecycle group’ and start one in your church. We even have a drop-off area that our Elders allow us to leave for drop-off and pick-up that’s not in the way of others.

Whatever ways you organize, be creative with your resources and you can make your home a place of comfort and relaxation for all who come into it – instead of cluttered and messy. Remember, you can’t organize clutter, so a big part of organizing is about getting rid of your clutter.