Organizing is my second hobby next to saving money. Affordable organizing is what you do when you do want things to be accessible but not spend a lot of money on system. When I became a homeschool mom to four boys’ it was very important that I have things in places that I can get to them. So I combined the two. My plan was to have our home be as beautiful as the houses on Pinterest. Now, I am happy to find what I need in the right spot.
Affordable organizing is not hard, but it is an ongoing project. Becoming an organized person goes hand in hand with discipline. Once you get organized the stuff being organized has to still find its way to the new home. For instance, recently I revamped my kitchen. Instead of moving everything to where I thought I wanted it, I moved it and arranged my cabinets for productivity.
Here are a few ways that I took on my affordable organizing projects.
Get An Overall Idea of What You Want
Decide whether you want productivity, clean space, minimalism or organized chaos. When I set out to make my kitchen a space that was usable it took me some time. First, I wanted a kitchen that increased my productivity. Second, I did not want to spend any money. This had to be a totally free project. My final goal was to find what I needed quickly without rummaging through a ton of useless items.
After I decided on how I wanted my kitchen to work and why, I wanted to see what I had to do to get it there. In addition to that, the kitchen is a space that everyone in our family spends a lot of time in. It is never entirely clean. Someone is always cooking, drinking, eating or all three at once. This space had to work for everyone and not have a bunch of tiny bins no one would use.
Write Down Ideas and Watch Videos
After I decided how I wanted my kitchen to work I began to watch video’s on organizing a kitchen space. I found all kinds of help on productivity and the best way. After each video I wrote down something in my notes that I liked. This helped me to formulate all of my plans at once when I finished brainstorming.
Since this project had to be affordable deciding what I would do was the hardest part. As with any project Pinterest makes it hard to not want to create this beautiful space with a a lot of matching bins. But, I was determined to not do that at all.
Affordable Organizing With A System
As I mentioned above I did not want a lot of different bins, or any bins for that matter. My kitchen organizing project was completely free. Really. I did not spend any money on bins, tools, shelves or wonderful Lazy Susan area’s the would make my spice rack spin.
I did without all of that cute stuff. For me it was about a system. To use what I had. Since we live in an older home I have a lot of cabinet space and that is what I used. All of my cabinet space. In addition to my cabinets, I have a pantry space and other area’s in the kitchen that were not being used in their correct capacity.
Declutter As You Organize
My next step in affordable organizing was to declutter. But I did this after I organized. That made more sense to me.
How I decluttered was very easy. Instead of forcing 12 baking pans into a small space, I placed one in each of the five holding spots that I have. Next, I was able to double up without making it look cluttered. That was all that fit in the area. My next step was to re-gift the other four to a new home. It worked out well. Now I have one item for each space and nothing is overly cluttered. We really don’t need as much as we have, and we don’t need to buy something all of the time.
My kitchen space is now manageable with what I had… my cabinets. Use the space and items productively before spending money on anything. For more tips on a frugal home lifestyle sign up for my newsletter. I’m on Instagram @Momsarefrugal with lots of frugal home help.
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