In general, I have two line items on my client invoices: (1) organizing services and (2) organizing product. If you need to get organized but, for whatever reason, your budget doesn't allow for much wiggle room, first thing off the list is hiring a professional organizer (organizing services). Don't worry, I'm not offended! I actually WANT people to be empowered to do it on their own, especially the maintenance part. I've helped tons of clients with this very same thing. With some education and insight, you can too!
The second line item is organizing product (bins, baskets, what have you). We all can get carried away with buying too much product and thinking it will magically create more space and organization (see my IG post on buying "hope"), but what if you don't have the budget for that either?
No worries, I got you.
The process of "organizing" your home could include many different tasks like decluttering, rearranging, categorizing, and containerizing. Each of these tasks are different in their goals and actions:
Decluttering is solely focused on getting rid of unwanted and unused items. You could make great progress with just doing that one task, and you don't need any money for that!
Rearranging: Could you rearrange the furniture, placement of items or zones, or switch up the layout?
Categorizing: simply putting like items with like items can make a huge difference in how you see your stuff visually.
Containerizing (yes, it's a word) is the process by which you put items in containers to keep them together and/or separate from other items.
No matter what your action or budget, every single space needs 3 steps to become organized:
(1) take out all the items that are in the space you are organizing,
(2) sort into trash/donate/keep and then again by category, and
(3) put items back into the space.
I dive really deep into these steps in this blog post and even more detail on how to decide what to keep using my favorite phrase.
Typically, buying product comes in around step 3, when you're putting your items back into the space. You can still use product without spending money! Look around your home for things you can use to contain items. Old boxes from eyeglasses work great in drawers to keep items from moving, packaging and boxes from small items work great for containing multiple categories, and glass jars from spaghetti sauce or aluminum cans to help corral art supplies are just a few ideas. Google the words "upcycling" or "resuse" to see some creative ideas! Here are some fun images I found on Unsplash that can get your creative juices flowing:
Old jars for bathroom storage
Old boxes as drawer dividers
Disposable coffee cups to either seed your plants to keep them to grow
Another option is to look on your local Buy Nothing or Freecyle group for free items that could help you organize, from actual organizing products to reusing items for a different purpose.
With some time, energy, and creativity, it is entirely possible to organize your home without spending any money!
All images used by permission from Unsplash.