Helpful Organizing Tips For Saving Money

Are you the type that holds onto things because you just know you’ll use them again someday? Do you rent a storage unit to house all these unused items? Studies show that we spend roughly $38 billion every year on storage fees. That’s a lot of cash for stuff that just sits in storage.

You don’t rent a storage unit, you say? Well, clutter in your home still carries a cost. Take your monthly rent or mortgage payment and divide it by the square footage of your home. That’s how much you spend per square foot to “store” your stuff in your home. Think about it: maybe if you didn’t have so much stuff, you wouldn’t need such a huge house. 

Clutter costs more than just money. It also costs us our valuable time. How you ask? It’s a fact that we spend several days every year looking for lost items in our homes. If we don’t find what we’re looking for, we often spend money to buy it again. In fact, studies show that American households spend upwards of $2.7 billion each year replacing things they cannot find. If you start decluttering your home, you can not only save money but lots of precious time, too. 

START THE DECLUTTERING PROCESS

Decluttering a home can feel like a daunting task. Getting started may seem so overwhelming that you just can’t get motivated. Don’t worry – that’s common. 

Rather than looking at your decluttering project as a whole, break it down into categories. Called the KonMari Method, this way of decluttering helps you see just what you need and don’t need. 

The KonMari Method works like this:

Go through your home and collect all of one category of item. Clothing, for example. Put it all in a pile so you can see just how much you really have. Next, sort through the pile and get rid of anything that doesn’t fit or you haven’t worn in a year or more. When you see all your clothing in a pile like this, it helps you realize that maybe you don’t need so many after all. 

DON’T BUY ORGANIZATIONAL PRODUCTS UNTIL YOU’RE DONE DECLUTTERING

As tempting as it is to rush out and buy totes, boxes, and such to organize the things you’re keeping, you can’t effectively do so until you know exactly how much you’ll need to store. When you’re done decluttering, look for inexpensive organization products (check thrift stores, dollar stores, etc.) so your decluttering project doesn’t turn into an expensive venture. 

DONATE, SELL, OR DUMP?

Once you’ve determined what items need to go, you can figure out which of them is worth your time to sell. The goal is to get rid of these things as quickly as possible, so don’t waste time trying to sell low-value items. Donate them instead. 

By decluttering your life, you can save yourself time and money. If you spend $100 a month to store your things, that’s $1,200 a year you can save if you get rid of the things you don’t use anymore. Remember, it takes time to transition into a tidier, organized lifestyle, so take your time. Slow and steady wins the race!