Creative "Recycling-Minded" Ways to Organize on a Budget

You already own certain items that can help you get organized and be stylish at the same time!  And if not, this blog entry will share some insights on how to organize on a budget ( or practically for free!)

  So many people throw out things that could be incredibly useful, one of them being boxes, and especially your cell phone box. For those of you who like to recycle and reuse, this can be environmentally friendly and budget-wise!

 For example, here is a drawer that had lots of little candies and pieces of chocolate, mints, etc.  Taking some old cell phone boxes, I lined them up side-by-side to make small storage containers instead of going out and buying more plastic!  reusing something that was free not only helps landfills, it saves money.

Here is the before. No real structure to keep different treats separate.

 These are the small boxes that used to be cell phone boxes. The family had purchased those "Family 4 Plan" several months back, and they realized everything was going well with the phones, so they didn't need to keep the boxes in storage anymore. 

So I lined them up to see how much space they would truly take up before I emptied the drawer. ( Hint: Take out just enough to make sure the little box itself fits in the drawer because it's frustrating if it's a little bit too wide, too long, etc.) 

They worked well!  Here's a photo of how the different candies and treats were now much easier to find and more organized! 

NOTE: Even with candy things do expire, and you never know what's deep in the back of your drawer, so to keep things clear as to what you have in stock will also help save money, avoiding wasteful expirations of food and snacks.

 Another small box that fits inside many drawers is this one below, I'll call it a plastic square basket. It's quite shallow and sometimes you have plenty of these in a kitchen drawer where you're holding pencils or maybe somewhere in a desk where you used to collect things but you can begin to use these to organize other areas of your home.

This photo below shows the small plastic square boxes that can help you categorize items, or even allow you to separate two separate childrens' supplies so that, let's say, all of your needed sewing items are in the same place, but the 2 trays help you know whose is whose.

Larger Containers & Furniture 

 Many people love the look of baskets but the downside is many baskets do not really stack very well or can look a little clumsy.  The next example shows how you can take existing furniture and use some square baskets in different ways to organize your things. If you don't own any of these,  I've also got a photo or 2 showing a great location where I occasionaly have bought these containers.

 The above photo happens to be a sectional bench but if it were even a regular bench you could definitely slip these great container ideas inside each section or under a typical bench seat so that all of the small items are hidden by a stylish looking basket or container!

 Is can also become a recycling idea because many people have used square containers and cloth fabric boxes for decades. Perhaps you have some on a bookshelf or some that used to hold magazines, well now is the time to pull them out and reuse them under a bench for even in a sectional bookcase like this next photo.

 This was one of our "before" photos, because as you can see some of their cubby holes were filled with other items, but it's a great start to get little knick knacks and other cluttery things into a sleek looking fabric Box or basket!

 I've run in to many people who used to use these types of baskets to organize their socks and have now may be upgraded to furniture drawers so check out your garage and see if you can recycle and reuse these simple fabric boxes and containers in another area in your home that needs more "care" in regards to being organized.

So,  now for those of you who may not own any of these containers or baskets, or you might feel that the ones you have are slightly outdated and you want something new and stylish, the best place to get these that I've found, after researching many stores, would be Big Lots!

 Last week I was in one of their stores and walked past this aisle and took the photo just to show you all of the great selections there.

 As you can see there's lots of different styles.

 Make sure you measure the area in your cubbyhole furniture or underneath a bench that you might decide to use. Finding out the dimensions of your space is so crucial for purchasing which ones will work for you.

 If you need help with designing what style might go with your home and how to use your space most effectively with these containers or any other organizational needs please contact us at:

AtoZNeatSpace@gmail.com

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