Today we wrap up our little series saving money through organization. Food and clothing aren’t the only things around your home that can save you money if you look after them properly. If you take the time to look around the house, you’ll discover more areas as well.
Cleaning supplies
If you’re like most people, what you don’t see can lead to duplicate purchases because the item either couldn’t be found in a reasonable length of time when you needed it, or it apparently “got lost” only to be found again after you got home from the store. It pays to take inventory occasionally of your cupboards, closets, and other locations where cleaning supplies are stored so that you know what you have, how much you have, and when you’ll need to buy more.
The Garage
Yes, that place reserved for the vehicle, if it should ever be able to fit inside, the lawn care machinery and products, tools, left-over materials from repair projects, etc. Keeping your garage organized will let you see what you have at a glance and keep it from filling up with unnecessary purchases because the fertilizer got buried under a pile of craft boxes left over from the last major patio upgrade. Go through your garage periodically and toss out what is irreparably broken, expired, or otherwise completely unusable. Give away or hold a garage sale for stuff that is in good condition but not used anymore, grown out of, etc. You might even earn money from your garage this way, not merely save it.
The Attic/Shed/Crawl space
The longer you live in a place, the more likely you are to accumulate things and the more prone to losing and replacing things you’ll become. Just as with the garage, go through these areas periodically to remind yourself what’s there, clean out what’s not needed anymore, and rearrange the stuff you do need so that you don’t forget you have it the next time the need comes up.
Organization saves both time and money. Whether you are organizing your time, or organizing your things, knowing what you have, how much, how long it’s good for, etc will go a long way to keeping money in your pocketbook.
Entire books have been written about time management. Just as many if not more have been written about organizing everything from your kitchen to your garden shed and everything in between. You can find entire isles of products aimed at helping you get organized around your home from storage units under the bed to closet organizers to shelving units, you name it! The trick is using all these aids wisely and not spend more than you’re saving.
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