The Frugal Perks of Being Organized – Part 2

I rarely get obsessed by much of anything except frugality and organization. This means I am, like most of the nation, obsessed with The Home Edit. It is a company, a brand, a system, a platform and more for organizing your life beautifully. Most people started out following them on Instagram, but I am more of a website kind of person although I do keep up with them on other media platforms as well. I found their Netflix show and binge watched until I was out of amazing organizational transformations to watch. Like I said, obsessed.

The reason I am obsessed goes far beyond the calm, Zen-like response I get from reaping the benefits of organizing something, is because I can also see the frugal benefits of being organized which include:

1. Finding dups. The Home Edit folks call this backstock for me it is basically too much stuff, duplicates, more than you need, and items you bought mostly because you didn’t know what you actually had. Finding and organizing this stuff means you don’t end up buying more. Enough said.
2. Didn’t even know you had it. I have a friend who tackled her mess of a garage and unearthed a complete set of camping equipment including tents, stove, sleeping bags, the works. It had been stored properly but buried deep in her garage mess for years. She had even been putting off a camping trip because she did not want to spend a fortune on camping gear. Apparently, a long-forgotten ex left everything when they split and did not want to come back get it all (although after 30 days it was legally considered abandoned property) so she dusted everything off and took the kids camping. Her spouse did not mind in the least that a long-forgotten ex had left them camping gear, he’s a pretty practical guy as it turns out. The point is, you can often save a lot if you go digging on your own turf first. Who knows what treasures you will discover?
3. No more storage payments. I cannot tell you the number of people I know throwing away good money to pay for a bit of space away from their domicile. Their stuff literally just sits there month after month collecting dust, sucking away money. Not frugal at all. If you organize your home and yourself, edit down what you do not use and have not used, you should have no need to pay for any off-site storage. Having to utilize off-site storage feels like a huge burden anyway. Lighten up.
4. Less waste. If you actually know what it is your pantry and fridge, for example, you will use things up before they go bad or expire. So much food is wasted simply because you forget, don’t know it is still there or can’t see it. Organizing your refrigerator and pantry should be top priority, job number one for frugal enthusiasts.
5. Time is money. We all know this. The amount of time wasted trying to find everything from keys to pen and paper, is wasted time you could be doing something else productive or fun.
6. The bank is full. If you feel anxious, overwhelmed, disorganized, then you may resort to buying, buying and more buying to try and soothe your anxieties. When you are organized and at peace, you may find that you spend less and have less of an urge to fill up the empty spaces. Those clear, clean, organized spaces should give you room to breathe. Empty is good. Space to breathe is so good.
7. Less cleaning. The less stuff you have, the less cleaning supplies, tools and effort you need to spend maintaining and cleaning said stuff. We all know that one person with the endless collection of figurines that sit and collect dust.
8. If you edit your belongings down honestly, you will likely find you have a lot of ‘leftover’ and unused stuff that can be donated, repurposed or regifted. When I did a major purge a few years back, I initially had a tough time letting go of my frankly ancient golf clubs, but I was honest with myself and knew I had not used them in years. Same with roller blades. I have a relatively new hip so pretty sure my orthopedic surgeon would not want me risking going roller blading. Those times and hobbies have long passed so I did myself a favor and passed along those items that no longer fit into my life. When I reorganized my dresser drawers, I found myself giving away old tee shirts and more because I wanted more space to organize properly. I also found I did not need a lot of what I had long been cramming into those drawers. Again, space to breathe is a really good thing. I now find myself feeling calm and peaceful every single time I open a dresser drawer these days.