How Being Organized Can Save Money: Organization Ideas For All Corners Of Your Life
Being organized can improve almost every aspect of you life.
- When you’re organized, you spend less time searching and you remember important details. You’re on-time for meetings, making you more reliable to those around you.
- When you’re organized, you can get more done. This might help you get promoted at work or have more free time at home.
- Some suggest organization may even reduce stress and anxiety.
- Last but not least, being organized can save you money. Not just indirectly — by making you more productive or promotable — but also directly, by ensuring you never overpay because you don’t have all the necessary information at your fingertips.
The good news is, it’s not that difficult to set up routines and systems in your life that will help you nail this organization thing. Here are a few inspiring ideas to get you organized, with a focus on how being organized can save money in many areas of life.
Mail and bill organization
Mail is a leading source of clutter in a home. So much comes in every day and most of it isn’t urgent. So it piles up on your counter, sits on your desk, and covers your dining room table. But having a system to handle the mail can save you time and money. You might actually use those coupons if you have an organized place to put them. And having all your bills in one place and a system for paying them will help avoid late fees and financial stress.
First things first: You will want a designated place in your home for processing mail. Then you will need a drop zone for your mail when you walk in the door, a bin of some sort, anything will work really. Once you have that you will want some sort of very simple sorting system. Three folders, or bins, or baskets, or something like this. Just something that will allow you to sort your mail into general categories like “bills”, “respond”, and “file”. If you love coupons, you might include a wallet accordion file to sort your coupons. Don’t forget a trashcan or shredder nearby so you can quickly dispose of junk mail.
A system for paying bills is also a great idea. You might decide to pay your bills on certain days of the month, such as the 1st and the 15th. If so, then sort your bills as they come in into those two categories. But also be sure to have a list of your monthly bills in case a statement doesn’t arrive and for bills such as rent, that don’t have monthly statements. In our house we use this bill organizer. It has a slot for each day of the month, when a bill comes in we just stick it in the slot. That way we automatically know the due date and have the bill right there ready to be paid.
Your command center
If you want to take your mail organization station to the next level you can turn it into a command center. This is usually by the door so you have easy access when you go in and out.
Yes, it’s a mail organization center, but oh, it’s also so much more. Include a place for your keys, your wallet or purse, and even a cell phone charging station. You might have a shoe rack. A white board for reminders. A bowl for pocket change. Hooks for jackets and backpacks. Make it your own so it meets your needs. There are so many examples out there that you can use for inspiration.
Having a command center helps you run your life more efficiently. Knowing where your keys are every morning keeps you from being late. Having a charged cell phone at all times keeps you in touch and makes you look more reliable. Remembering things that average people forget makes you look good in your personal life and at work. Showing up on time and ready to work everyday will impress your boss, and who knows where that will lead.
Organizing your finances
We’ve touched on keeping your finances organized with a bill paying center, however, keeping your finances organized is more than just making sure your bills are paid on time. You also need a budget and a retirement plan. You will want a place that lists your debts and savings so you can make sure those balances are going in the right direction.
The budget: Your monthly spending plan
Budgeting is simply planning your money. It’s just telling your money what to do and then making sure it does it. That’s really all there is to it. Sometimes people resist budgeting because they think they will feel restricted with a budget, but the opposite is actually true. You will feel like you have more money when you use a budget. Here is some more about budgeting to get you started.
Retirement: Your lifelong saving plan
Retirement planning is formidable as well, but it’s less work than it seems.
First, you just need to know your number — how much money do you need to have saved in order to retire. Once you know that number you will need to figure out how much you need to save per month to reach your goal. The further away your goal, the less money you need to save per month. Not only will you have more months to save, you will also be able to take greater advantage of growth in the market. If you have a 401(k) at work that matches that’s a great way to get started.
A simple spreadsheet, or even a pen and paper, can track your debt and savings accounts. As an example, you can download our simple Excel debt and savings tracker.
For savings, you will just need to know the name of the savings account, such as “vacation” or “emergency fund” and the balance. For debt, you will want to know the name of the account as you refer to it, such as, “car loan” or “Chase credit card”, the name of the lender, the minimum payment, and the balance. Update these balances once a month so you can keep an eye on them.
Meal planner
Planning your meals every week can save a ton of money. Not only do you grocery shop more efficiently you will also eat out less. And once you set up your meal planning it’s very simple to continue. I was looking around and I really like this one, but anything will work, even just a pen and paper. The main idea is that you are going to decide ahead of time what meals you will cook for the upcoming week. Then you will create a grocery shopping list based on the meals you chose. Go grocery shopping using your list and BAM, you have everything you need to feed yourself for a whole week.
The easiest way to to set this up is to have a list of recipes that you know you like and that are easy to cook. In the example shared above she has each recipe on a card, but even just printed out on regular printer paper and put into a three ring binder works. Be sure to have all the ingredients clearly listed so you can quickly make your shopping list. Also include how long it takes to prepare so you can plan accordingly. You don’t want to plan a meal that takes an hour to cook on a night that you only have 15 minutes for dinner.
This saves so much money and stress. Grocery shopping with a plan eliminates impulse buys which can really blow the budget. Cooking with a plan helps eliminate food waste and eating out. You are a lot less likely to hit the drive through on the way home from work when you know you have a meal waiting at home.
Home and auto maintenance
photo credit: basicorganization.com
Properly maintaining your home and car could potentially save you tens of thousands of dollars. The trouble is that it’s easy to let life get in the way and only fix things when they break. However, a repair is usually quite a bit more than routine maintenance would have cost. A binder that keeps track of both when maintenance is due and keeps records of past maintenance will keep these repair costs down and allow you to sell both your car and home for more when that time comes.
In the home maintenance binder you will want to include a checklist of things to do around the house. How you organize this exactly is up to you, but just having a simple list a great start. Your list can include everything from flushing out the garbage disposal to inspecting the roof. Imagine how much money you would save if you found a small leak in the washing machine hoses before the whole laundry room flooded.
You can also include a place to record maintenance performed on the home. You could have a spot to keep any warranty info, receipts, and information on the contractor that did the work. You could even include paint chips when you paint in case you need to do touch ups later. Or the type of lawn fertilizer that worked so well last time. Not only would that come in handy if you needed it, it would also be invaluable for the next owner of your home if you sell.
The car maintenance binder would include similar information to the home, except car related of course. A list of the recommended maintenance schedule as well the information about past repairs. The date of the repair, the mechanic who performed the work, and any warranty info would be great to have all in one place. Imagine if you could show a list of every oil change, tire rotation, and tune-up to a potential buyer. How much more do you think you could get for your used car? Quite a bit I’m sure.
Personal documents
While you are making car and home binders you can also start making one for your personal documents. Things like your marriage license, car titles, birth certificates, passports, social security card, etc. You know, the things you use once every five years and can never find when you need it.
In today’s digital world, it also makes sense to have a list of phone numbers. If your cell phone dies you will still want to have contact information for everyone. How many times have you seen a post on social media something like “My phone died, if I should have your phone number please text it to…. ” Keep a list of at least your core group of people and those who perform regular services for you like a dog groomer or housekeeper.
Also be sure to include items that will help others in case of an emergency, such as contact information for your doctor, lists of medications you are on, any allergies to medications you may have, ect. Take it a step further and include items such as your will, bank account information, and insurance documents just in case. Make sure to let others know this binder exists in case they ever need it.
Office organization
Obviously what type of job you have will determine what type of organization system will work best for you. If you deal with a lot of paper, then you will need a system for filing that paper. A filing cabinet with clear labels is good. Having “discard dates” on your papers will also help keep things organized. There is very little that needs to be kept forever. A discard date will help make culling your files easy.
If you are often waiting on others to respond to something before you can move on have a “waiting on response” folder. If you have to wait for certain dates to take action have a file for each month (or whatever time period works for you) and file items into the proper area. That way you can begin each period knowing exactly what you need to take action on. Nothing gets forgotten and everything stays neat.
Keep your digital files orderly too. Since you can create folders within folders it’s pretty easy to keep things organized. Proper labels on your files is important, that way you can use the search function on your computer to find what you need. For example, “TPS report June 2015″ is better than just “TPS report”.
Then set aside a time each day to reorganize everything that’s gotten messed up. Keeping up with your files on a daily basis is a huge part of staying organized.
Your work day
Organizing your work day is essential for optimal performance at work. You are already arriving on time and ready to work due to your awesome command center that we talked about. Now you can start killing it in the performance department with a little organization there too. To-do lists are always recommend but a daily productivity planner like this one is also fantastic. That way you have your whole day right there in front of you and you can’t forget anything. You should also limit email checking and avoid social media during the work day.
Routines are also important. Tackle the tough stuff first thing in the morning when you are freshest. Making those tough phone calls first thing means they actually get done, instead of being forever pushed off until later. Handling the difficult tasks without delay shows your customers, boss, and co-workers what a rockstar you are. Then end your day by planning tomorrow. Fill out tomorrow’s worksheet while you are still in work mode. That way tomorrow you can get back to it.
Your daily routine might look something like this.
- Get to work on time with breakfast eaten and coffee in hand.
- Check out your daily worksheet
- Work on the most difficult items
- Lunch
- Check email
- Work on routine tasks
- Clean up desk and fill out tomorrow’s daily worksheet
- Go home
Hopefully these ideas give you some inspiration for how being organized can save you money. Have we missed your favorite example of how being organized can save money? Share it in a comment!
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