Guest post by Kristen from Different Shades of Green.
Organizing our home has helped us reach financial goals and harmony. We weren’t always organized though!
Here’s how we started…
Before We Got Organized
Our spare bedroom was our office. I could toss papers in and close the door. I avoided that room, and the mess grew. When I needed to find something, I couldn’t. I missed payments and lost important papers. I had no idea how much money we had or owed.
Our office mess was causing a big financial drain. Interest rates rose, fees piled up, and expenses started climbing. This was compounded by the stress the mess caused. Feeling overwhelmed, I shopped to avoid reality, making the problem worse.
First Step Towards Organization
Finally, I got brave. I moved the office to the kitchen. It scared me to face finances every day! I examined every piece of paper, cleaning up piles and cleaning out drawers.
I downsized to a 2-drawer file and storage box. The file cabinet is now in the kitchen with my desk. When mail arrives, items that don’t require action are tossed or filed. Action items go to my inbox. Seeing the box daily means I maintain it, and things aren’t forgotten.
Benefits of Organization
Financially, we are stronger with an organized office. We haven’t had a late payment in years, and we paid off all our credit card debt! I’m motivated to work on our finances, because I have a visual representation of our success by looking at my tidy desk.
We’re also stronger emotionally. We’re more confident, knowing how much we have and how much we need. We spend less now, but enjoy more freedom.
Fine Tuning
Since that first step, we’ve fine-tuned the organization and expanded:
We keep a folder out labeled ‘monthly budget’. It’s an easy reference point for our goals. We update it monthly, creating harmony in our marriage.
Organizing the entire home helps us save too. Less stuff means less spending, and sometimes more earning. After many military moves, I dislike unpacking junk. We held 7 garage sales in one year, with the profits applied to debt. With less stuff, we can easily manage our belongings.
Organization empowers me. When my husband is deployed, I know where the tools are and can make minor repairs myself to save the cost of a service or handy man. Confidence adds incredible value to savings!
We created ‘stuff rules’. We only keep books we would recommend to friends. We decide on an item’s ‘home’ before we buy. If we can’t think of a home, it doesn’t come home! We have a ‘one in, one out’ rule for closets. Guidelines help us reduce impulse buying.
What matters most is this: with an organized home, I enjoy being home.
And being home saves money!
I don’t need to escape the house to have a good day. Getting organized changed our finances, changed our marriage, and changed our lives. My only regret is that we didn’t do it sooner!
Kristen is the “mom” of two dogs and wife to a sailor. She blogs at Different Shades of Green about the things that matter to her: living green, saving money, supporting American Manufacturing, supporting the Armed Services, teaching and practicing yoga, crafting, and just plain loving life.
Great article. Thanks so much. One of my favorite methods of controlling clutter is to scan or photograph all of my son’s artwork and some of his schoolwork. At the end school year we keep 3 or 4 of the best pieces and the rest is kept as memories on the computer.
I can’t believe I missed my own guest post! I was hardly online last week and didn’t keep up with my favorite blogs. THANK YOU for all the nice comments! I’m glad to hear I’m not the only one who struggled with a messy financial life. And to those just starting on their journey to organization – good for you!
How did you convince your husband? My husband is in charge of the finances right now (we just moved to France and my language skills are not yet good enough to decipher our bank statements) and looking at the piles and piles of papers on his desk makes me so nervous and sick-feeling. I tried buying nice organizing boxes at Ikea so at least the chaos would be contained, but that didn’t work. : ( And the desk is in the living room, so there is no avoiding it.
Welllll… he came home one day to everything taken apart, and me begging him to help me move the desk. It was kind of too late to say no. Which is how it usually goes. LOL. Since he’s often deployed, I do the finances for consistency. I can’t imagine trying to hand that responsibility back and forth according to his schedule. The thought occurred to me that you could approach being involved in the finances with your husband as a learning tool for your French skills, and then maybe you could get your hands on those piles? 🙂 Messy living room desk aside, I am envious of your move to France!
Implementing ‘Stuff Rules’ is a SUPERB way to keep control of you clutter. Well done!! Enjoyed your post. 🙂
A healthy working environment I always find promotes productivity and, as you say, means important deadlines don’t get missed. I’m a bit OCD and need to have things organised and in their proper place. As a result of this I don’t remember the last bill payment I missed so it works for me!
Awesome story and inspiring picture. I really enjoyed this post!
Thank you Tess! I’m glad you enjoyed it!
I used to have a 4-drawer desk, but it got moved to the homeschool room for our 4th child…leaving me with a tiny little rolltop desk in the kitchen. I about panicked when my husband made the switch, but it has turned out to keep me organized- there’s barely enough room for the essential supplies, and the rolltop won’t close if it isn’t kept clean and organized. I have a lamp on top, so there’s no room for paper clutter. The bonus to having a rolltop is that is looks less cluttered than a standard desk because it closes. And the best part- it was free, a hand-me-down from my mom. 🙂
I love roll top desks. My mom has one too, and I hope it gets handed down to me some day! 😉
I have started a 52 week declutter and have jokingly told all my friends, come see my new house next year…so I’m not pressured and can take my time..Hopefully I will finish earlier but under no hurry if I clean 1 drawer, or 1 cabinet a week…
@ Katie:: instead of keeping and storing all the school papers, scan it and save it to your computer, then you can print it off when needed for graduation books or whatever…
I love this no pressure plan! 🙂
I totally agree about figuring out an item’s “home” before purchasing…that concept is SO helpful! One challenge I have, however, is when we are given things that we don’t have room for…especially when the giver is a close friend or family member!
That is a challenge for me as well. I treat each item differently so far. Like, can I make room for it if I get rid of something else, do I know someone who would benefit greatly from it, etc. One thing that has helped is that I’ve made it really clear that with our frequent moves, and the varying sizes of our houses/storage space, that I just don’t want anything anymore. It’s taken a couple of years, but it’s catching on. My mom calls me now to tell me she saw something she wanted to buy me, but she just thought of me, smiled, and moved on. That’s an awesome gift in itself! 🙂
I’m so encouraged by this post and all the comments. I’ve just started the 29 Day Organizing Challenge and suddenly I don’t feel like I’m the only horribly disorganized person in the world. I appreciate you, Crystal, for being the “minimalist” example that you are. It is helpful to see that you don’t have to have a ton of stuff to be a homeschooler. We (homeschoolers) tend to accumulate a lot of stuff we never use. By the end of this month all the excess will be gone and it will feel so good!
Yes! This!
Online banking and bill paying helped us a ton with organization and during my husband’s deployments– Paper clutter is my nemesis, and taking care of what we can online helps tremendously. I have a bulletin board where I pin current bills (for us, this is only medical/dental. Everything else is paid online). I’m VERY visual and this helps me. Once it’s paid, it’s filed. We keep our files in a place that’s easy to get to– when our filing system was hidden in a closet, I let stuff pile up.
The latest attack from paper clutter has been my kids’ homeschooling stuff. My kids are little, so record-keeping isn’t super important yet, but I’d like to develop a plan for the later grades. Any tips from the effortlessly organized homeschool mom out there?
Organizing isn’t effortless! It’s something you have to dedicate a few minutes to everyday.
We keep a 1″ binder for each child for each year. I try to choose a few things every month to represent where they are academically. Then, I type up a few paragraphs, add a few photos and test scores (when applicable). The binders can go on a shelf, in a filing cabinet, a trunk or in a closet.
Thanks for the specific ideas and practical rules. I am staring at my pile of unfiled bills right now! Gulp. 🙂 I always love to see pictures of others’ organization–it inspires me to get started! Thanks for sharing!
Add me to the list of those who love this post and couldn’t agree more! Our office was always somewhat a disaster but it got worse when we needed that room for our youger child and had to take our desk out of there. We spent a year with inbox trays cluttering up the top of a cupboard in our dining room and it drove me up a wall. The last straw was when we spent $20 ordering new checks because I couldn’t find the ones we had. All our office supplies were scattered throughout the house and the checks were in a box in the basement. We finally bit the bullet and bought a new desk with a large hutch for our entryway. It solved so many of our storage problems and makes it so much easier for me to keep the paperwork in order. Normally I’d say you don’t need to spend money to get organized for in our case having a desk with actual drawers, cabinets, and shelves helped tremendously. I’ve also noticed a difference in how I work now that we have a dedicated computer/work surface rather than just spreading stuff all over the dining room table.
Crystal is spot on with suggesting getting clutter under control and your home organized before you begin the journey to control your finances. We weren’t in a hole financially (Although I have been there and clutter did contribute) but there were several other things we needed to get in order. Our house wasn’t all that bad but it Bothered Me on a daily basis. Now that we’ve gotten our living space much more under control I’m experiencing a new clarity and direction for my life. My theory is the energy I used to spend worrying about or being dragged down by the house is now available for more important matters.
When I did my big spare bedroom to kitchen move, I was shocked at how many partial books of stamps I found, and then remembered how many times I just went out in frustration to buy a new book when I couldn’t find any. Most of them were no longer the current price, and it was a big eye opener about how much I was wasting. So I totally hear you on the checks. But I’m glad to hear it spurred you on to make changes, and that’s wonderful news about your newfound clarity!
The first part of your post completely describes our office right now. So gross! But one of my goals for this month is to finally tackle it!!! No more hiding my messes behind closed doors ;)!
My husband and I have identical “stuff rules!” We just went through all of our books and movies last week and got rid of the ones we have no intention of reading or watching again. I sold all of the ones we didn’t want to Amazon through their trade – in program. On the last month, we have redeemed over $130 in Amazon giftcards doing this!
My husband and I were just talking last night about options for disposing of our massive CD collection and VHS tapes we’ve inherited from our parents. Thanks so much for sharing about Amazon Trade-In. I didn’t know about this before now, and it seems like the perfect way for us to get rid of the “stuff.”
Okay, so guess where I am headed? My spare bedroom. Thanks for the post.
Also a special thanks to your husband (and you) for serving our country!
How did it go? 🙂
I love the suggestion to only keep books you would recommend to a friend – what a great way to decide which to keep and which should go (as I look at a huge stack and bookcase full of books!).
My kitchen counter has become the “catch-all” for everything from mail to books to anything that is deemed “etc”. Thanks for this post because I really need to get that area under control and come up with a system that works!
I’m all for those stuff rules, it is too easy to collect tonnes and tonnes of unneeded books!
The first part of our post is our office exactly! It’s in a spare bedroom and I organize it but it doesn’t take long before it’s unorganized again. I never thought to move out to somewhere more visible, good idea!
This is so timely for me because I was just thinking about doing this yesterday! Our office is in a (finished) basement bedroom and it’s so easy to just dump stacks of paper to be dealt with later, but I just never get around to it. Having my desk upstairs and constantly in view I think would make it easier for me to stay on top of our paperwork.
I agree as well. When I see my cleared off desk each day, I know that my finances are in order. I never let anything pile up there. I guard my desk space! The only time it gets a little messy is if I’m sick. A bill came in yesterday, it’s going out today. If my desk is messy, I know there’s action things to do and I do them immediately. Keeping organized with Google calendar also helps me remember to save each paycheck. I label it “Payday and save”. I have only one divided folder of receipts, tax papers to keep, and such. Long term receipts and papers get filed elsewhere. Being organized and having a plan helped us pay off our 5 digit student loan in about 2 years. Good tips, thanks.
Whoohoo!!! Congrats on that loan payoff! That’s awesome!
One way that organizing helped us save money was it helped us to see what we really had in the house. When we “needed” something, we would go out and buy it without realizing that we already had something that would work. Two places this was especially true was in the pantry (why did I have four cans of coconut milk?) and in the office corner (I don’t really need so many notebooks…)
I just had the notebook conversation the other day with a friend. We both put a moratorium on buying notebooks and notepads! 🙂
I need to organize my home so im more comfortable being home.
Great post. Home organization and finances really do go hand in hand. I love the idea of only keeping books you recommend.
It has taken me 7 years to figure out that just because I have space for something, or someone gave it to me, that if I don’t like it I don’t have to keep it.
As I purge my home I have been trying to keep in mind the thought “Would I be excited if someone gave me this for a gift? “Because whenever someone comes into your home they look at the things you surround yourself with. I know I do and that helps give me ideas for what to get that person for christmas or their birthday. “Oh i saw you like roosters since you have one hanging in your bathroom so I got you these matching rooster towels…” It would really stink if you actually hate roosters but only have that up because you have been guilted into it since it was a gift from your mil or someother well meaning relative. :)That thought alone has been very helpful in clearing my home from clutter and attracting any more unwanted clutter.
Less clutter makes me enjoy being home especially since I am only surrounded by things I love. We have saved a lot of gas because I no longer just want to go out to get away from all the stuff in my house…
I have also found things I was planning on purchasing, like a small cabinet for my sewing supplies that was just sitting in my basement that I found after cleaning it out last week. Disorganization definetly costs you!
Oh and most importantly Thank You and Your Husband for your service to our country and keeping us safe!
I love the rooster thought! I am going to keep that one in mind when I’m feeling guilty about purging something given to me. Thanks for sharing!
I agree with this post. I am totally working on being more organized. Ever since my 2nd child was born, I feel that our house has turned into chaos due to lack of sleep and more things that happened the past year. My desk in the kitchen is a mess and disaster. I don’t even know where to start!
This is one of the best guest posts you’ve had to date. I loved it because it’s absolutely key to having financial success but also success in other areas of your life.
That first bit about the spare bedroom fits me perfectly. In our house, though, it’s our master bedroom which serves as our bedroom, my sewing room, our storage area (we have no garage) and the catch-all spot when we’re in a hurry to clean up a main room of the house because company’s on the way over! Ugh. That room literally sucks the energy out of me and with six kids, I could use all of that energy I’m losing! 🙂
This week, we’re starting to build more storage areas in our home. We’re purging more stuff (done this many times but need it done again), but I finally realized that one of the problems was that we just simply needed more storage space. I’m hopeful that this will be a big improvement.
Thanks for the great post, Kristen!
Thank YOU Gina! And keeping organized with six kids, I bet you do need more storage space. Thanks for the kind comment!
This very first part, “Our spare bedroom was our office. I could toss papers in and close the door. I avoided that room, and the mess grew. When I needed to find something, I couldn’t.”, is me to a T. I spent HOURS last night cleaning out old papers that we didn’t need anymore, and filing away about a year’s worth of papers! I swore to my husband that it wasn’t going to be like that anymore. I lost so much valuable time last night doing something that should only take a couple of minutes each day. I hope to one day be able to say that the rest of this article fits me to a T as well. Thank you for sharing.
I hope you get there too! Good luck, and be kind to yourself. Breaking old habits is hard work. 🙂
I couldn’t agree more. I once saw on Suze Orman how she could tell how a person’s finances by looking at their organization in cupboards
Good for you!
I agree! I love organization, although my home certainly doesn’t always look that way.
Tossing junk mail every day is definitely a must!
My home doesn’t always look this way either. What matters is that I never let it get so far that I can’t easily return it to this state. Some weeks are busier than others, and my desk does sometimes reflect that! 😉