How Being Organized Saves You Time and Money

When our family has everyone here, we have NINE people running around this house. I would be lying if I denied that we for sure have chaos. Life is a balancing act, especially when I’m planning the twins’ appointments around avoiding missing school, getting the other kids’ appointments, extracurricular activities like Girl Scouts, soccer, and so much more!

We all want to be able to organize our schedules and have the commitment to maintain them on a day-to-day basis, but how? Creating a workable schedule is typically time-consuming and often results in a frustrating battle with your calendar.

Organization is beneficial for everyone and can be easily adapted to suit individual needs. And believe it or not, being organized in your everyday life actually saves you time and money. Here are a few of the reasons why.

Efficient and Stress-Free

If you keep your belongings organized, you don’t need to spend time looking for them when needed. This is especially handy in the case of important yet rarely used items, such as insurance or tax information. I have a filing cabinet for all important documents as well as a lock-box to ensure I can find the necessities when needed.

The key to keeping things organized is to come up with a place to keep something and stick to it (I can admit, this is one of my hardest struggles!). If you want to keep important mail in a desk drawer, make sure you keep all of your important mail in that drawer. Don’t be afraid of sorting your things too much. The more categories of things you come up with, the easier it will be to find exactly what you need when you need it. I always make a point to go back through and throw away unnecessary envelopes, shred paperwork that might have account numbers, etc, and put items together in a desk file folder. I then can easily find bills, children’s paperwork, and things we might need to fill out easily.

Saves You from Buying New

Organization keeps you from buying items you already have, but you’ve forgotten about or lost in your household or workplace. You’re more likely to forget about a pack of rubber-bands you bought several months ago and never opened, than your car keys or your wallet. Combined, these types of purchases can end up costing you a significant amount of money for items that you already have.

Fortunately, this is a very fixable problem. By cleaning and organizing the designated “junk” drawers in your home or office and making a list of all the items, you will easily find the item you’re looking for the next time you go searching. This avoids unnecessary purchases and impulsive buys at the store in the future. It’s a very flexible habit that can be applied to many aspects of your daily routine.

Helps You Remember Important Details

It can be hard to keep track of every detail when you have a lot going on in your life. Sometimes, bills can get lost in the shuffle and go unpaid, or household maintenance gets overlooked. By keeping all of your activities organized, you can get them done in a more efficient manner and you make sure that every detail is taken care of.

Saves Money on Shopping

If you plan out a menu for each month, you can buy many of your groceries in bulk, saving you time and frequent trips to the store. If you prepare a list ahead of time, you can also look for coupons that offer savings on the things you plan to buy.
The same applies to non-food items, which can be bought in bulk and stored for later use. Staying organized and keeping essentials stocked up saves you the stress of running out to make a special trip for more. You can also plan out birthday or holiday gifts well ahead of time, so that you can keep an eye out for a good deal.

While it may take a bit of effort, organizing your life allows you to use your time more efficiently and to take full advantage of your finances. Not only that, but the more thought-out your budget or schedule is, the less you will worry about them. There are many tools designed to help keep you organized, including all kinds of helpful apps for mobile devices.