When your place is small and money is tight, you might want to buy a bunch of bins first, and I get it, because buying stuff can feel like getting organized. But most small home organization ideas on a budget don’t need you to buy much at all. The shoeboxes, jars, and cereal boxes you were about to throw out work fine as organizers, and the little money you do spend should go on hooks and rods that give you storage on the back of a door or inside a cabinet where you didn’t have any before.
So I put this together in the order I’d do it in. Free stuff first, then a few cheap buys, and after that a short list of things I would leave at the store.
Sort Your Stuff And Measure Before You Buy Anything
A well-known organizing method from Julie Morgenstern is called SPACE, and if you read about it on the Wikipedia page for decluttering, you’ll see the C, which stands for containerize, is the fourth step. You sort, get rid of things, give everything a home, and only then do you get containers. So bins come after the sorting, not before it. Buy them first, and you’ll end up filling them with things you were going to donate anyway, which is a waste of money.
We already went through the whole room-by-room cleanout in our post on how to organize a small house, so I’ll keep this part short. Do it in this order:
- Sort everything into keep, donate, and toss. Go one drawer or one shelf at a time and keep three boxes on the floor while you work. If a couple of shelves end up half empty, great, that is free storage you didn’t pay for.
- Pick one spot for each thing you’re keeping. Anything that still has no spot after that is the only stuff you might need to buy storage for.
- Measure the spot. Record how wide, deep, and tall it is in your phone notes. People forget about depth a lot, and a 12-inch bin won’t fit on an 11-inch shelf, no matter how you turn it.
Pro tip: Lay your tape measure across the shelf and snap a photo. When you’re at the store or shopping online later, you’ll have the shelf’s size and shape in one photo, so you won’t have to guess.
Use The Boxes And Jars You Were Going To Throw Out
Some of the best cheap storage ideas for small spaces are sitting in your trash right now. Save your boxes and jars for a week or two, and you’ll probably have more organizers than you’d get in one of those starter kits, and they all fit, because you cut them to the size you need.
Shoeboxes Work Great As Drawer Dividers
I like shoeboxes in drawers more than the plastic trays they sell. Cut the box and lid down so they’re about half an inch shorter than the drawer; if they’re too tall, the drawer catches every time you shut it, and that gets old fast. Then cover them with contact paper or some leftover wrapping paper so they don’t look like shoeboxes anymore.
You get two dividers out of one box and its lid, which is enough for a sock drawer. Add a few more, and your junk drawer becomes little rows for batteries, tape, pens, and all those takeout menus.
If the cardboard keeps tearing when you cut it, you’re probably cutting against the grain, a common problem in cardboard home decor projects. A sharp box cutter and a metal ruler work a lot better than scissors for this.
Cut A Cereal Box At An Angle For A Mail Holder
This one is really easy. Take an empty cereal box, draw a slanted line from one top corner down to about a third of the way up the other side, cut along it, and now you’ve got a magazine file. Cover it with paper if you don’t want it to look like a cereal box. It’s good for mail, and it also works for school papers or for the foil and plastic wrap boxes that keep sliding around in the pantry.
Glass Jars Are Good For Small Stuff That Gets Lost
Jars from pasta sauce, jam, pickles, or salsa are a good size for spices, cotton pads, hair ties, screws, and those extra buttons that come with new shirts. You can see what’s inside without opening them, and they handle a damp bathroom well.
The worst part is removing the labels. Soak the jar in hot, soapy water and peel off what you can, then rub the sticky residue with a little cooking oil and wipe it off. Pickle jar lids tend to hang on to the smell for a while, so I’d use those in the garage for screws and keep them away from the sugar.
Do your jars have to match? No, they really don’t. What helps more is using jars with the same size lid on each shelf, so you’re not trying four different lids every time you put one back.
Make A Lazy Susan With Two Plates And Some Marbles
This sounds like something off Pinterest, and I guess it is, but it works. You need two pie tins or two plates the same size with a raised edge. Put one layer of marbles in the bottom one, set the other one on top so it sits on the marbles, and it’ll turn. It’s handy in a corner cabinet for spices or sauces, so you don’t have to knock everything in front to get to the back.
I wouldn’t put anything heavy on it, though. Big bottles make it wobble, and if your corner cabinet is mostly oil and vinegar, a plain store-bought turntable doesn’t cost that much anyway.
Use Soda Can Tabs To Hang Two Shirts On One Hanger
A soda can tab has two holes. Put one hole over the hanger hook, hang a second hanger through the other hole, and two shirts now hang where one used to go, one below the other. It works well for light tops and kids’ clothes. I wouldn’t try it with coats since they’re heavy enough to bend the tab.
The Best Small Home Organization Ideas On A Budget: Use Doors, Walls And Cabinets
This is where I’d spend some money, but not much. The way I see it, anything you buy should give you new storage space, and a nicer box for a shelf you already had doesn’t do that. In a small home, the new space is usually on the back of a door, on an empty wall, or up top inside a cabinet.
A Tension Rod Under The Sink Is The Best Thing To Buy First
If I could buy only one thing from this list, it would be a tension rod under the sink. You twist it in across the cabinet up near the top and hang your spray bottles on it by the trigger. Then the bottom of the cabinet is open for a bin of sponges and trash bags, and the bottles stop falling over every time you reach in there.
You can use the same rods in a kitchen cabinet too. Stand two or three short ones up straight between the cabinet floor and the shelf above, a few inches apart, and you can slide baking sheets and cutting boards in there on their side like files. You don’t have to drill anything, so it’s renter-friendly. If a rod starts slipping with full bottles on it, twist it tighter or take a couple of bottles off.
An Over-The-Door Shoe Organizer Holds A Lot More Than Shoes
Get the one with the clear pockets. It hangs on the back of a door and barely takes up any room, and the pockets are perfect for stuff that never had a place:
- Pantry door: snacks, seasoning packets, school lunch stuff
- Bathroom door: hairspray, brushes, and your hair dryer after it cools off
- Closet door: cleaning sprays, rags, extra light bulbs, a lint roller
- Bedroom door: scarves and belts, and yeah, shoes too
Check one thing first. The metal hooks that go over the top can keep a tight door from closing all the way, and a door that won’t latch will drive you up the wall.
Put Up Wall Hooks Instead Of A Coat Rack
A coat rack takes up floor space by the door, and wall hooks don’t. Coats, bags, the dog leash, and those reusable grocery bags that always end up in a pile- you can hang it all up.
If you rent, adhesive hooks work, but they often fall off when people skip the steps on the back of the package.
Warning: 3M’s instructions for Command hooks say to wait 7 days after you paint before sticking one up, clean the wall with rubbing alcohol (not a regular household cleaner), and wait an hour before hanging anything on it. They also say not to put them over a bed. Check the weight rating on the pack too, because a heavy winter coat on a small hook will end up on the floor.
Magnetic Strips Free Up Counter Space
In a small kitchen, the knife block takes up counter space you could use. A magnetic strip on the wall above the counter holds your knives so that the block can go. A smaller strip stuck inside your medicine cabinet door works for bobby pins, tweezers, nail clippers, and little scissors. Some stainless steel tweezers and clippers won’t stick to a magnet, so test yours on the fridge before you buy a strip.
One Free Fix And One Cheap Buy For Every Room
If you’d rather go through small, budget-friendly home organization ideas one room at a time, this table splits everything up that way. I also added two cheap buys that fit better here than in the lists above.
| Kitchen | Plate and marble lazy Susan for spices | Wire basket that hangs under a cabinet shelf |
| Bathroom | Glass jars for cotton pads | Magnetic strip inside the medicine cabinet |
| Bedroom and closet | Soda tabs to double up hangers | Vacuum bags for off-season clothes under the bed |
| Living room | Covered shoeboxes on open shelves | Fabric bins for those shelves once you know the size |
| Entryway | Cereal box mail holder | Wall hooks for coats and bags |
The wire baskets slide onto a cabinet shelf and hang down into the space above your stacked plates or mugs, usually a few inches you’re not using for anything. Vacuum bags do something similar in the bedroom. They squish winter sweaters and extra blankets flat enough to fit under the bed. I’m a little torn on these, honestly. They work great for a season, but cheap ones can slowly let air back in over a few months, so check on them every so often.
Skip Matching Bin Sets And Acrylic Organizers
A lot of small home organization ideas on a budget go wrong right at the checkout, and it’s usually because of one of these:
- Matching bin sets. You get ten sizes and end up using only four. Buy single bins once you’ve measured.
- Acrylic drawer organizers. They look nice in pictures, but they do the same thing as a shoebox with contact paper.
- A label maker, which is fun for maybe a week. Masking tape and a marker work just as well.
- A big storage cabinet for a small mess. Buying a whole piece of furniture to hide a pile of mail uses up floor space you don’t have.
- Not using the backs of your doors isn’t something you buy, but it’s skipping the cheapest storage in the house.
If you ask me, the pretty matching bins are mostly there for Instagram. A small place stays tidy with less stuff and a few more wall hooks, and neither costs much.
Frequently Asked Questions
What Is the Cheapest Way to Organize a Small Room?
Get rid of what you don’t need first, then use free stuff like shoeboxes and jars to hold what’s left. After that, a couple of wall hooks or one tension rod will handle most of the rest.
How Can I Add Storage In A Small Home With No Closets?
Look at the backs of your doors and your walls. An over-the-door organizer, some wall hooks, and vacuum bags under the bed can give you closet space without a closet. If you have an alcove, a heavy-duty tension rod with a curtain in front can hold a short row of light clothes.
Are Dollar Store Organizers Worth Buying?
Some of them are. Plain baskets and small bins usually work, and so do glass jars. I’d avoid thin plastic hooks and anything that doesn’t say how much weight it can hold, because those tend to break first.
What Should I Buy First To Organize A Small Apartment On A Tight Budget?
Buy whatever fixes your messiest spot. For many people, that’s under the sink, so get a tension rod; or if it’s the back of a door, get an over-the-door organizer. Keep the rest of your small home organization ideas on a budget until you’ve done those two.
