Coupons: crazy to collected

Before I dive into this month's decluttering zone, I had a couple of paper clutter solutions I wanted to implement. First up... organizing coupons! I used to keep them in my purse, but after adding baby, car-seat, and diaper bag to my list of things to cart around, I treated myself to a new, smaller purse, but it doesn't have room for all my coupons. Plus, my husband is the main grocery shopper now so it doesn't do us any good to have the coupons in my purse. As a result, coupons started to take over my kitchen counter!

I decided it was time to reclaim my precious counter space and organize my coupons so that finding and using them will be quick and easy. I started off with a visit to the Dollar Spot at a Target. They usually have these great little envelopes with divider tabs for just $1! I chose a black one because it looked so much nicer and more husband friendly.

The first step was gathering all the coupons.

Next I grabbed my new coupon organizer and wrote categories on the labels that came with it. I chose grocery, restaurant, baby, pet, clothes, and other. I put the extra labels in the back of the last section in case I decide to change any of them in the future.

After my organizer was ready to go, it was time to sort the coupons into the categories. I also made sure I got rid of any expired ones. Once I sorted the coupons into categories, I also sorted them by date with the ones expiring the soonest in the front.

Here is my completed organizer, all ready to go. One of the best parts is that using just one or two coupons will pay for this project. Now when one of us is planning a trip to the store, locating coupons will be a snap! I plan on throwing away expired coupons each time I am looking through a section, which should be quick since they will all be up front.

Here's the project breakdown.

Total cost: $1.00

Time spent: 45 min.

Do you like to use coupons? How do you keep them organized?