Hi, and welcome back to the #organizethis challenge, which my friend Jodi and I are co-hosting to help cheer on our friends to get some crap organized. If you missed it, we spent Day 1 choosing a space and defining its role in our lives, and Day 2 purging and sorting down. Today begins the fun part: Organizing!

First things first: You're gonna need some containers. The enemy of organization is wide open spaces. What is good for your soul is NOT good for your knife drawer. You want everything to have a specific place - one that's easy to access and remember. That is how you can get and keep a space organized. Now that you have a pile of stuff that belongs in the space you're organizing, assess it and think critically about how to keep it contained. Today is a day for sourcing organizational materials like drawer dividers and baskets, and more creative solutions, like wall-mounted broom and mop holders, over-the-door storage units, sheets of pegboard and more.

1. Play Goldilocks. Choose containers that fit what you're storing. You don't want a container that's too small, because you'll end up with overflow and it will never look neat, and frankly, you'll be defeated before you start. But you also don't want anything too big; as mentioned, you don't want everything rattling away, willy-nilly. You want a space that creates a neat little home for the item it is housing. You want it to be juuuuuust right.

And, how to get those perfectly-sized containers in a manner that won't break the bank? Well, do I have some ideas for you.

1. Let's start with the free, shall we? Free is always nice. Everywhere around you, you can find free storage containers. For drawer dividers, food items often come in reusable containers. Metal tins are some of my favorites, as are clear plastic berry containers and using both sides of egg cartons. I love using boxes, especially tiny ones. I find that housing, say, a tiny funnel in a small box rather than throwing it loose into a drawer makes all the difference. (PS - these boxes are all a little grody because I pulled them out of my drawers to show you. Cool!) But I also DIY Drawer dividers by upcycling cardboard boxes and foam core into dividers.

More on DIY Drawer dividers and how to fold clothes here.

For larger containers, hoarding boxes, especially boxes of the same size, works well. If you, say, get a monthly diaper delivery, saving and recovering those boxes (I like Con-Tact paper or adhesive-backed fabric) nets you identical, well-sized, sturdy storage containers! Melissa and Doug often provides its toys in containers that are useless for holding the toys, but work well in other contexts. (For example).

2. Now let's go Cheap. My favorite places to score cheap storage:

IKEA. Obviously. I like IKEA when I need a lot of uniform storage. It's the cheapest around, and the options feel almost endless. Look especially for sales, which IKEA has more often than you might expect, and in the kids' section, where you can score storage extra cheaply. For an example, look no further than my own craft closet organization project.

I found a bunch of those HYFS storage boxes (#1) on sale at IKEA, and I knew the pretty pale gray, reasonable sturdiness, flip-open lids, and clear front panel were great features. And they were going for about $3 each. I think I may have bought out my store? Then I marched over to the children's area and picked me up some Trofast bins. If you're not familiar with the Trofast bin, allow me. It's number 2 above, and it's a little bit fugly, but it is so cheap for the size, and you can buy lids. I selected several extra deep bins to hold my on-going craft projects, fabrics and special items. (A lot more on these tomorrow, when we put stuff into said bins).

Target $1 spot and clearance aisle. Target clearance is tough to beat. If you've got your heart set on schmancy containers, stalk the Target clearance sections - most typically on endcaps - and build up your stash when things are cheap. You may not get exact identical matches this way, but it's easy to coordinate boxes and bins. Also never underestimate the power of an upgrade. I bought these baskets for $2.38 each and hoarded them. Then eventually, I updated them all and now I love them!
Discount stores like Ross, Burlington Coat Factory and HomeGoods. Always start with the clearance section, but even the regular prices at these stores beat retail.
Thrift stores. Obviously. You can score unique finds at thrift stores - items with character and personality. You can also just score run-of-the-mill storage items. Here's a whole post on how to score Target stuff at Goodwill. Not to get too meta on you.
Dollar stores. Especially for items you're hiding or don't mind sprucing up, the dollar store is the way to go.
Weird other places. I've actually had great luck finding small plastic container in the miscellaneous aisles of drug stores and grocery stores. I have also had good luck repurposing small items, like bakeware and even hotdog containers into great storage.

I used the items above to organize Lou's hair drawer (that's a thing), and it illustrates my general philosophy. Some Paper Tiger party supplies we weren't using, some dollar store bins, an expensive acrylic bin from HomeGoods, a jewelry box that might as well pull its weight, and some Lou-decorated masterpieces from a craft session we can put to work to hold teeny tiny items.

Basically, today is a day for shopping! Even if it's just shopping your own home and repurposing what you have. Armed with a good idea of what you need to store, you can today make good strides toward storing that stuff. And if you're not 100% sure of what you need, or you're torn at the store, I recommend buying more and returning what you don't end up using. Sometimes, as we'll find out tomorrow, the actual placing of items takes a couple iterations. It can be really nice to have a few different sets of options.

While you're looking for storage containers today, don't forget to think outside the, er, box. I make intense use of our walls with Command Hooks, shelves, pegboard; I use the space below furniture to store items in pretty baskets; and we use the space behind every single door to a maximum.

I can't wait to check in and see how things are going today!