Now, I know that those of you who know me are probably thinking, “What does she know about organizing!” I know, not one of my strong suits, but I’m working on it! Anyway, on that note, one reason why it has taken me so long to write this post is because I wanted to wait until I found the best system that worked for me. However, I’m still contemplating, but I will share with you what I have tried!

I first tried an envelope system, where I just labeled envelopes and put coupons in it that belonged in that category. I had tons of envelopes and I put them into a tin I got from Oriental Trading. I liked this system because it was easy to carry and not cumbersome to handle in the store. However, if I came across something in the clearance section that I was not planning on buying, it took a while to search through the correct envelope to see if I had a coupon to go with the item. I also ran out of space in the tin pretty quickly!  (I was planning on decorating the tin, but I ran out of room before I made the time to decorate it)!

Then I tried my version of a binder system. I did not want to go out and buy anything, so I used what I already had: lots of card stock, lots of sheet protectors, and scrapbooking adhesive. I would group “like” and related coupons on the same page. I also staggered them so that I could see how many of the same coupon I had at a glance. I liked this system in the fact that it was very easy to see what coupons I had, it was very easy and fast to find coupons and it made going through them to discard of expired coupons very fast and easy! The things I do not like about this system is that the binder is hard to handle in the store and it takes FOREVER to organize them and put them in the binder.

I think I am going to try out the tin system again and only put the coupons in there that I think I will use. Then I will have broader categorized envelopes for the coupons that I will use if I can get the item free or almost free (I will use this for things like cat food and yogurt that we do not usually buy, etc). I am also thinking about trying to find a shoe box that is bigger than the tin to use, but I’m a little leery of a box that doesn’t have a lid that can lock! My goal is to get my coupons organized in the same order that my favorite store (and that I frequent most often) is laid out. I also would like to put the price ranges of certain items on the envelopes themselves as well as having a master list!

How do you organize your coupons?