My friend Karen recently asked me a great question about my coupons:
How the [bleep] do you organize them? We get two papers, and I have them all in a big box. I want to go to CVS tonight and it is impossible to find what I need — there are sooo many!!
My organization method
I have an 9″-wide blue coupon organizer that I got in the Target dollar section over a year ago. It weighs about 1.5 pounds (I am not kidding…I weighed it at the store one time), and it’s jam-packed with everything I need for a shopping trip: coupons, rebates, receipts, customer loyalty cards, etc.
My categories
I organize my coupons in three categories:
- Food/drinks
- Cleaning/household
- Personal care
Each category gets its own slot in the organizer.
I reserve the front slot for my weekly shopping list and coupons that I will definitely use this week. The second slot holds random coupons that I want or need to use soon but aren’t sure when to use them. The third slot holds food/drinks coupons. The fourth slot holds cleaning/household coupons. The fifth slot holds personal care items. All the slots behind that hold an assortment of receipts, rebates, mail-in forms, store guides, etc.
When I clip new coupons on Sunday, I clean out my organizer, tossing expired or useless coupons as I add new ones to each slot. I tend to add new coupons to the back of each slot, which leaves coupons that might expire soon up front and easier to find.
The 5-step coupon organization process
It can seem overwhelming to start organizing an entire pile of random coupons.But if you break it down step-by-step, it can be accomplished fairly easily and quickly.
- Decide how many categories you want. I recommend starting with no more than five categories, just to keep things simple.
- Sit at a large table (or on the floor) where you can spread out. Go through every coupon and toss old ones or ones you know you won’t use.
- Stack coupons in front of you according to the categories you’ve chosen. Within each stack, sort them by expiration date, with the ones expiring soonest on top.
- Put your coupons in your organizer, by category, with the coupons expiring the soonest at the front of each section.
- As you clip/add more coupons, continue to organize them by category with newest coupons at the back of each section. Keep moving soon-to-be expired coupons to the front of each category and toss old ones as they expire.
Karen reported that she spent about five hours organizing her box-load of coupons. That’s a ton of time, but that first effort will pay of in the long run. Now coupon organization will be nearly effort-free, and you’ll never miss an opportunity to save.