Dollar Tree
The Importance of Being Organized
Among my many loves, organizing is one of them. But exactly what does organization have to do with saving money? When you’re disheveled, disorganized and discombobulated, you have no idea what you actually own, so you go out and buy more. It’s a waste of money to hit up the mall and drop cash on a red studded purse when you already have one in the back of your closet, lodged between your gym sneakers and last year’s tax returns.
So it was no surprise I spent the two weekends organizing my cousin Lammie’s** apartment. The biggest problem was her closet. Many people have a lack of space, which creates a challenge, but this wasn’t the case with Lammie. She has more space than she needs. I love Lammie, I really do, but looking at her closet made my eyes bleed. Clothes everywhere, piles of shoes and random items she didn’t even want or need. With some planning and a few purchases, we converted her travesty of a mess into a visually pleasing, functional space.
Keep, Toss or Donate: The first step was getting Lammie to determine what she needed versus what could be trashed or donated. It was like pulling teeth to get her to realize she didn’t need cassette and VHS tapes! Though she kept the tapes (she has some weird attachment to them), I did succeed in getting her to donate 27 purses to Goodwill. Broken items were thrown away and she shredded any documents that were no longer needed.
Boxes and Bins: Stores like Bed Bath & Beyond and the Container Store are a neat freak’s best friends. They offer aisles upon aisles of storage solutions to keep your ‘ish together but it’s way too easy to get overwhelmed with options and overspend. We made it a point to go to BB&B with a short list of what we needed; 2-3 cute storage bins to fit on the top shelf and a simple shoe rack to get the most out of the floor space. The rack was $10 and the bins were $13 each but we had two coupons and saved $5-$6. Bed Bath & Beyond always has 20% off coupons in magazines or a $5 off coupon in circulars. Or you can register on their site and they’ll automatically send you a 20% off coupon to print out.
Today’s lesson kiddies: keep your items organized and you can refrain from purchasing duplicates of stuff you don’t need!
*Names have been changed 
Dollar Days
You clearly know I love thrift stores, but next to thrifts, I adore dollar stores. They pretty much have everything you could want and a lot of stuff you don’t need. It seems like every time I’m in my neck of the woods in Jersey, I manage to hit up Dollar Tree. This time I went there twice in one weekend! Of course, not all one buck havens are created equal (some have crappy, cheap looking items and others have the annoying practice of selling stuff that costs more than $1) but there are plenty that have a decent selection of goods.
Here are items I tend to buy from these stores:
Cleaning Supplies: From dish detergent to oven cleaners to sponges, dollar stores have it all. Some stores may carry the brands you’re familiar with but even if you have to purchase Mr. Sheen instead of Mr. Clean, what’s the big deal? The ingredients are practically identical anyway!
Party Preparation and Decorations: If you’re having an informal get together or barbeque, you can’t go wrong with the paper plates, cups, cutlery and table clothes. You save money and you don’t have any dishes to worry about afterwards! It’s also a great idea to pick up a few aluminum or plastic containers for your guests to take home a doggy bag at the end of the night (the containers are also great for brown-bagging it to work). And every dollar store I’ve ever come across has an aisle for party decorations (banners, party favors, ballons, etc) if you want to spiff up the decor for the occasion.
Gift Wrap: I’ve never understood why wrapping paper can be so expensive. Yeah, some of them come in cool colors and patterns but it’s still paper that the recipient is going to throw away. These budget shops have rolls upon rolls of wrapping paper, as well as tissue paper and gift bags.
Tchotchkes: Whether you call them tchotchkes, trinkets, knick knacks, or whatever, why spend more than $1 on them? My apartment is accessorized with figurines, candles, candle holders and diffusers mostly from Dollar Tree.
Still not convinced dollar stores have some cool items? Take this quiz, bet you won’t be able to tell which items are $1.
Welcome!
Living Fly On a Dime TV
Archives
Categories
Sites I Like
- BrokeAss Gourmet
- Budget Travel
- Champagne Dreams
- Cheap Chic Daily
- Cheapalicious
- Cruziiie
- Frugal Fashionista
- NYC Daily Deals
- Shop It To Me
- Spendless TV
- Stylish Curves
- The Budget Babe
- The Budget Fashionista
- The Fashion Bomb
- The Frugalista Files
- The Glamazons
- The Looks For Less
- The Report
- Thrifty Decor Chick
- Travelzoo
- Whole Grain Grub
