Need to get rid of that clutter but don't have a lot of money to spend on storage solutions? Before you throw anything away, see if you can salvage and reinvent it as a storage container.
Do you have an empty but pretty cardboard tissue box? I use these to store my disposable gloves. I use disposable gloves for cleaning around the house so I keep them in a couple of spots. Just stuff them into the box and they are easy to pull out when you need them. Also, if you are a caregiver you go through a lot of these gloves...this is a good way to store them. They can also be used in dresser drawers to store knee-hi pantyhose and kids' white socks (this only works if they wear the same kind of white socks all the time - like we do at my house). This saves a ton of matching and folding pairs of socks.
Folding Crib
Milk crates...sometimes you can get these from your local grocery store or for some reason you will have one or two in the garage. You can buy paint especially for plastic now that works well on these if they aren't in good shape and they work well for kids toys, books. If you cut a wooden plywood seat to fit the top, then cut smaller blocks in a square under the top that will fit within the top of the crate to hold it in place and pad it then cover with cloth, you have made a little seat for your child that also holds his or her toys.
Do you have empty plastic pencil boxes? Use these to organize all those pencils, pens, screws, batteries, and such in your kitchen junk drawer (don't pretend you don't have one). Then when you need one of these stray items you can find it! Be sure to label what is in each box. You can also use those Gladware or Ziplock plastic bowls and containers - I use them a lot for this purpose.
How about under your bed? Do you have room under there? If you have those rolling plastic drawers that's great. If you don't and have some scrap lumber lying around you can make your own to custom fit under the bed. You can even stain or paint them and make them decorative if you want them to be seen. Put handles on them so they are easy to pull out. We did this with my daughter's crib and stored extra blankets and diapers in it. We made the drawer slightly smaller than the crib and painted it white to match the crib and put wheels on it. If you don't want to make a drawer, then take a flat board half the width of the bed, put a handle on the edge (and wheels on the bottom if you like), and place your boxes on it. You can place several side by side the length of the bed. At least you can pull out the boxes easily by just sliding out the board. Store shoes, out of season clothing or your scrapbooking materials here without having to crawl around on the floor to pull things out from under the bed.
Here's a tip for storing extra blankets and pillows you don't use often: Spread your extra blankets and comforters between the mattress and boxspring. Put the extra pillows into your pillow shams you use for decoration on your bed. Or fold the blankets up and use them to stuff the pillow shams! Then you aren't using valuable closet or drawer space to store these items and they are accessible at a moment's notice.
If you don't have room to store everything away out of sight, use baskets to store personal articles, extra underwear, socks, and makeup. Boxes with lids are another option. If they aren't pretty, cover them with pretty wallpaper or decoupage cutouts or photographs to the boxes. There are easy instructions on the internet for this.
If you don't have a lot of cabinet space for pots and pans, build a simple pot rack out of scrap 2X4 lumber and hang it from the kitchen ceiling over your workspace using chain. You can paint or stain it to match your decor and buy hooks from which to hang the pots and pans. Or if you want a more rustic look, use an old multi-pane window frame that is missing the glass for this purpose. Just screw short pieces of chain into the frame, hang the hooks onto the chain, hang your pots onto the hooks.
More ideas on how to organize for little or no cost coming soon!