I’m guessing that no two couponers organize their coupons in exactly the same way. Before my two younger children were born, I kept all my coupons carefully filed by category, in baseball card sleeves in a zippered binder. This is an excellent method, since each individual coupon has its own pocket and everything is readily visible.

However,  with a baby in the house, I found I was much too busy to be clipping coupons and filing them in separate pockets. . . and I also discovered that it was next to impossible to get out the door with baby, diaper bag, purse, and the bulky zippered binder in tow.

I tend to obtain most of my coupons from a clipping service since I need multiples of the ones I use. However, I also have a few coupon inserts passed on to me by non-couponing friends. In the interest of saving time, I left the inserts unclipped, and filed them in this spiral-bound 8-pocket folder (purchased at Walmart for about $4.00).

I marked each insert with the date and source (RP, SS, PG), and filed all inserts from the same date together in one pocket.

I organized all my clipped coupons into separate piles of identical coupons. . .

. . . and clipped all like coupons together with a paper clip. I have found that this makes it so much easier to see what is in my coupon file. Otherwise, I would find myself having to look through dozens of coupons in each category to find what I needed!

Then, time to file the coupons by category in my organizer (also purchased at Walmart for around $4.00).

I took the time to choose some categories based on the items I normally purchase, and I even organized the categories according to the layout of the store in which I normally shop! I had fun using my label maker to print the labels for each section–for some reason, those neatly printed labels help me feel more organized!

All of the clippped coupons are filed in the proper section of the organizer. Notice how simple it is to sort through each section, since multiples are neatly clipped together.

I’m so excited about having all my coupons organized and ready for use, especially since this system should be simple for me to maintain!

How do you organize your coupons? I’d love to hear your ideas!

I’m sharing my method of coupon organization at Works for Me Wednesday.