If you can’t afford a nice storage container specifically for scrapbooking, one of the best ways to get organized is to use small tupperware containers for your scrapbooking embellishments. They are usually fairly cheap and various sizes can be used for ribbons, buttons, paper clips, tags, etc. Once you have the small embellishments, you can start on the other items. I like the vertical paper storage boxes myself because if you have a huge pile of paper, usually you end up needing the paper on the bottom and it’s a pain to have to pull it out, paper gets wrinkled, and misaligned, etc. The vertical storage boxes resolve those issues nicely.
If you are organized it will take less time when you want to actually scrapbook, because you’ll know where everything is and won’t have to waste time searching and organizing each time.
