Episode 5, Konmari Komono: Soaps and Lotions

Short version:  SORT AND TOSS ALL YOUR EXTRA SOAPS AND LOTIONS FROM THE WHOLE HOUSE.

In my defense, I bought most of these soaps on clearance.

Longer version: next on my checklist of komono (everything else) was soaps and lotions. This included hand soap, body soap, shampoo, conditioner, dandruff shampoo, lotion, scented lotion, sun screen, hand sanitizer, face wash, hotel samples, etc.
Remember we're sorting by category, not by room, so you can't just go in and clean out your bathroom. You must gather everything from every where. For me this included two bathrooms (I didn't touch my girls' bathroom since most things in there don't belong to me), the kitchen, and a lot of shelves. I brought them all out onto my kitchen table (What would I do without a table to sort through my life on?) and sorted them into groups of similar items.
While sorting, I went ahead and threw out anything that was stinky (lotion definitely goes bad).what stinks. I also consolidated half used bottles and washed up any dirty bottles.

Check out this army of soaps!

Once I had everything sorted, I put one of each type of item in each useful location. So each bathroom got a soap, shampoo, and hand soap.  And every nightstand got one bottle of lotion.
Then I took all the extras and organized them in one single bathroom cabinet. My kids were not entirely excited about this. They felt like extras should be kept in each bathroom.  That's how we've stored things in the past. But in the past we've also run out because we had no idea how much of anything we had in the house.  So I'm sticking to the script on this one and storing the extras all in one place by category for easy counting and restocking. It turns out I'm short on body wash and dandruff shampoo but have have enough sun screen to survive the apocalypses.
It feels so good to add something to my shopping list knowing that we actually need it, and that I don't already have a dozen bottles hiding somewhere in my house. So in the end I'm saving money by only buy what I'm actually running low on. I promise you'll love it too!
Good luck!

Nothing warms my heart like a fully stocked shelf.

Confession of failure: I also saved all those tiny little hotel samples.  I really like having little bottles for when we travel, so I just couldn't bare to part with them.  I have a small ziplock bag for each category, and all the bags are together in one bin.  Now when we camp or fly and are in need of a tiny bottle, we'll know just where they are.  If a year from now I find that my stash of tiny bottles is growing instead of shrinking, I'll rethink this choice.

Free samples may be taking over my house.