Longer version: The next thing I tackled was makeup and accessories. I REALLY thought this would be easy because I don't own a lot of makeup or jewelry. Unfortunately it got complicated because there are a lot of border categories that got sucked in with it. Hair dye, nail supplies, hair clips, general bathroom stuff, etc. So please feel free to break this down into smaller categories if you need to.
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| My bathrooms had a lot of bins in them, but they were really just a dumping ground for everything. |
I have three daughters, so nearly every room in our house has a pile of stray hair bands or nail files. I basically had to clean out every bathroom drawer and every nightstand to find all the things that belong into this category. Once they were all together, I pulled out everything that wasn't meant to be dealt with today (mostly medicines).
The pile was actually quite atrocious. Makeup is messy. Hair is messy. So dealing with this category had me digging through piles of hair balls and crusted mascara. Would you believe I still had makeup that I bought in college? In the nineties! I really don't wear a lot of makeup, so that stuff really lasts a long time. Too long in fact. I drew a hard line, and threw out anything older than my children. Everything else after that was negotiable. Luckily most of my makeup didn't bring me joy, so I tossed a lot.
Jewelry was a little tougher. I don't wear a lot of jewelry, but most of it was bought for special occasions (like my bridesmade necklace from Kate's wedding!) or kept for sentimental reasons. I decided anything I didn't love wearing either needed to be given away, or put in my pile of sentimental items to be sorted through later.
After everything was sorted into it's category, the hard work began of putting it all away. I decided for the first time in this process that I needed to get a few drawer dividers. I'm not big on buying things for storage, but I just didn't have any trays or boxes small enough. I picked up a couple little trays at the dollar store.
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| This was my drawer after the first sorting, but it still seemed a bit too cluttered. |
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| This is my slightly improved drawer after I bought a few more tiny sorting trays. |
A word of caution: When storing items, look for containers with no lids. If you put an item in a box with a lid, it disappears. You won't use it. You'll just hoard it. But put it in a container without a lid, and now you've organized it for easy access instead of just hiding it away.
Once I found trays that fit my drawers, my bathroom looked a whole lot better.
Happy sorting!
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| I kept one basket on the bathroom counter for my husband's things (his watch, comb, and beard elastics). |
Confession of failure: I have two problems remaining. First, my bathroom drawer is still too full, so I'll have to give it another sorting in the future (I'm finding this to be a common theme. I think everything will need a future sort, perhaps many future sorts over the years). Second, I like having things on my night stand. Lots of things (chap-stick, lotion, medicine, hair bands, pens, paper, etc). So even though they are all sorted into bins, my nightstand is currently overwhelmed by items I felt I HAD to have at my bedside. Hopefully I will have the guts to deal with this clutter soon.
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| I'm keeping too much by my bed, but I can't decide what to get rid of. |
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