Bathroom Organizing on the Brain

Last Thursday I decided to take on the beast that was our bathroom linen closet. *shudder* Don't judge me.

Since the day we moved in, whenever I unpacked a bathroom related box and found extra toiletries, I just threw them in there. In absolutely no particular order. This closet was like our best kept secret. I would have DIED if anyone had opened it up during a party searching for a band-aid or something. Er, not that anyone would do that. . .

At first glance it doesn't look that bad, but what you can't see is what is hiding inside those cute baskets. Sure, they look like they might even be categorized. But you could toss that illusion out the window the moment you pulled a basket off the shelf.

This is what you found inside those baskets.

Chaos. Mounded up, nearly overflowing, totally disorganized chaos. 

After buying 2 extra packages of Q-tips because I didn't even know we already had them (who wants to "check inventory" in a linen closet like this???), I decided it was time to tame this beast.

I dumped everything out on the bathroom counter (and in the sink!) and began sorting items and trashing things I no longer needed. The plus of having a double sink is that I could fill one up with junk and still have the other to rinse off leaking shampoo bottles, etc. Wow.

After only like 5 minutes of sorting and purging, we had ourselves a completely orderly space.

On the top shelf, from the left, is a basket for seasonal items (sunscreen, aloe, bug spray), followed by an ice cream container repurposed as a baby basket (baby powder, baby oil, wipes container), and a travel basket (contains our travel toiletry bag, extra travel bottles, etc.).

The next shelf down includes 2 matching baskets. The one on the left holds hand towels and the one on the right holds wash cloths.

On the next shelf down are some plastic drawer organizers that I recently purchased for paper organization in the office then realized I didn't need them once I actually filed...what a novel concept!?! So I repurposed them to contain our extra toiletries. There's one drawer for extra shampoo, one for extra bath soap, one for toothbrushes, paste, floss, and another for deodorant, and so on and so forth. 

And obviously the bottom shelf is for bath towels.

I still plan to label everything but if you've been following this blog long, you know that I ALWAYS procrastinate on labeling. I did the same thing back when I used to do scrapbooking, I'd always lay out the entire page with photos, borders, backgrounds, stickers, etc. and finish the entire book before I would ever start journaling and labeling photos with captions. So hopefully 2012 will be there year I actually get it together and label stuff. We'll see...I think I need one of those fancy schmancy vinyl cutter thing-a-ma-jiggers. Labeling would be more fun then. Or maybe that's just a marketing myth the creators of that thing want me to believe.

Anyways, moving on, I just love Pinterest. Not sure if you've joined but you need to. It is amazingly inspirational. Scouring that site for fantastic design ideas is my #1 favorite past time lately. And more often than not, I guess cuz I'm a nerd at heart, I'm drawn mostly to the Organizational Solutions.  So while we have bathroom organization on the brain, why don't you check out these 5 fabulous ideas I've pinned lately?

• Contain bathroom counter top clutter with a cute little tray like Dana did over on House*Tweaking. She doesn't necessarily like having it all out in the open, but it's a temporary solution for their current apartment living situation.

source

• Constantly keep hair dryers and straighteners tucked away inside the cabinet or a drawer by installing an outlet under the bathroom sink. We had an outlet under out bathroom sink in our old house and we LOVED it. I kept the blow dryer plugged in all the time but just took it out when needed.

source

• Build storage cubbies inside the walls between studs in really small bathrooms, just like an inset medicine cabinet!

source

• Repurpose jam jars as toiletry storage. Here I am on the whole canning jar kick again. Haha...

source

• Use PVC pipe for curling iron storage on the inside of the sink cabinet door.

source

What other fabulous bathroom storage solutions have you all come up with? Tamed any beasts in your home lately? I know I sure feel better after cleaning up that linen closet!! I don't know why I put it off for so long. It seriously did not take very much time.