Decluttering: Master Bathroom- Part Three (finale!)

WOOHOO!!!

I got it done. My master bath has completely decluttered!! Today I did under the bathroom sink and my little vanity. Plus I will share my pic from the top of the sink. That I actually did on Thursday. When we moved a lot of what I decluttered actually came out from under the sink so I was thinking there wouldn't be much that came out from under there. I forgot, however, that I never addressed all the knee braces from my oldest daughter's knee injury/surgery (two of which were at the tune of $500 a piece) and several wrist braces from all of my kids broken hands/wrists. I also had 7 beach towels so I got rid of one of the crusty ones. I need to get two new ones for next year that are a little nicer quality. It is not fair for anyone to get stuck drying off with an old crusty towel. For the records one of the beach towels we have is another high school graduation present. This is one of the most awesome beach towels I have ever owned. In 22 years, no tattering, no tears, no crustiness. It came from Macy's. The other things under the counter are: humidifier, cleaner, beach bag, clippers to do the boys hair, a first aid kit (that I originally put together as a girl scout to earn a badge when I was in like the 7th grade) and large bin to hold ace bandages and braces and such- we have a LOT of injuries in this house. We are kind of known for them actually.

My bathroom counter now has my Scentsy burner (with Vanilla Suede) Our toothbrush holder, cups and out weekly med packs. I will have to get a better after pic later. This one has my hot iron out cooling off and me draining a half empty thing of lotion into another lotion.

Next I did my vanity. I took everything out and off of it. I wanted the top to be completely empty and clutter free. Boy was there a lot of stuff in this little thing. I threw away a LOT of old makeup and make up that I had bought that I didn't like once I got it. In the drawer I know I hadn't cleaned that out in over 12 years. Maybe a couple of things here and there, but I haven't dumped the drawer out and trashed anything. It was like a little junk drawer for me. I had homes for lots of the items in there in other parts of the house so I relocated them to that area and then when I get to that area I will cull and declutter. So now in the top drawer I only have jewelry. It is so nice. Not sure if that will be a permanent solution, but it is the solution for right now.

In the bottom, I now have a basket that holds my makeup, a basket that holds my body sprays and make up remover, a plastic container for my lip gloss/balm/stick, an empty bag I use when I pack my makeup to travel and then a bag I put in my gym bag to take showers at the gym. Finally I have another little basket full of some private misc stuff.

This next picture is a plastic container full of keys I pulled out of my drawer. I know what about 50% of them go to, I just need to get them matched up and organized. We also have a lot of locks that are missing keys... I think I just found them. This round produced 2 bathroom trash cans full of trash and about a half of a paperbag of giveaways. The first picture is from earlier in the day and the second picture is from my finishing up (minus what I already moved out of the room.

I am so excited to have this done and next my oldest daughter and I are moving on the the hall bathroom and the linen closet just outside that bathroom. We have an ongoing problem for that bathroom and she came up with a solution that seems brilliant. We have already implemented part of the solution and it is going well so far. I will go into more detail when I do the recap of that room.

Decluttering: Master Bathroom- Part Two

Now this shelf hold things I use on a regular basis. Or at least that is the intent. But because my cabinets were so full it ended up holding much more. I must also add that right now all six of us are bathing in the master bath so towels for all six of us are in here. Once we get the hall bathroom tub fixed the kids towels will leave this bathroom so eve more empty space : )

The first thing I did was start at the bottom and work my way up. Not sure what is up with this system. Seems kind of odd to my. Kind of like my friend Christine who reads magazines from back to front. Ok, back to business. Under the shelf are my little space heaters. One I keep in the bathroom in the winter, because we keep our house REALLY cold in the winter to reduce energy use. And it only comes on when we are showering because i just can't come out of a warm shower into a freezing cold room. I also had a bathtub pillow down there, but I got rid of it because it doesn't suction anymore. The next two shelves up were the doozies. I had plastic bins that held all kinds of things. The only ones left down there now are: fingernail polish (I chunked about half the bottles) Plus my foot soaking bin was full of mani/pedi stuff. Between the two I was able to get all of my mani/pedi supplies including polish into one shoe box container and the soaking bin is under the shelf ready to use. Went through all the rollers and only kept the sizes I liked and will use on anyone.


I cleaned up all the towels. I am going to have two towels for the kids and I am getting rid of the old crusty ones. Once I get those truly narrowed down I will do a separate post. There are LOTS of towels in this house! The little three drawer container holds hairbrushes and combs (got rid of several) middle drawer is toothpaste, floss and a little container that holds tweezers and clippers. Got rid of several baby clippers (one- why do I still have these? two- why are these the only ones we never lose??) Top drawer holds sample lotions (that I actually use) and my cuticle and hand salves. On top I keep my blow dryer and I keep my flat iron just to the right. To the left of that container is our everyday stuff (lotion, deodorant, hair spray, mousse) Next shelf up is hand towels, wash cloths, cloth wipes (for special needs son) a container of q-tips and a container for my hair clips. Oh Mike's blood pressure cuff is on that shelf and Maddi's detangler.

On the top shelf I now onpy have my sound machine (which I use every time I take a bath), a spray water bottle, my bulk vitamin basket, Mike's bulk meds, and a shoe box container of bath goodies.

Now between my cabinet and my shelf I have gotten rid of this:
-a 13 gallon trash bag crammed full and SUPER heavy. i was quite surprised as I carried it to poly cart
-5 tubes of b**t paste
- 3 empty salad containers that I used like the plastic shoe bins to store stuff (this was me reducing, reusing and repurposing)
- a wicker basket*
- a cadoodle style box*
- a plastic container*
-2 blankets (one of these I am keeping but I am sending a different out in it's stead
-one bag of give-a-ways that will go to our church's Mercy Closet

The storage type containers will move from room to room to see if I need to repurpose them. Then if I find in the end I don't need them they will move right out the door.

I have already decluttered my bathroom counter but I will show you pics of that in my next post after I declutter under my bathroom sink. I also have a cabinet that I use as a vanity that I need to go through as well.

Decluttering: Master Bathroom- Part One

So I am on a mission to declutter my home. I decided to start with the master bath for two reasons. One, I wanted instant gratification. I knew this room would be easy(er) and therefore if I got it done first I could run in there and jump around and celebrate my triumph when I am feeling bogged down in another room. Two, oh foo-y, I have been interrupted so many times in writing this that i forgot reason number two. Let's just go with I had to start somewhere. lol

So keep these things in mind as you look at my before and after pictures. First, I just packed everything outside of the cabinets in July and I threw some things away and gave some things away at that time. Second, i unpacked this room in August and at that time I had a box of trash (aside from the packing paper) and two boxes of give-away stuff. Third, again with the interruptions. I almost feel like I have pregnancy brain. lol

So this is my before pic of the cabinet that holds my extra sheets, extra toiletries and travel toiletries and meds.I started with the bottom cabinet. Again, the easiest. I have two sets of sheets for late spring, summer and early fall and then I have two sets of flannel sheets for late fall, winter and early spring. I also have extra pillow cases for my extra pillow. I also held on to a wool blanket we put in our vehicle that we put in there during the winter in case of a breakdown. I has able to get rid of two blankets and an empty plastic zipper bag. See making progress. Got rid of three whole things!


Next was the booger of a cabinet. All the extras and the "I don't want to deal withs because who knows what in the world I am supposed to do with these things" First I went through two containers of make-up. Some of which I had since I started selling Beauti Control in 1998. Samples and stuff I just never opened and used. The other was just stuff I stuffed in there to get out of my way. So I got sidetracked by a makeup that I found. Love that makeup brush. I loved it so much that I have had it since my High School graduation in 1989!!! Yes, I constantly washed and sanitized it! The reason it was packed away is that I did replace it with a new set from E.L.F. and I love them too, but I didn't know if I would so I help onto this brush 'just in case". i also got distracted with lipstick :D I found my favorite color, how in the world did it get stuffed in this cabinet?!?!?!


But alas, I got past my distractions and got the cabinet done.

last was the Medicine cabinet. I found empty boxes and empty cough drop bags. This was mainly in disarray. I did find6 tubes of B**t Paste. I kept 1 because my special needs son does require it on occasion but the other 5 are headed out the door. Also found a couple of tubes of A&D ointment from when my son was born 16 years ago... not sure why I have continued to hang on to it. So now everything has a basket or is standing neatly in the cabinet.
Ok, so that is one cabinet. I will show you my "get rid of pic" in part 2, but my intention wasn't to make this the longest post known to man. So it seems my master bath declutter will be a 3-4 part blog series. When I use to blog all the time I could easily go in and manipulate my text and pics to wrap around each other. It doesn't seem to be working right now and I don't want to get bogged down in that stuff so I am sorry if post isn't easy on the eyes.