I told y’all I had begun the process of getting my bathroom organized. Once I had tossed all the unused and excess items that don’t belong in my bathroom, everything had to go back on the shelves! On my first attempt, I put things back where they had been. Then, I realized I wasn’t making good use of the space.
The handiest shelves for us are a cabinet beside the sink. It stretches from floor to ceiling, but only the middle two shelves are really workable. The top two shelves are hard to reach. Especially because the cabinet is 22″ deep! Anything in the back of that cabinet might as well be in The Twilight Zone.
I had been keeping medicines on those middle two shelves, and they were behind the grooming items we used every day. It’s dark back there, so it’s hard to see the medicines, and when you aren’t feeling well, you don’t want to take everything off the shelf just to find the Immodium!
I decided to move the medicines to the cabinet I have over my toilet. Everything is eye level, the cabinet isn’t very deep (so medicines won’t get lost), and it’s easily accessible. I just need to remember to have the toilet seat closed while I’m rummaging in there!
Professional organizers will suggest that you use your narrow medicine cabinets and your easily accessible spaces for the grooming items you use every day. It makes sense to me. I found a workable arrangement, and left those high cabinets for items like the de-humidifier and the heating pads. Hopefully, I don’t need those every day!
Here are three items that I found very useful in my attempt to organize the shelves. You don’t need fancy containers to do it. Chances are, you have something that will work hidden in a closet somewhere (at least if you are a successful packrat, you should).
I use a turntable, or “Lazy Susan” to hold my toiletry items. I have one and my husband has one, so that we don’t accidentally share toothbrushes or razors. Turn it, and I can reach any item on it quickly. I have to brag that my garage sale days served me well on this one. I picked up six wooden Lazy Susans for $1.00 each. I’m putting them to good use now. You can find them at any container store, and I’ve found plastic ones that work quite well just at the grocery store.
I had some wire racks that I had picked up at a discount store many years ago. They were perfect for subdividing shelves that were too tall, and helped me utilize the wasted space. On them, I stacked plastic storage containers from the kitchen. I intend to put computerized labels on the front and side of each container, so the contents are easily identified.
We’ve shuffled things a little bit as we tried to tweak the arrangement. I think we’ve almost gotten it done. Now all we have to do is keep it that way. That’s another story!
This journey began on a separate blog (you can click here to read About Out Of Chaos), but that wasn’t really simplifying was it? I moved all of the posts to This Eclectic Life under the category Out Of Chaos. I’ll be adding more from time to time. I hope you join me.
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