There is lots of talk about decluttering kitchens, toy rooms, book shelves, and garages. But what about the bathroom? This is a space we use every morning to get ready. But if the cabinets, drawers, and linen closets are in chaos, you may be wasting time & energy trying to find your favorite lip gloss or brush. This of course can lead to the whole morning getting behind and you starting your day stressed or frustrated.
Simplifying spaces makes it easy to keep things organized and to know exactly what you have on hand.
We are currently in the process of completely remodeling our main bathroom. So during this process, everything from the bathroom was moved out to either be stored in our bedroom (things not needed daily) and in our other bathroom. Overall this is working fine, but since the other bathroom does not have the right storage for all of our getting ready things, the cabinet in there got out of hand REAL quick. And that was my cue to give it a once through to declutter.
Are your bathroom cabinets, drawers, and closets feeling like this?
If so, here are some tips to help you on your journey. If you prefer video, you can view my video on this topic:
4 Things You Can Declutter From Your Bathroom Today
1. Expired Medications
Expired medication is probably the most important thing to declutter from your bathroom. Things can expire before we know it, and sometimes they are not safe to use once expired. In other cases, they are not as effective or potent. But it’s better to err on the side of caution and discard any medications that are expired.
2. Things You Don’t Use
I find that things like this really accumulate in the bathroom. We always seem to have a steady supply of health & beauty product samples and trial sizes around. But so often these are stashed away to “try sometime” and never actually used. I’ve gotten to the point where I do not even bring home travel sized items from hotels anymore because they just stockpile. Other things may be products your kids have outgrown using (like those baby snot suckers or infant medicine but your child is 4 now).
Get rid of those things that aren’t being used. If you can’t bear to throw out those trial sized items then make an effort to start using them up! Take those shampoo bottles in the shower and use them next time you shower. These are also a great item to donate to shelters! Donate any usable items and toss any that have seen better days.
The form you have selected does not exist.
3. Fantasy Self Items
Oh, the fantasy self… if you haven’t heard of this term, the fantasy self is that person who you think you want to be. The person who does all these different things tries different hobbies, does elaborate hair or makeup things, etc. And it’s not that trying new things is bad, but the problem is that we often get excited about this hobby/technique/activity and we buy all the things for it. But then we try it once and find we just don’t love it, or that it’s WAY too time consuming and not going to happen at this stage in our life.
There is a time for everything, or you find that you may never want to make time for certain things. That’s ok! But that also means that its time to get rid of time consuming hair styling products and nail art kits that aren’t going to be used anytime in this decade.
4. Tried & Didn’t Like
We all have had things like this… You buy that amazing shampoo that you saw an Instagrammer recommend….and then it makes your hair a HOT MESS instead of glorious & beautiful. It happens – I’ve done this myself. I love trying new hair products so I’ve gone through quite a few things over time.
But instead of saying “this didn’t work, it’s out of here”, our tendency is to put it back in the cabinet and leave it there. Sometimes this is because we spent a lot of money and feel bad just getting rid of it. Or perhaps you think you’ll try it again and maybe it will work better next time.
I’m here to tell you three things:
- It will not likely work any better next time
- You probably will forget it’s there and never use it again
- The money is already spent – keeping it does not get your money back.
So what to do with these items if you find it hard to part with them? One option is to find another purpose for them. When I have shampoo that doesn’t work for me I generally use it up to shave my legs. It works great! I’ve used conditioner up this way as well. Another option is to pass it onto a friend or family member who might like it. You can also look at giving it away on an online freecycle group, or to a local shelter. If it’s an item that can’t be shared (like a used bar of soap that made you break out in a rash), just toss it and cut your losses!
What did you find in there?
I found quite a few things! And this was my end result.
The end product is so much easier to find things in and to keep organized. Do yourself a favor and streamline your bathroom. It will make your mornings easier and less stressful!
