Bathroom Organization for Beginners October 8, 2019 | Let me preface this by saying that I never intended to make a blog post of this, I strictly took these photos to send to my mom so that she may have some sort of satisfaction in that ANYthing she taught me about organization actually stuck. I’ll also preface by admitting that I am not in any way an organized person by nature. I’m more like a tornado whirling through my home as fast as possible so that I can move on to things that I find more enjoyable. I have found that over the years and in marriage and with kids I’ve sort of been forced to figure out organizational solutions strictly out of necessity because 4 unorganized people in one home could make anyone go crazy. One of my biggest pain points lately has been my bathroom. It had gotten out of control and really wasn’t functional for me any longer. It was a source of frustration morning and night and one day I finally decided to tackle it on my own and see what I could come up with. Again, please excuse the lack of quality photos and expertise. I really wanted this to be a post for all of my fellow unorganized folk, with the hope of giving you a few ideas to implement. Bathroom Organization Ideas for Beginners: Oh boy I hesitate sharing these photos, but they are real life and actually what my bathroom looked like, chipped paint and all. As we settle into life here we are still deciding if this is THE HOUSE that we want to invest in. We are torn between fully gutting the bathroom and just slapping fresh paint on the cabinets to bandaid it for the next owner. Part of this experiment was to actually take a really hard look at the current storage space and deciding if we’d actually need more vertical storage should we remodel. Hint: we don’t. Before: Truly just a dumping ground, full of unused, shoved and too many gifted products with no real thought through how I could organized them based on my routine to make the spaces efficient. After: This drawer was a HUGE pain point for me. Some days I just wouldn’t even open it because the likelihood that I could actually find what I was looking for was slim to none. I bought THESE acrylic organizing trays on Amazon and got to work. First, I cleared everything out of the drawer (reference photos above for what kind of job that was) and then got to work re-configuring it. Turns out, I had a LOT to throw away and wayyyy too many of the same things that were hard to find in the mess (aka ponytail elastics and bobby pins), because I would just keep rebuying them. Now, I have everything that I need and use neatly displayed (with room to spare) and I’m happy to report it’s been a breeze to upkeep. These are the exact trays that I got. There are quite a few options, but I got the set of 10 for $14.99 and they are Prime! The countertops were constantly cluttered because I didn’t have the room to store things that I used everyday like face wash, etc and it would sit out. I also let the below vanity tray become a total disaster, filling it with things that I never used and they ended up just collecting dust and making it hard to clean. You’ll see what I did with the beauty products below, but I used this tray to house stuff we needed to access everyday that could still be displayed pretty and cleaned easily. I had all of these things already, but they really came in handy. I used the bracelet bar (shop similar HERE) to house all of our watches and bracelets and then a dainty dish to store my rings. I also grabbed a pretty gold antiqued glass to store my makeup brushes. There are they only things out on our counters and it makes for a much more pleasing aesthetic and also makes it world easier to keep the surfaces clean. A few months back when all of the stores had college dorm room essentials out on display, one day the bath caddys caught my eye and got me thinking about dorm life and how practical they were at that time. I had everything I needed organized in one caddy and would use it every single day, making it so so practical. I thought, hmmm why can’t I incorporate them back into my routine, but for a different reason? Now that I’m in my mid-30’s (wahhhh!), I take skincare and routines fairly seriously. So much so, that I have different ones for morning vs night time and I got to thinking how practical it would be for me to separate the two. VOILA! That’s how I could use the bath caddys! One would house my morning routine and the other would be for the nighttime routine and they’d live in harmony next to each other and I’d pull out whichever one I was using and then could place it back neatly with very little day to day effort. It’s been a total game changer for me and (if you have the space), I think it’s an organization solution totally worth considering! I bought these caddys at Target on a whim, but I LOVE these from Amazon as they are so clean and polished and even come in a 2pack. Left: Nighttime Routine | Right: Morning Routine As silly as it sounds. I even bought dupes of my toothbrush, toothpaste and deodorant so that each caddy got one, making it as easy as possible. Thought process is that I’d have to buy replacements eventually and that this process makes things last twice as long. I already had this small drawer system in my cabinet but it wasn’t being used in an efficient way at all. I cleaned it out and determined what I actually wanted to keep and store. Obviously these would be things that I didn’t use quite as much, but things that I did still need. Top drawer is for dupe, seasonal or lip colors that I just don’t wear everyday (reds, etc). Middle drawer is all things nails (polishes, removers, cotton pads, etc) and bottom drawer is masks, makeup remover, glasses cleaner and extra razors. In the cabinet to the far right, I actually cleared out a bunch of junk and it was a completely open space! I used it to store lotions, tanners, brushes and stuff that I wanted to access, but didn’t want on my counter. The bottom shelf is solely for my makeup bag and eye palettes. That way I can grab it daily, but can throw it back into a designated space after each use. While I have my makeup bag out, my palettes are also organized and accessible in the back. I got this acrylic organizer for them and have really liked it. Best news is that it’s under $9 on Amazon! So, there ya go! A massive clean out and a few very simple organization solutions put into play and it’s completely changed the mood and functionality in our bathroom. It’s been SO easy to keep clean and I’m much more efficient on a daily basis within the space now. I hope that you can appreciate the super duper real life photos that aren’t staged in any way, yet a true depiction of how anyone can put these things into play for a more organized space. Sources (all from Amazon): Organizer Caddys | Acrylic Organizer Trays | Eyeshadow Palette Organizer | 3 Drawer System I hope this was helpful and that this dose of un-styled, real-life is acceptable 😉