Main Bathroom: Storage
Our bathroom isn't big by today's standards, but it seems huge compared to the way it was when we found it! Almost the whole "sink area" now, was a closet for the front bedroom (that's now our music room). So I feel like the storage is pretty spacious and holds all our "refills" too. And you can open and close the door while someone's using the sink. Big bonus.
Our closed storage consists of the medicine cabinet and vanity. Let's start with the drawer on the right. I use the base of an old travel soap box to hold my nail tools and tweezers and the top to hold replacement toothbrush heads and razors. To the right of that, you see hair accessories that my hair's currently too short for. The hair paste in front of them is for when my hair's cut in a pixie. So I like all that being farther back, since I rarely use it. Now, none of this will stay if you don't invest in some grippy liner. I was constantly readjusting items before I bought some. It's wonderful! I use old caps from hair products to hold small items (bobby-pins and clear hair ties). In the front I let my pick, comb, brush, jaw clips and accessories jumble most of the time, although the carabiner is nice for corralling Cadence's hair ties.
Now for the drawer on the left. In the back, you'll see Brian's contact lenses and usually his case sits next to them. A couple pairs of scissors (one sharp enough for hair) and matches. Then toothpaste and lip gloss. The readout for our toothbrush is on the left and below it are chapsticks and floss picks. To the right we have our toothbrush heads and floss. This drawer was the most improved by the gripping liner. Another tip I can't show you since my toothpaste is full is using a bag clip on the tube when you're getting low. (Especially if you share it with someone who squeezes from the middle after you'd carefully squeezed everything to the top!)
Here's my solution for knocking all your bottles over when you put your hair dryer away and the cord decides to flop errantly. Holster it in a caddy - or two. I got my first one at a thrift store because new ones are pricey. The one for Cadence and Chandler's hair stuff was originally our napkin/silverware caddy, but I replaced it with a more colorful one.
To the left of my caddy, is a package of whitening strips, my homemade deodorant (one batch makes more than will fit in a dispenser) and some Burt's Bees body butter. In my caddy, I have my hair dryer, hair straightener, kms dry shampoo, It's a 10 detangler (for static), J beverly hills volumizing mouse, and Kenra's amazing hair spray. The kids' caddy holds their brush, pick, comb, goop for his hair, barrettes for her hair, a container of the tiny rubber bands and bags for the bathroom garbage can. Not until I was typing this did I realize the middle section was empty, so I put two curling irons in there. Two curling irons may seem excessive, but one works on Cadence's hair and the other works on mine.
Left: This is how I store Cadence's barrettes. It's actually a tube of fabric, but you could easily use a length of wide ribbon.
This is how it looks behind the caddies. It's all my refills: hand soap, face wash, q-tips, cotton balls, shampoo, lotion, and bar soap. The peach color box in the back is the spray tan I've never had the guts to do...which means I need to risk it or pass it along. That's the minimalist way!
I hate reaching to the back of cupboards, so I added drawer and a lazy susan. The top half of bathroom cabinets are often empty because the items we keep in there are small. This helps me use the top half. It looks even neater now without those curling irons on the left!
Here's what's on the lazy susan. Let's start with the Listerine in the back and go clockwise: a measuring cup we use when we clean the tub, pretty smelling soap to add to our cheap SoftSoap (purchased before the days of the amazing Grapefruit soap from Melaleuca), toilet paper (usually stacked two high), personal wipes refill, clear canister with skin ointments, bandaids, a container with sterile pads, Ace bandage, and Neosporin, and another canister for feminine sanitary stuff. What you can't see in this picture is Cadence's basket of nail polish.
The drawer holds refills like toothbrushes from the dentist, a mug and Efferdent for Brian to soak his night guard in, a few gray washrags, and travel stuff. The pink bags on the right stay semi-packed between trips. I used to keep them in one of the suitcases in the basement, but since I don't always use the same suitcase, it's easier to grab them from here and add to them. The coin purse you can barely see in the center reads, "Chocolate fund" and I use it to pack jewelry when I travel. Brian's mug also keeps the hair product caps that I replace when I'm packing.
Here's our medicine cabinet. The top row has cold remedies on the right, pain relief in the middle, polish remover, contact solution, sesame oil (what I use after I dry brush), essential oils and a prescription grade lice shampoo. Just in case you don't remember that fiasco, it cost a pretty penny and I like having it on hand. On the second row, from the right: container with eyeglasses cleaner, travel size contact solution, and mouth guards, my face lotion, container of nail polishes, ear drops and eye drops. The bottom shelf has temporary tattoos, a container with the thermometer and some almost-gone lip colors, make up primer, body spray, toothbrushes, body spray that's an oil, eye make up remover, make up bag, deodorant, and lotion. I love having my make up in this silver bag because sometimes I need to, um, do it in the car. The nifty white containers are a set from Ikea.
To the right of the vanity, there's an odd space behind the radiator. I've put a basket back there for Brian's towels and an adhesive hook holds my brush. Adhesive hooks make it super easy to grab what I need and put it away quick. My hand mirror hangs this way too. In my shower (but not pictured) are two kinds of shampoo, conditioner, a razor, a buffer, face wash and aftershave. The personal wipe dispenser "hides" in the basket on the toilet, along with Brian's recent reads.
Our closed storage consists of the medicine cabinet and vanity. Let's start with the drawer on the right. I use the base of an old travel soap box to hold my nail tools and tweezers and the top to hold replacement toothbrush heads and razors. To the right of that, you see hair accessories that my hair's currently too short for. The hair paste in front of them is for when my hair's cut in a pixie. So I like all that being farther back, since I rarely use it. Now, none of this will stay if you don't invest in some grippy liner. I was constantly readjusting items before I bought some. It's wonderful! I use old caps from hair products to hold small items (bobby-pins and clear hair ties). In the front I let my pick, comb, brush, jaw clips and accessories jumble most of the time, although the carabiner is nice for corralling Cadence's hair ties.Here's my solution for knocking all your bottles over when you put your hair dryer away and the cord decides to flop errantly. Holster it in a caddy - or two. I got my first one at a thrift store because new ones are pricey. The one for Cadence and Chandler's hair stuff was originally our napkin/silverware caddy, but I replaced it with a more colorful one.
To the left of my caddy, is a package of whitening strips, my homemade deodorant (one batch makes more than will fit in a dispenser) and some Burt's Bees body butter. In my caddy, I have my hair dryer, hair straightener, kms dry shampoo, It's a 10 detangler (for static), J beverly hills volumizing mouse, and Kenra's amazing hair spray. The kids' caddy holds their brush, pick, comb, goop for his hair, barrettes for her hair, a container of the tiny rubber bands and bags for the bathroom garbage can. Not until I was typing this did I realize the middle section was empty, so I put two curling irons in there. Two curling irons may seem excessive, but one works on Cadence's hair and the other works on mine.Left: This is how I store Cadence's barrettes. It's actually a tube of fabric, but you could easily use a length of wide ribbon.
This is how it looks behind the caddies. It's all my refills: hand soap, face wash, q-tips, cotton balls, shampoo, lotion, and bar soap. The peach color box in the back is the spray tan I've never had the guts to do...which means I need to risk it or pass it along. That's the minimalist way!
I hate reaching to the back of cupboards, so I added drawer and a lazy susan. The top half of bathroom cabinets are often empty because the items we keep in there are small. This helps me use the top half. It looks even neater now without those curling irons on the left!
Here's what's on the lazy susan. Let's start with the Listerine in the back and go clockwise: a measuring cup we use when we clean the tub, pretty smelling soap to add to our cheap SoftSoap (purchased before the days of the amazing Grapefruit soap from Melaleuca), toilet paper (usually stacked two high), personal wipes refill, clear canister with skin ointments, bandaids, a container with sterile pads, Ace bandage, and Neosporin, and another canister for feminine sanitary stuff. What you can't see in this picture is Cadence's basket of nail polish.
The drawer holds refills like toothbrushes from the dentist, a mug and Efferdent for Brian to soak his night guard in, a few gray washrags, and travel stuff. The pink bags on the right stay semi-packed between trips. I used to keep them in one of the suitcases in the basement, but since I don't always use the same suitcase, it's easier to grab them from here and add to them. The coin purse you can barely see in the center reads, "Chocolate fund" and I use it to pack jewelry when I travel. Brian's mug also keeps the hair product caps that I replace when I'm packing.
Here's our medicine cabinet. The top row has cold remedies on the right, pain relief in the middle, polish remover, contact solution, sesame oil (what I use after I dry brush), essential oils and a prescription grade lice shampoo. Just in case you don't remember that fiasco, it cost a pretty penny and I like having it on hand. On the second row, from the right: container with eyeglasses cleaner, travel size contact solution, and mouth guards, my face lotion, container of nail polishes, ear drops and eye drops. The bottom shelf has temporary tattoos, a container with the thermometer and some almost-gone lip colors, make up primer, body spray, toothbrushes, body spray that's an oil, eye make up remover, make up bag, deodorant, and lotion. I love having my make up in this silver bag because sometimes I need to, um, do it in the car. The nifty white containers are a set from Ikea.
To the right of the vanity, there's an odd space behind the radiator. I've put a basket back there for Brian's towels and an adhesive hook holds my brush. Adhesive hooks make it super easy to grab what I need and put it away quick. My hand mirror hangs this way too. In my shower (but not pictured) are two kinds of shampoo, conditioner, a razor, a buffer, face wash and aftershave. The personal wipe dispenser "hides" in the basket on the toilet, along with Brian's recent reads.
Well I hope that was helpful and not super tedious! Let me know if you have any questions and I'll do my best to answer in the comments.
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