Challenge #1 - Toiletries Part 2

So, now that it's time to put everything away, here's where it all belongs:

Master Bathroom Closet

There is a vacuum packed space saver bag of blankets, another bag of pillows, a bag of fabric and batting for some quilts I'm working on, and a hula hoop that is also for a sewing project I'm in the middle of. This part of the closet also tends to hold gifts that I need to wrap for birthdays or Christmas. Since that season just ended, it's pretty empty right now.

On the other side of the closet, is the gift wrap. This is why I put the rest of the wrapping supplies in the top drawer of the toiletry drawers.

And here's the set of drawers back where they belong.

Now for the rest of the stuff.

Master Bathroom

The master vanity. The only things that belong on the vanity are our toothbrushes, toothpaste, and a bar of hand soap. We usually have a bottle of liquid hand soap, but this bar was handmade by a co-worker of my husband, so we put the bottle away with the extra liquid soap and we're using the bar first. Honestly, I would prefer to keep the toothbrushes & toothpaste in a drawer too, but my husband prefers them to "air out", and they are too tall to keep upright in the drawer. You can also see the potty seat kept next to the toilet, and a corner of the bathroom scale.

The top left drawer of the vanity holds my make-up tin, the jewelry I actually wear on occasion (the black case in the back), my hair accessories, deodorant, lotion, and the green bucket in front holds a nail file, a comb, nail clippers, and our toddler's toothbrush.

The bottom left drawer holds my curling iron, straightener, blow dryer and my brush. The combs tend to get lost in this drawer, and my brush gets hair on everything if it's in any other drawer, so this is where we keep it.

The vanity cabinet holds bath towels and hand towels. We currently have 4 bath towels and 2 hand towels. One hand towel is currently hung above the counter, and the other was just put in the wash. Two bath towels are hung on the rod, and one is in the laundry, so there is only one in the cabinet right now.

The top right drawer holds feminine products, which can be reached easily while sitting on the toilet, and a book of random math facts that my husband got as a Christmas present and thought would be fun bathroom reading. We started keeping this in the bottom drawer, but our toddler likes to walk away with it, so we moved it up higher.

And the bottom right drawer holds extra toilet paper. 

On the other side of the bathroom is the toilet & shower/tub. Here you can see the two towels on the rod, not hung perfectly, because we are not perfect. :)

In one corner of the tub we keep our razors, where the kids cannot reach them if they just walk into the bathroom. The puff hanging from the handle is mostly used for those random occasions when I get to take a bath and pamper myself.

And in the other corner, we keep our shampoo, bar soap, and my feminine wash. That's all we use in the shower, so that's all we need out on a daily basis.

Kids' Bathroom

We are blessed to have a fairly large bathroom, with LOTS of storage. Ironically, I can't find a whole lot to store in the bathroom, so a lot of the space is empty. :) The only things that belong on the kids' bathroom counter are the hand soap, and a tub of baby wipes. 

In the left cabinet, under the sink, we keep the swim towels, and hand towels. These are primarily used for guests, since we don't have any other guest towels, and the kids don't use the hand towels.

The first of the three vanity drawers holds the kids' toothbrushes and toothpaste.

The second drawer holds all the girls' hair accessories, plus brushes & combs. Again, the kids don't keep this organized, so I don't bother organizing it. It's a shallow enough drawer, and we purge it frequently when things break, so we don't usually have a problem finding what we need.

The bottom drawer is currently empty. We used to keep extra hair accessories in here, but we don't have that many anymore. 

The cabinet on the right, under the counter holds spare toilet paper, extra baby wipe tubs, and diapers. This cabinet has been known to hold piles of diapers, with all sizes mixed together, but it happens to be fairly organized at the moment, since we are only using one size of diaper, and we just finished one pack and brought in another.

Above the counter we have a mirrored medicine cabinet type thing with three sections. One of the twins broke the middle section, so it's currently just open shelving. The only thing in the cabinet behind the left mirror is the sink stopper. The kids were filling & overflowing the sink a little too often, so we just took this out. 

In the open shelving in the middle section, we keep a spray bottle of water that is helpful when doing the girls' hair.

The cabinet behind the right mirror holds guest body wash & lotions (middle shelf), air freshener, vaseline, an altoid box filled with q-tips, baby powder and diaper creams. I have often used the counter space in this bathroom for changing diapers, so having the diapers & wipes under the counter, and the creams & such in this cabinet is quite convenient.

At the end of the bathroom we have the toilet, with a cabinet above it, the tub/shower which includes a tub toy container that is currently not following the 80% rule, and the hooks that hold 6 kids towels. The kids each have one towel, in a different color, and their towels are always kept on their hooks, or in the laundry, so they never need a place to be stored while folded.

What you can't see clearly in this picture is the soap & such. Behind the tub toys there is a bottle of shampoo, on the front tub deck is a bar of soap, on the window sill is a bottle of conditioner that is only used by my girls when I help them, and a bottle of baby shampoo that my younger kids like to pour into the tub to make bubbles, so I had to move it so it wouldn't get wasted. 

The cabinet above the toilet is completely empty because I have no idea what I would actually store in there. I've thought about keeping extra toilet paper in here, but it doesn't fit while in the packaging, so that's an extra step just to put it in, and the kids can't reach it, so they couldn't help put it there, or get it down.

Your Turn!
Now I challenge you to tackle your toiletries. You will obviously have different needs than I, and different storage options. If you haven't done this recently, or if you've held onto things and just tried to organize them, it may take a while, and you may need to just toss a lot.

Remember, don't live by guilt. If you're not going to use something, or if it's not your favorite, don't keep it.
And please, let me know how it goes. Happy Purging!