Welcome back to my newest project – getting my house in order!
If you missed my previous blog introducing this topic, feel free to check it out and get the low down on why I’m tackling this project and what it looks like for our home.
Whenever you’re working on a big decluttering project, my advice is to start with bathrooms.
Why?
Typically, the items in a bathroom serve a practical purpose. This makes decision-making easier and less emotional (i.e., does it serve the function it’s meant to?). You don’t need to worry about emotional decisions when decluttering a bathroom, so it’s the perfect place to start and warm up your decluttering muscles.
In this blog, I’ll work through my process for decluttering our 3 bathrooms and stocking them with the necessary items for our current lifestyle. I’ll also share a quick guide before I get into our specific spaces for a general overview.
Bathroom Decluttering Guide
1. Throw Away Trash
This is the easiest place to start.
Look at every surface and open every drawer to find only things that can be immediately thrown away. Doing this first pass also gives you a better understanding of what you have in the space.
2. Look For Duplicates
I don’t know about you, but it’s easy to accumulate multiples of certain items if you don’t know what you have stocked. Gather like with like and take an inventory of what you have. It’s important here to discern whether you’ll actually use the items you have multiples of. For example, you’ll most likely use that extra tube of toothpaste, but if you find extras of a specialty product you haven’t touched or forgot you owned, consider getting rid of it or passing it on to someone else who will use it.
There’s a fine line between stocking up and overstocking. Depending on your lifestyle and how easy it is to access certain items, it may be worth keeping 1-2 extras on hand. I try not to stock more than this, as it can quickly escalate into too much clutter. If you do plan on stocking extras of certain items, designate a space so you always know where to find them and can see how many you have at a glance.
3. Remove Any Items You Don’t Use
While this advice may sound obvious, the bathroom is a space where our eyes can easily pass over items because we assume we’ll potentially need them at some unknown future date.
If the thought, “But I might need this in the future…” ever runs through your brain, chances are you won’t actually end up needing this item and it will just continue to take up space. Try going through each drawer and make 2 piles: a “Daily/Weekly Use” pile and a “Less Than Weekly Use” pile.
Ask yourself the following questions about both piles:
- Is there anything you can live without?
- Have your routines changed and you no longer need this item?
- Has it expired?
The “Daily/Weekly Use” pile should be put in a spot that is readily accessible.
The “Less Than Weekly Use” pile can be replaced it in a space that doesn’t take up valuable cabinet real estate.
Tip: Don’t start cleaning or organizing! Trust me, it will be super tempting to do so, but if your goal is to declutter your spaces, just focus on that. Tackling the cleaning and organizing on a different day will be much easier and faster once you have decluttered your items.
Now that we’ve established our decluttering guide, let’s get to the bathrooms!
Bathroom 1
Purpose: guest bath and bath time for the kiddos
We kept the items in this space pretty minimal to begin with, but there were definitely some things that needed to go! Here’s an inventory of everything that was in the space before:
- Toilet paper, shampoo and conditioner, soap, kids soap and shampoo, bath toys, baby wipes, Kleenex, hand soap, and lotion.
- Hooks that hold baby washcloths, towels, and the baby bath.
- An antique wicker corner shelf holds Kleenex, plastic drawers, a little wooden stool for our son to reach the sink, and a scale.
- The vanity had a postpartum kit, extra lotion, 2 extra bottles of hand soap, 2 bottles of toilet bowl cleaner, a pack of toilet scrubbies, Listerine, a shower drain hair stopper, my hair curlers, hand sanitizer, and 2 plastic caddies.
What I Decluttered:
- I combined the 2 bottles of soap and got rid of the empty one
- I also combined the 2 bottles of toilet cleaner and got rid of the empty one
- I decluttered items from the postpartum kit and packed away the supplies that could be used in the future.
- I got rid of half of our washcloths – we had ones I never used or were badly stained.
- I decluttered the plastic drawers to donate.
- I moved the hair curlers, Listerine, and shower drain up to our bathroom. The plastic caddy is going upstairs for now too until we go through the master bathroom.
What I Added:
- I stocked our rolling cart with more toilet paper, additional baby wipes, diapers, and towels
- I added a cleaning caddy to the vanity (and a child-lock!)
Note: I’ve debated since we moved into this house whether I wanted all cleaning supplies in one central location or a cleaning caddy in several rooms. For this specific season of life, I’m deciding to do cleaning supplies in each spot. My time is so limited and I want to have the supplies immediately available to quickly wipe down surfaces or clean if I’m able to with the kiddos.
What I’m Planning to Add in the Future:
- A wicker-style shelf for the left of the vanity
- A couple of plants: one for the windowsill and one for the corner of the room
Bathroom 2
Purpose: Guest bathroom
Since this bathroom is primarily just for guests, my goal is to have only the bare necessities in here. Here’s the inventory of what was in the space before:
- Caddy with random extras of ours that had gotten shuffled when I found it in a closet downstairs – I’ve moved that to our bathroom to sort through when we get to it.
- Shampoo, conditioner, soap, hand soap, lotion, towels, toilet paper, a bamboo plant, and a small decor piece for the bathroom counter.
- Inside the vanity: extra toothbrushes for my son, manuals for the vanity installation, hardware, a bracelet of mine, and extra face lotion of mine.
What I Decluttered:
- The manuals and additional vanity hardware
- I also moved my items back to our bathroom
What I Added:
- I stocked items for guests including a Kleenex box, Q-tips, and extra hand lotion.
- A cleaning caddy
What I’m Planning to Add in the Future:
- My plan before we have our next guests over is to stock a few more necessities that they might need including extra toothpaste and toothbrushes, plunger, floss, and band-aids.
Bathroom 3
Purpose: our master bathroom – a space to get ready and relax/unwind.
This is where the heaviest amount of inventory was, and I found myself going through and getting rid of quite a bit in this space. Here’s what the inventory was:
- Hand soap, lotion, toilet paper, shampoo, conditioner, soap, razors, face masks, face lotion, candle, bath caddy, toilet cleaner, toilet scrubbies, empty boxes, medicine, combs, brushes, hair elastics, makeup, toothbrushes and toothpaste, jewellery holder, epsom salts, q-tips, tape, postpartum kit, hair cutting supplies, travel toiletries, static guard, lint brush, toiletry bags, travel cases, first aid kit, hair dryer, hair wand, heat-styling spray, nail polish remover, and hairspray. (Wow, I am tired just typing this…if you’re still keeping up, good for you!)
What I Decluttered:
- I combined all duplicates and got rid of the packaging
- Expired and old medicine
- 2 storage bins
- Hair elastics
- Old toothbrush
- Manual for vanity and extra hardware
- Travel-sized toiletries that we haven’t used in years
- Old makeup
What I Added:
- A child-lock for the vanity and a locked box for the medicine
What I’m Planning to Add in the Future:
- Hooks for towels (right now we just use over-the-door hooks because I want to see how the space functions more before I add hooks onto the wall)
- Plants (I’d like to put up a hanging plant using a macrame holder I have, a plant or two for the windowsill, and some eucalyptus tied onto the showerhead)
How Many Towels Should You Have?
Choose what works for your household and lifestyle. Don’t base it on the number of items you think you should have or what others have.
Consider the following questions as a guide:
- How many people are in your household?
- How often do you have guests?
- How often do you do the laundry?
- How many towels do you typically use in your daily/weekly routines?
Here’s my current philosophy on towels: I’ve been trying out having 2 sets of hand towels per bathroom. For the kids, we have 3 bath towels (one each and an extra), 2 each for my husband and me, and 4 extras for guests. I also keep 5 facecloths for guests and in case I need one for if I’m doing a face mask or special skincare.
Note: I haven’t included beach/pool towels in this because I haven’t decluttered our linen closet yet, so this number and philosophy may change!
Thanks for joining me as I got our bathrooms in order! Next up: our junk drawer!
Little Minimalist on the Prairies 