Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Organizing Update: Bathrooms

Bathrooms. The place where cosmetics and toiletries go to die. And since moving to New York, the bathroom is my least favorite place in a home. HOWEVER, this magical bathroom has an unlimited amount of space for his and hers supplies, towels, laundry and more! This past week, Cindy and I worked on decluttering two of the bathrooms in their lovely home. The first, being the master bathroom. There are two large under sink storage cabinets, four drawers, and a whole linen closet. I need to take some better pictures next week, but I have some pictures that show how many unnecessary things we people keep in bathrooms. For example, everyone thinks that medications belong in this space. Unless you keep a glass for tap water next to your sink, I think not. The only medications that should be up here are for cramps and other bathroom-related issues I won't list. The picture above is before we decluttered one of the cabinets. And the picture below is the after picture! That is all that is left from above. And we haven't gotten to organizing everything. We decided to leave the organizing step for later so we can get to decluttering more of the house.

 

Oh look, it's me! We worked on putting the bed sheets that were folded at the bottom of this linen closet in the master closet. I'll post more on that later this week. So now, the laundry basket is placed in this space, and out of the way, to create a more open layout in the bathroom and to better expose one of the windows. Yeah, I'm wearing Scooby Doo boxers...


 Finally, we went to the girls' bathroom to declutter years of "growing up" products. Two flat irons, a curling iron, scruncis, and lots and lots of Proactiv and hair products were thrown out, clearing two cabinets and resulting in just the items you see below. The blow dryer and flatiron that were left over went in a drawer below the sink storage area. It fit perfectly. 

In total, we were able to create two donation bags of bed sheets. In total, there were five or six donation bags of bed sheets from other areas. The next week, Cindy was able to donate some really nice silk bed sheets and a couple of other pairs of bed sheets to a family friend that lost their belongings to a house fire. They were able to go to someone that would use them right away. It's been amazing to see what has resulted in this decluttering and organizing binge I have been on. I have been able to give my belongings and help gather Cindy's belongings in order to support a family friend after a house fire, thrift my clothing to start an herb garden, and support Cindy in creating 20+ donation bags for people who could really use what we see as old clothing and clutter. It has been the most liberating experience, and it's only the beginning! And to see the sidewalk lined up with another 20+ garbage bags of the expired or broken clutter from the Cindy/Greg household was amazing. I see it sort of like getting rid of negative energy and giving more space to positive, new energy. 


So far, I want to say there have been between 20-30 donation bags, 20-30 bags of throwaway items. 

We have decluttered and partially organized parts of the bedroom, the master bathroom, the master closet, the hallway closet, the girls' bathroom, one of the bedrooms and are on to the kitchen.

I'll admit that I have been really bad at taking before and after pictures, so I promise I will do a better job. I get so excited to just get to work that I don't really have an accurate showing for it. But every time that happens, I realize that this is what I really love doing. It sounds silly when I say it out loud "I'm so excited to declutter the bathrooms!" But it really feels great to be supporting someone clear space in their home for more things and, on a more spiritual hippy-dippy level, more opportunity. So thank you again and again to Cindy and Greg for giving me the opportunity to start in their home and trusting me with their belongings. It's going to look like a homey showroom when everything is done!! 

1 comment:

  1. Pea
    I want you to know what a great liberating experience this has been for us. I'm excited to keep moving through the rest of the house!
    It shows in your work that you love what your doing!
    Love
    Cindy

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