I would like to start by saying that if I had a three-day weekend every weekend, my life would be awesome. No, really. My house would always be clean and the dishes would always be done and my refrigerator would always be fully stocked. Or, I would spend three full days lounging around the house reading books and watching movies and feeling so incredibly relaxed it would almost be a vacation in itself.
See what I mean? Either way, three-day weekends every weekend would be awesome. This weekend was a mix of both; a lovely balance of productivity (see: purge fest 2011) + relaxing (see: watching 17 episodes of Modern Family).
I decided to start Operation Declutter My Life with the simplest, yet MOST NEEDED purge: the bathroom.
So here’s the deal….I’m a bit of a neat freak. If you asked my friends, they would tell you that my house always looks super clean and organized. As in, there isn’t a bunch of clutter everywhere, and the furniture is dusted and the floors have been vacuumed. But what you don’t see is the HIDDEN CLUTTER. In “The Joy of Less” Francine talks about more storage space being a hindrance, because the more storage space you have, the more things you feel you need to put in those spaces. And, how true that is! We don’t have a big house by any means, but we definitely have plenty of cabinets and closets to store things we don’t need. Case in point: in the midst of cleaning out my bathroom cabinets, I discovered three blow dryers, three flat irons, three curling irons, and three sets of hot rollers (!!!). How ridiculous!
For those of you itching to declutter, I highly recommend starting with the bathroom. It’s likely to be the easiest for a number of reasons:
1) It’s the smallest room in the house.
2) It’s the easiest space to let trash collect (old bottles, expired products), which makes it easier to sort through as you Trash, Treasure, or Transfer things.
3) It’s the least likely place to hold things of emotional value (unless you have some weird addiction to bath products, which I don’t).
The first step to decluttering any room is to TAKE EVERYTHING OUT OF THE ROOM. Yep, everything. Every cotton ball, every bobby pin, and every q-tip. Daunting? Yes. Eye-opening? You betcha. Who would have thought I had THIS MUCH CRAP in my bathroom cabinets and drawers??
How. Embarrassing. Okay, are you ready to see the transformation?! For reference sake, here are the cabinets, before:
and the cabinets after:
Each shelf now has a purpose and holds a collection of specific items, like my shelf, which holds sunscreen in the back, and my personal daily essentials in the front;
Here are the drawers before: clockwise from top left; the essentials drawer, the hair drawer, the makeup drawer, and the infrequently used items/junk drawer.
And the after:
I threw away two garbage bags full of items, and have a trunk full of things to bring to Goodwill. And that’s just from the bathroom!! And now, what are we left with? Organized cabinets, clean drawers, and…..SPACE.
Space to get ready, space to do my makeup, and space for spontaneous dance parties, a Gadd morning bathroom tradition.
Kitchen, watch out. I’m coming for you next…
you are my organization guru. and so right about starting with the bathroom! organized those drawers yesterday, and I can’t wait to move onto the pantry.
@Ruth – We did the bathroom on Sunday and the pantry yesterday. It was the second easiest to start with…good luck!!!
I love starting in the bathroom for exactly the reason you stated, its the smallest room. Looks so good in there. I’m dreading the kitchen and at the same time, I’m looking forward to getting it decluttered and done with.
we really are the same person. i just did this last week in my teeny apartment. had 10 bags of garbage total.
I need to do this SO BADLY. You’ve inspired me, girl friend.
Congrats Ashlee, looks great and I know the other rooms will be just as great! =]
I actually just went through my bathroom and did something very similar to this! I realized that more than half the products I had in my cabinet were expired and filled an entire big bag of trash! It was so freeing and didn’t even take that much time. This post inspired me to go through my room too.
Let me just say: when you have three day weekends, it automatically makes your work days longer and you don’t really get as much as done as you think you would (just FYI from personal experience.
Having said that: love your bathroom transformation. Now, tell me, are you really putting everything back as neatly as it looks in your “after”-pictures? You would be my hero
Amazing! Love this!
This is amazing! What a transformation! I downsized a few years ago which helped me to get rid of a lot of the CRAP but I seem to have found a way to accumulate more, even with having less cabinet space. I really need to get on this little operation of yours.
Ohhh I love the feeling after an awesome declutter session. I wish I had the motivation to do it more often! It looks lovely
This is incredibly inspiring! I need to do this asap!
I did my WHOLE apartment (it took four-ish days for 850 square feet—ridiculousssss!) and I feel SO MUCH BETTER. My whole life feels easier. Your bathroom looks lovely.
oh i love this. this is my kinda p0r*
also, i love how your toothbrush is in all the “after” pictures as if it “snuck in”. that’s what my cat always does. hehe. oh and the “(unless you have some weird addiction to bath products, which I don’t).” made me laugh out loud. love it. happy decluttering.
Wow great advice! I’m going to have to give it a try!
btw, I have the same toothbrush!
You are my hero! I was decluttering this weekend when I really felt like taking a break (it’s hard work!). I pulled through and finished my tv room. How glad was I when a girlfriend I hadn’t seen in months knocked on my front door?? No embarrassing “sorry for all the clutter” comments. All my surfaces were nice and clear, so I could focus on her.
@Ashley Total Mary vs. Martha moment there. Love that.
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