So Fresh and So Clean
I don’t know if it is the change in weather or just the universe trying to test me, but I have had a ton of stress factors in my life lately. Injuries to myself, my house, and my car are just a few things I’ve had to tackle the past couple weeks, not to mention a full on existential crisis/emotional breakdown. There were several times I had to channel my inner Martin Lawrence to woosah myself back to sanity.
Finding appropriate outlets for managing stress really is the key to keeping yourself mentally stable. Some people stress eat. Some may drink. Others indulge in retail therapy. There are even crazy people out there who exercise to relieve stress (clearly, I’m not one of them). And then there’s me. A person who occasionally partakes in a bit of retail therapy when my budget allows, but mostly just reaches for the label-maker and starts to re-organize things that were already organized.
The hubs and I currently rent a two bedroom, two-and-a-half bathroom townhouse that we’ve lived in for the past 4ish years. While there really isn’t much in the house that is left unorganized thanks to my obsessive need to prevent clutter and chaos, I can always find something that can be neater or more functional. The latest victim tackled by my obsessively organized hands: my master bathroom.
So here you go. Before and after photos of the shelves in my bathroom.
The main thing I wanted to focus on was make-up storage. I don’t wear a lot of make-up regularly, so my collection doesn’t take up a lot of space. I usually just had a little make-up bag for everything, which worked just fine since we don’t have a lot of counter/cabinet space in our little master bathroom. Thanks to my growing LipSense collection (my sorority sister Val got me hooked on the stuff), I figured it was time to find a better way to store make-up.
I found this adorable make-up organizer on Amazon for roughly $12. I like the beveled drawers because I think it hides the contents more than the plain drawers, which in turn makes it look a little neater. Also, my label-maker came in handy when I started putting my LipSense in the slots on top. Since the color tags are on the bottom of the tubes, I put labels on the sides so I don’t have to lift them up to see the color name. I’m sure it only shaves a few seconds off my make-up routine, but I’m all about increasing efficiency in any way, shape, or form. Those are valuable seconds I can use on more important things like watching puppy videos.
I also added a little glass vanity shelf. It was a whopping $11 on Walmart.com and required me to use both a level and a drill to install it. I’m pretty proud of myself for using a power tool without doing serious harm to myself (or the wall, for that matter). I got the little acrylic holders for cotton pads/swabs from Amazon and they were less than $10 each. I purchased the little mirror for $7 from At Home, which is also where I got the $24 shower curtain.
The cabinet in our bathroom has always been pretty well organized, so I didn’t really do much there. I absolutely love the mesh slide-out drawers I bought for $20 from Bed, Bath & Beyond a while ago and use them under every sink in the house. The plastic tote holds my nail polish and mani/pedi supplies. I usually end up sitting on the floor in my bedroom while doing my nails, so keeping it all in a tote makes it easy to grab everything I need at one time.
Hubs uses the drawers under the counter for his toiletries, since my stuff takes up most of the metal shelf. He’s pretty low maintenance, so he doesn’t really have a lot to store. I bought the plastic baskets in the photo below from Dollar Tree (a pack of three is only $1) and actually use them in the other bathrooms and kitchen, too.
All in all, I didn’t really make any drastic changes in the bathroom (it is a rental, after all), but I sure felt accomplished after putting up that little shelf. It was just a small project, but sometimes that’s all you need to re-energize yourself a bit. After I stuck that last tube of LipSense in my new make-up organizer, I walked out of the bathroom ready to face the universe with the fierce determination of Emperor Kuzco. Who knew a label-maker could be so powerful?
