I got bit by the organizing bug this weekend. Does that ever happen to you? After getting a bathroom remodeling and doing some cleaning like grout cleaning, I thought my bathroom drawers have been driving me nuts for quite some time and I just finally decided I just couldn’t take them anymore and set out to get things in order. Things look nice on the outside, but inside they are kind of a hot mess, kind of like The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
My side is the right side, Garrett’s is the left and we “share” the middle drawers. Wanna know a secret though? Nothing is really in the middle drawers, so obviously I decided that meant I could take at least one of those over too.
The reason I need to do some expanding is because my drawers just are not cutting it right now. I have three main ones and they are just overflowing with crap.
You see? Hot mess on the inside.
The first thing I decided was that my makeup is now going to have a permanent home. It’s been all crowded together in that pink stripey bag since Garrett and I started dating. Having to lug all of my crap back and forth between houses I just threw it all in a bag and never looked back. Well guess what: I LIVE HERE NOW AND HAVE FOR THREE YEARS. It’s time for my makeup to get a permanent home. And that home is the top middle drawer of our bathroom.
Bam!
I was going to by some cheap plastic-y containers at Target, but they were $12 each and I’d need at least two, which isn’t that cheap in my opinion. Then I came across this hot pink baby for $6.28. Now thaaaaaaaaaat’s more like it. In went the makeup, and all was right in the world.
Then I tackled the Everyday Drawer. You have this drawer, right? Where all of the stuff is that you use every day?
Well here is mine AFTER:
Lastly I straightened up my hair stuff, and what was left in the overflow drawer (which was not much) which included axing a flat iron that had been around since the early 90s and some other stuff that I just didn’t use EVER. And I was left with these two sparkly spaces:
And by then, all of my bathroom dreams had come true! But I wasn’t done yet. I wanted to tackle my junk drawer that hides out in the top dresser drawer in my closet. OHMAHGAWD, just look at it:
Let’s play a rousing game of What The EFF Is In Here?
Very important things, I’m sure.
Things like:
The valentine I bought to give to Garrett this year and then promptly forgot about. WHOOPS. (What DID I give him, then???)
Guess we know what he’s getting NEXT year.
Oh, or how about a cell phone charger for a phone I don’t even own anymore?
A Jefferson Starship cassette tape?
Or perhaps that reminder about my dental appointment.
FROM 2004!
Ummmmm, clearly it was time to get out the trash bags. So trash I did (for most of it) and in the end I have some useful things and of course some nostalgic things — like my container with every card and letter Garrett has ever written me. Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.
In the end it looked a lot more manageable, and I felt about ten pounds lighter getting rid of all of that Very Important Stuff I had been saving.
******
Even though nothing in the bathroom looks different on the outside and my closet still looks exactly the same, at least *I* know it is cleaner on the inside. And sometimes that’s all you need to have a happy Sunday!
LOVE THIS! I get this bug every couple of months. Whether it’s the bathroom, the closet, the desk, or the kitchen cabinets – Something always needs to be reorganized. I love how you tackled this! I’ve been working on my closet for about 6 weeks now, still pulling pieces to put in the Giveaway pile and trying to get all the matching hangers in order. Le sigh. Congrats on your fabulously clean drawers!
Oh my god, when I clean out my closet, I almost get high is THAT enjoyable. Crazy organizers UNITE!
Wow, I think your standards are much higher than mine. I think your “before” pictures look pretty dang good. I wish I was more like you and felt the urge to organize at least annually. *sigh*
My irritation is totally arbitrary. I have totally worse drawers that don’t even bother me. I think it’s just the fact that I saw these so often and knew it was a project I could tackle with relative ease! 🙂 If it’s a larger project, I will procrastinate to the nth degree. See: Painting ANY room in my house. 3 years, and all the walls are still white.
i’m jealous of your drawers! my bathroom doesn’t have any, just big cabinets and i haven’t found just the right thing to make the space more usable. my makeup is in a travel bag and i rarely go anywhere with it. I’ve had the orgainizing bug lately too. my laundry room has gone from chaos to awesome and it makes me so happy!
Mo’ Drawers // Mo’ Problems. I promise I think P. Diddy wrote a song about it. 🙂 An organized laundry room makes me swoon. maybe that will be my next project!
Nice job! The purge-and-organize is so cathartic.
Seriously! Cleanliness Contact High. 🙂
Brava, my friend, brava!
Meredith! It was a MAJOR Penelope moment. You would be proud 🙂
When you live in a house full of boxes that get moved around all the time, and from the basement to the 3rd floor and back again, it grates against the ol’ organizing gene SO.DARN.MUCH. So, I do what I can, and the rest I live with (or ignore!) until the day I can unpack them all. I did get all of my files re-organized so that I can A–actually access important documents (and things like appliance manuals), and B–stop leaving REALLY IMPORTANT paperwork laying in random places around the house.
Oh, and maybe find my passport. Still working on that. 😉
Pingback: Shop My Closet
I did this recently and it felt so! wonderful! And then the other day Chris went looking for Asprin and I was like, “Oh, I think I tossed it because it was expired” and he was like, “YOU TOSSED IT?” and I was all, “Yeah, sometimes I go through and toss things” and he was like, “SOMETIMES YOU GO THROUGH AND TOSS THINGS?!” Yes. I do. THE HORROR.