You don’t usually think to have much bathroom clutter, it’s a bathroom right?   

What about…Old make up freebies from 10 years ago? Gross. Hair ties that don’t really work but you might use someday – see ya! Do you have girls? There are millions of hair pretties,  but how many do they actually like to wear?

Where to start

Under the sink. Yup, get down and dirty girlfriend. Pull out all the mess and only keep the essentials you use most often IN THE BATHROOM that need to stay there.

For me the necessities are:

• extra toilet paper & poo poo spray
• toilet bowl cleaner to make cleaning on the fly convenient
• Norwex Sportszyme spray for my sweat-drenched workout or running clothes to get a spritz before jumping in the shower. (Pre-spraying my clothes helps them not trap in the stench as bad during the laundry cycle.)
• Feminine products 
• Q-tips
• Extra bathroom hand soap
• Norwex Bathroom Cleaner (formerly known as Blue Diamond) –  A little dab does it for sink and toilet cleaning. 
• Norwex window cloth – for those in-between cleanings when my littles graciously splatter toothpaste spit on the mirror, this baby will do the trick!

Anything else for me, doesn’t belong there and gets in its correct home.

Medicine cabinet.

When was the last time you looked at an expiration date on a bottle in your medicine cabinet? Yeesh! I’d start there. Do you have medications stored you do not need to take any longer? Are you keeping them for that possible ‘next time’? Just pitch it. *Make sure these are disposed of safely especially if you have some small helpers around. Some hospitals and pharmacies have safe drops to take these to. Here is a resource link to search for one in your area. Note for rural peeps, expand your radius to find more options, otherwise, you’ll likely get zero search results.  

Vanity drawers.

Your vanity drawers shouldn’t take you anytime at all. They are filled with cheaper clutter products that we aren’t as attached to.

How many brushes and combs do you ACTUALLY use? Yeah, so I had brushes from like 5th grade when I had a perm and “needed” a “special brush.” Gross. That got pitched along with several broken or unused items. A few excess brushes that were in good shape were relocated to the girls’ bathroom so that there was one Wet Brush in each bathroom that the girls would use. A Wet Brush is a staple in our house of 4 girls, easier to detangle girls’ wet hair after a bath. Lifesavers!

Toothpaste, flosses, etc. – we all get the goodie bags as we leave the dentist’s office. I get it. Let’s promote great oral hygiene. However, if you don’t travel frequently or don’t plan on using all 150 rolls of floss. Pitch the excess. I kept less than a handful of the trial size toothpaste and flosses in a basket that we can grab from when packing for travel. The small toothpaste or kids mouthwash HAVE come in handy when we’ve run out and need one to get you by for a few days.

If you have girls, I can 1000% relate to you! I have 3 that each came rolling into the world equipped with millions of hair ties, hair bows, and other hair pretties. *I grabbed the girls and had them go through these items. They made three piles; keep, pitch, share. 

This process helped them be a part of it and not feel like they were being reprimanded for having stuff they were likely gifted. This isn’t a punishment to them or you – it’s freeing!

Linen closet.

We store more bathroom clutter in closets. Similar to the vanity drawers, I had the girls help as they have bins in our bathroom linen closet of their play makeup and enough chapsticks to supply the entire population of China. They were each able to keep their top 5 and we gladly tossed the rest. Gross. Gross!

I’m the only adult that showers in our “main bathroom” and I was clearly stashing all the good bath towels we had from our wedding. After the great bathroom cleanout – Ryan was able to upgrade from his rags! We had plenty to distribute to the rest of the house and update our rag stock and pitch the more than worn out linens.

Another big surprise in this area was the stash of hair product boxes I had. Say what? Okay, as a child I used to hoard my toys and their original boxes…like Disney’s 101 Dalmatians were going to be collectors someday. Why not? Well, thankfully I grew out of that but must have a lingering side effect of this habit.

When I buy expensive hair tools such as a blow dryer, curling iron, flat iron, you name it – they typically come with a warranty. Being practical, I’d toss the receipt in the empty box and stash it up on the top shelf. You guys. Most of my hair tools are pushing 10 years old. Reality check for me as I verified with date stamped receipts. There ain’t no warranty left on those babies. Time flies when you are having fun…and in denial.

These are just some guidelines to get you started with your bathroom clutter. Every bathroom is designed differently. Once you dig in, your mind will help you through and bring some logic with some items you’ve been holding on to that are unnecessary.

Try to reduce the amount of *limbo* items. The more you have in that pile, the easier it is to just keep them all for the sake of making a decision. 

YOU GOT THIS!

If you haven’t been through your bedroom closets be sure to check out this post here.