Tag: bathroom organization

The.Best.Storage

Donna Joy
Plastic Bin filled with health and beauty "back stock"

I keep a giant basket under the bathroom sink that holds our health and beauty “back stock”: toothpaste purchased on a “must buy three” sale, shave gel from a company you can only order from online (so might as well order enough to get free shipping)… you know all the deals.

I’m a sucker for a good deal. I used to be an avid couponer too, especially back when I was going through about a thousand diapers a week. I love watching the discounted price get calculated at the register like I imagine a gambler loves the feeling of beating the house.

And it’s not just the thrill of the win. I like feeling prepared. I feel like I have my life a little bit together if I know my family will never squeeze the last of the toothpaste onto their brush without a full tube ready and waiting just a few feet away.

But over the years, I’ve discovered there’s such a thing as too much of a good thing.

Products don’t last forever and can expire before I get to use them. Or something changes—like when I got older and needed to start wearing lotion with sunscreen every day, so the regular lotion I’d stocked up on just sat there, languishing.

For most things we use regularly, one backup works for us. When we use the last of the mayo, we pull the backup out of the pantry and put mayo on the shopping list for the week. Backup food goes in our pantry closet. Backup health and beauty items go in that bin under the bathroom sink. I still love a good deal, and if the deal is for 3 toothpastes we like (and the bin isn’t already overflowing) I’ll probably buy three. 

Anything much beyond that? I’m learning the perfect place to store those extras.

I store them…

At the…

Store.

That’s what the store is there for.

I get it. We lived through the toilet paper crisis of 2020. There’s a lingering fear of not being able to access what you need. But it’s a pretty rare week we don’t go to at least one grocery store. And if an emergency came up, I have countless stores between work and home, plus endless online options, not to mention any number of ways I could reach out for help to get what we need.

I don’t need Costco under my kitchen sink. Costco can keep my extras on their shelves. They can manage the cleanup if something accidentally spills and assign someone to check expiration dates. They can worry about the storage space.

And when I do run out and need to replace my backup? Chances are, it will be at the store, waiting for me.

Week 4, Day 3: Putting it back together

Donna Joy

This week is all about “what do I stock up on?” So far I’ve look at my cleaning supplies and health and beauty items. Today I put my linen closet and bathroom vanity back together – the two places I most typically store those kinds of products. I even bought a new organizing product – an over the door iron holder. It has been sitting in my online cart since I cleaned out my clothes closet and decided it was the wrong place for the iron, but I refused to purchase the new holder until I cleaned out the linen closet and made sure it would work there. (I’m trying to retain the lesson from the metal boxes!)
The ironing board holder works exactly how I wanted it to. The drawers I had added to my cart for under my bathroom sink, however, got removed when I realized that the lazy susan I no longer need on my kitchen table is the perfect solution. I’ll want to update the labels on my storage bins in my linen closet at some point, but everything now has a home, everything is reachable without knocking something else over, and everything is an item we use and like, all for the bargain price of $15.87 and a little time.

Check out Instagram for pics of the re-homed lazy susan in the bathroom vanity.

Week 4, Day 2: Health and Beauty

Donna Joy

So, here’s one of the benefits of growing older: In a lot of areas, you know what you like, what works for you, and what doesn’t.

It doesn’t mean you can’t try new things – in fact a lot of studies say trying new things is an important part of staying mentally and emotionally and even physically healthy – but there are some things we don’t have to waste time making decisions about.

I know what sunscreen works for my face. I have extremely sensitive skin and there are roughly 2 brands of sunscreen/moisturizer/face cream I can put on my face without pain or massive breakouts.

I also know heavy, volume pumping hair products weigh my hair down and just don’t work for me.

And yet cleaning out my health and beauty supplies today, I found numerous different brands of face creams that I tried when I didn’t want to spend the money on the brand I know works.

I found bottles of hair volumizing products I purchased thinking…what? This time they would magically give my hair new life?

Removing these not only makes room in my closet, it also limits the millions of tiny decisions I make. I don’t have to dig through piles of moisturizers in my linen closet or stand in the store trying to sniff new shampoo scents through a mask. For many of these things, I already know what works for me. 

Buh-bye to the rest.