One of my problems was that the boys were a little adverse to having their space organized. "If it ain't broke, don't fix it!" was their attitude. Of course, "broke" is in the eye of the beholder so they were going to get organized whether they wanted to or not.
They did have somewhat of a system that somewhat worked for them. My husband got the right side, our son got the left side. Underneath was a free for all. I don't have any before pictures so use your imagination.
I waited until both boys where gone and then I got to work. The first thing I did was throw away! I'm sure most of you can attest to the fact that items have a way of multiplying and hiding in the recesses of a cabinet. So I got brutal in my "pitching out" mode. A little to brutal in fact, but I'll save that for later.
The second thing I did was group like items together. My son had about seven (no - I'm not exaggerating) body sprays spread throughout the cabinet and drawers. Grouping them all together allowed him to see what he really had so that he could use them up and we weren't unnecessarily buying body spray.
Of course I also needed to clean the inside of the drawers and cabinets thoroughly. Isn't is crazy how grimy bathroom stuff can get? The next step was to find baskets to store their product in. I have found these baskets to be the best for me. I typically buy this size for underneath the counter and smaller, more narrow ones for the drawers.
Here is a sample of my finished work.
My son's "smell" drawer - as you can see body spray and deodorant are NOT on the shopping list any time soon.
My husband's miscellaneous drawer - remember the mirror in the middle for later.
So, after a couple of hours of hard work I went to bed to dream with visions of future organizational projects dancing in my head. When out my slumber there arose some a clamor, I sprang from my bed to see what was the matter. There to my sleepy eyes did appear, a really crabby husband holding a bag! Sorry - It is Christmas you know :)
Yes, my husband woke me from a sound sleep yelling asking me where all his stuff went. He was most concerned at that time about his toothbrush. You see, for a family of four there were six toothbrushes in that bathroom. Since mine and Belle's are both downstairs the math would tell you that there were three toothbrushes for each of the boys. It turns our that my guess as to which ones they were currently using were wrong. Yup, you guess it. I threw away both of my husband's toothbrushes (his home one and his travel one). Needless to say he wasn't a happy camper. Fortunately I had a spare that he could use so I didn't have to sleep on the couch that night. He also didn't appreciate the fact that I threw away his toothbrush holder (come one - it's from the early days of our marriage and doesn't match the bathroom.) We pulled the holder as well as his favorite mirror (from the above picture) from the garbage. I have offered to buy him a new mirror but for some reason he's attached to that one. After a thorough cleaning all was right with the world! Here is the new toothbrush solution, which we keep underneath the cabinet. I figured as long as the company didn't see it he could keep his 20 year old tooth brush holder.
There was a few more tweaks that we made since he didn't like the way that I organized. Moral of the story, sometimes we do need to go ahead and organize. However, the best way to accomplish this is if you can get everyone on board to help organize their space the best way for them.
I'll be linking this up over at I'm an Organizing Junkie
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Affiliate links are in the above post.
I had to giggle when I read this. My husband can go years without using or wearing something, but the minute I get rid of it, he wants to know where it is!!! lol
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