Decluttering Week 9 – Bathroom Cabinets

I had to laugh when I wrote the title to this post… It is currently week 26 or 27 of the year, depending on how you choose to define week #1… but for the purpose of my decluttering tasks, I was putting 4 weeks per month, so week 9 was supposed to be the beginning of March… and here we are almost in July, what I would call week 24 or 25 of my tasks… yeah… whoops.

Anyway, the point is that clutter is being addressed, albeit slowly, and progress in decluttering and organizing is happening.  Also, please admire our very dated bathroom decor.  Isn’t it just beautiful?  The bathroom is high on my list of home renovation wishes… but it will take some time to save up that money in our home reno fund…

I mentioned a while back that I had been working on decluttering the bathroom cabinets and was planning on using the rules from Minimalist Sometimes‘ packing party for the process.  Well, I didn’t follow the rules, and my initial work on the bathroom had to be repeated slightly this past weekend… but I am happy with the results.  The photos don’t show drastic change, but the change is enough for me to notice, and enough to help feel less burdened by stuff.  I still want a couple baskets to help organize what is there, but I didn’t want to go out and buy anything… so I’ll just have to wait and see if something comes free in the rest of my decluttering.

When I started the bathroom project, I started a count of all the things I was getting rid of and a list of everything that I took out of the bathroom.  However, since then we have used up a few items and so my count is probably slightly inaccurate now, but none-the-less, number are fun so here they are:

• Expired Meds: (cold meds, ibuprofen, allergy meds, etc.) 10+ thrown out.
• Lotions: total was 18, gave a selection to my mum (4-5), recycled a couple (1-2) and have been using others up…
• Shampoo & Conditioner:  total was 15 (why would we need so many?) have used up 4 already…
• Body wash, hand soap & face wash: total was 13.  donated 2 unopened packages. 1 gross bar of soap was thrown out.  At least 2 have been used up since that total was made.
• Cotton Swaps: we had 2 partially used boxes… consolidated in to one box… I’ll call that a minus 1.
• Toothpaste: 6. 1 expired (garbage).
• Dental Floss: 8.  Haven’t used any of these up yet… guess I better get better at flossing my teeth regularly…
• Toothbrushes: 7.  3 are our current ones, 3 are the spares… 1 was really old and gross (garbage)
• Deodorants: 5 (not mine… I keep mine in my dresser drawer…) Though looking at the photos… it seems there are only 4 in the drawer now… so either he got rid of one, or it has wandered away from the bathroom…
• Make-up: I threw out at least 20 pieces, transferred 5 or so to the costume box in the basement, and kept only about 15 items (including brushes, etc.)
• Perfume/Cologne: 7. 4 to the garbage. 1 kept for the fiance.  2 kept for me.
• Sunscreen & Sunglasses: 12 total.  2 garbage. 4 donate (sunglasses).  1 to costume box.
• Empty Plant Pot: (why did I have an empty plant pot in the bathroom?) Put with other spare plant pots. (-1)
• Stationary & Office Supplies:  (yes, there were office supplies in the bathroom – pens, tape, scissors)  Moved to the office (-5 items)
• Towels: 37 (bath towels, beach towels, face cloths, hand towels, & bathmats) 3 got donated.
• plus random garbage & recycling that was tidied up…

Grand Total of Items Leaving the Bathroom = approximately 75!

I know I need to get rid of more towels… I did get rid of a few… Beautiful red ones… But we still have more than we need.  I’m going to wait and see how we use towels over the summer.  This is when more towels will get used with beach and lake trips, so I’m going to keep track of how we use them and maybe after summer I will be confident to get rid of a few more.

The beautiful red towels that didn’t make the cut.

As I said before, I am happy with the results.  I feel like I have got rid of unneeded clutter, and have organized the remaining items in order to use them up, or spending out as I discussed a while back, and know where they are when they are needed.  I didn’t really go through any of my fiance’s or his daughter’s stuff, because it’s not mine to sort, but I was able to get my fiance to part with some things I found in a box that he didn’t even know existed, and they were each given a drawer to fill to their hearts content.  (I organized his drawer, but literally didn’t even open his daughter’s drawer.)

In doing this process though, I have learned a bit about myself…  I have determined that I don’t think that I will ever be a true minimalist.  It goes against the “Be Prepared” motto that was ingrained in to me as a Girl Guide growing up.  I have also decided that I will not be able to follow the packing party rules that Anne Lene at Minimalist Sometimes uses.  Because of my busy, chaotic and sometimes unpredictable schedule, my decluttering tasks need to be started and finished in the same period of time.  I don’t think I can pack everything up, then live without and then unpack… At least not at this point in my decluttering journey.

Have you done any decluttering lately?

Next up for decluttering is my closet and my dresser, in other words… my clothes… stay tuned… 

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