Organizing your Bathoom: Out the Door in 3, 2, 1...

Let's start by saying that I'm not by nature an organized person - and I am definitely not an organizing expert.  But this is the bathroom cleaning and organizing method that works for getting me out the door in the morning.

Our really brilliant builder (enter all the sarcasm you want there) put false drawer fronts on the cabinets in our bathroom - and the guest bathroom.  So annoying.  We could have used even one small center drawer that was functional, but we're going to have to wait for the next house for that.  So, with only [small] medicine cabinets above the counter and two vast cabinets beneath it, a lot of daily stuff piles up on the counter. So here's what I've finally started doing to combat the crap:

My medicine cabinet is reserved for the small stuff that would get lost otherwise - contacts, glasses, face soap, toothbrush and toothpaste.  These are the things that in a pinch are all I need to get out of the house in the morning or to bed at night.

 

I love the tumblers in my signature pleats that keep things pretty and organized.  One tumbler for dental care, a juice glass for makeup brushes, tweezers and eye makeup, and another one holds a few weeks of q-tips on hand.

Everything else I use to get ready during the week goes in this LL Bean Boat and Tote bag - I live for these bags.  Lotions, hair dryer, hair straightener, brushes, clips - if I don't use it in a week, it doesn't get to stay in the bag.  I just toss things back in the bag as I use them, and store it under the counter again before I leave in the morning.  Except it doesn't work that way every morning - some mornings I leave the crap on the counter.  But if things pile up throughout the week, all I need to do is swoop them into the bag on Saturday morning when I clean the counters and we're good to go for the next week.

To the right of the bag are two storage containers I picked up at the Container Store a few years ago.  They store items that are used once in a blue moon - hair products for nights out, extra shampoo and toothpaste, cotton balls - you get the idea.  The non-weeklies get cleaned out every few months and the stuff I'll never use again gets the boot.  

And that's how it works for me - gets me out the door quickly and keeps the bathroom vanity manageable so the weekly cleaning isn't overwhelming.  B's sink and side of the bathroom is another story of charging electronics that I pretend don't exist.