Cleaning Archives - Meghan Pugsly

Decluttering. Mentioned often. Hardly ever done right. Wanted to be done by almost everyone, myself included. Until recently, I use to always be that person who would constantly read about decluttering. I would dream of doing it, but never actually get it done. This is because, like yourself, I realized I had wwaaayyy too much stuff, and no place for all of the stuff. So, how do you go about getting rid of all the extra stuff that you have in your bathroom? I asked myself the same thing three months ago when I was staring at my bathroom, shaking my head in disgust at how messy and unorganized it was. It’s a rather long story about how I accumulated it all, and why it was so messy. The long story short though, is that I suffer from anxiety and depression and until three months ago, I was sucked into a vortex so to speak, where I couldn’t seem to function enough to get my thoughts clear enough for proper decluttering. I was constantly just moving things from one spot to another, afraid to throw anything away. Three months ago though, I read a book, and that book got a thought into my head. The thought was, I no longer wanted to feel owned by my possessions. This was a turning point for me, and it started with the bathroom. Don’t be fooled though, this was not an easy accomplishment. In fact, it took me a few days to get my bathroom decluttered. I had a few minor setbacks and had to do some brainstorming a few times during the process to figure out the best setup. Don’t be fooled though, this was not an easy accomplishment. In fact, it took me a few days to get my bathroom decluttered. I had a few minor setbacks and had to do some brainstorming a few times during the process to figure out the best setup. So, now that you’re aware of the time it can take, and that it may even take longer if you’re busier than I was, let’s tackle how to declutter your bathroom from top to bottom. First, let’s not make the same mistake I did off the bat. You will need a few boxes to separate the items in your bathroom. I would suggest having at least 6 boxes or bags to put items into. Each box or bag will have its own purpose. Keep Move To Another Room Donate Give Away to Family/Friends Sell Throw Out Second, you should have a plan of what you’re going to do with the items once categorized into their perspective boxes/bags. Give Away (To What Family/Friends) Donate (To Which Shelter or Charity) Sell (On What Website) Having this set up ahead of time will help you make decisions quicker when sifting through the clutter. The idea is to get rid of the items as soon as you decide which category you’re going to put them in. The longer they’re in your home, the more likely it is that you won’t actually get rid of them. They will just end up being moved around your bathroom or another room in the house until you’ve forgotten about them. Are you noticing a theme here? Are you ready yet? If so, let’s jump into the awesome stuff that you really came here for! Towels and Washcloths If you’re anything like me, you have tons of towels and washcloths. Most likely you have decorative towels, showering towels, beach towels, and a variety of different colors of both towels and washcloths. Now is the time to go through all of these towels and washcloths. Get rid of any dirty towels and washcloths that have stains that you cannot remove in the laundry like hair dye, dirt, etc. Get rid of any worn and really old towels and washcloths that you’ve been holding onto. These can put in the donation pile and donated to local animal shelters, or they can be used for cleaning instead of utilizing paper towels. Do you have an excessive amount of towels? Donate or give some away! Depending on how many people use your bathroom, you should only need a few of each type of towel or washcloth per bathroom. One large towel each of baths/showers One washcloth each for your face One beach towel each for the pond/beach/lake Two hand towels each per bathroom This amount can vary depending on each household, but this works best for my home, as we don’t have a closet for towels, and have to keep our towels in the bathroom itself above the toilet. Be sure that you’re only keeping the number of towels that you NEED, and not keeping an excessive amount “just in case.As mentioned above, you can cut up old or dirty towels into smaller cleaning cloths which will not only utilize the towels you have but save you money on paper towels every month! Toiletry Items The best way that I have found to go through all of my toiletry items, was to simply pull them all out of the shower, drawers, and out from under the sink then sit on the floor with everything and go through it one by one. Look for the following things with each item, and don’t forget to put it into one of your six boxes as soon as you check each item: Duplicate items - store extra items somewhere that you will be able to quickly and efficiently take inventory the next time you go shopping. For us, this was a hallway closet right next to our guest bathroom. Old, expired, or crusted items. Toss them out! Any item that doesn’t belong in the bathroom? Get rid of it NOW! Put it in the room it belongs in if you’re going to keep it but get it out of the bathroom ASAP. An excessive amount of items? Donate! Donate! Donate! If you notice you have 4 extra travel-sized bottles of shampoo, or 6 extra bars of soap and a brand new one in the shower, consider donating them to the homeless or local shelters in your area. Tips to further save money, reduce clutter, and/or reduce waste: Use full-sized bottles of shampoo instead of taking free travel-sized bottles as they can attribute to a lot of clutters because they accumulate easily. Use razors where you just change the blade instead of buying a 20 pack of disposable razors. Although these may seem cheaper, you’re spending a ton of money buying these large packs of razors, and they’re taking up precious storage space in your bathroom. Now that you have everything cleaned and you’ve gone through all of your toiletry items you can make an inventory of what you actually NEED. Medicine Cabinet / First Aid The medicine cabinet is another part of the bathroom that seems to get full of clutter that isn’t needed or ends up being expired. For those of you that don’t have a medicine cabinet, I am sure you have medicine drawers or a section under your sink that’s stockpiled with different products ranging from bandages and gauze to cold and flu medicine. When I went through ours we had medicines that expired three years ago, but for some reason, it was still taking up spaces in our medicine cabinet! Just like we did with the toiletry items, pull out all of the medicine from your medicine cabinet, drawers, and under the sink. Categorize all of the items by the type of relief they will give you. (ex. Stomach pain, acid relief, headache relief, cold medicines, bandaids, etc.) Check each item’s expiration date and discard the outdated and the soon to be outdated. Discord the outdated items in correspondence with your proper medicine disposal. For other items that are going to expire in less than 2 weeks, discard those as well and repurchase so you don’t forget before they go bad.Add duplicate items to the donations box or bin for your local homeless or shelters. They can always use medical supplies. Knick-Knacks and Decorations I don’t know about you, but I have tons of knick-knacks in my bathroom. Well, I should actually say I had, past tense. On one wall I had 10 zen pictures I purchased from Amazon. These are my favorite four. On the back wall, I had 4 shelves (2 sets of these). I got rid of these shelves and lowered the amount of space I needed for decorations to only two shelves. I donated the shelves I had and purchased these for the guest room. Instead of having six candles, five pictures, and tons of beauty products on the shelves, I lowered my decorations to one picture and 2 candles per shelf. On the third wall, I had more shelves with plants and other knick-knacks. When you’re going through the decorations in your bathroom, ask yourself the following questions: Do you love the items or are they just there to fill a space? Keep it if you love it! If you don’t, donate it or give it away. Were they given to you by someone that you love or someone who has passed? Are the items sentimental? If you truly love the items, see above. If not, but you want to keep it for sentimental reasons, figure out the answer to a few questions. If you get rid of the item, will you still have the memories? If you took a photo of the item, could you be okay with that instead of keeping the clutter? Would you be happy if someone had it who truly LOVED it? If you’re unsure still, put the items in a box and keep the box for approximately 3 months. If you still haven’t gone to use it or missed it in the last three months then it’s time to give it away or donate it. For items that are purely decorative that you like but it doesn’t belong or need to be in the bathroom, utilize it elsewhere in the house. Items that you realize don’t belong in the bathroom, remove them IMMEDIATELY. You should never have an item in a room where it doesn’t belong. That just adds to the clutter that you’re trying hard to get rid of. Final Tips to Reduce Clutter, Reduce Waste, and/or Save Money: One item in, one item out. Every time you get a new decoration or knick-knack, remove an item currently in the bathroom. Whenever you purchase someone new, you have to remove something old to stop the neverending circle of accumulating clutter. If you are looking for new knick-knacks and/or decorations to purchase, check thrift stores to save a few dollars. Sift through your makeup and nail polish and get rid of expired products and ones you haven’t used. If you’ve not used it in 6 months, donate it or give it away if it is still within the expiration date. Give away or donates duplicate nail polishes, makeup, un-opened deodorant, toothpaste, etc. These are some of the amazing tips and tricks I used to declutter my bathroom and keep it decluttered. I love my guest bathroom now, and so do my friends and family. It’s simple, clean, organized, bright, and cheerful. Let me know in the comments how your bathroom decluttering goes!