Linens and Loo Challenge Recap

We have been following along with Jen's linens and loo challenge this month. And we are happy to report that our bathrooms have benefited greatly from this! We love our pretty new drawers and organized spaces!

Here's the last quick organizing project that I snuck in. The medicine cabinet. It was getting a little scary and just needed a few minutes to purge outdated and unneeded things and get everything back in order.
Here's where I started:

eeek! Not sure how I can even find my toothbrush in there??

So everything came out and got sorted into a few piles.
stays here-back in cabinet.
stays-but goes somewhere else
trash
Nothing too complicated. Nothing from my medicine cabinet is going to be sold or donated. Who wants half used shaving cream??

Everything got a good wipe down. I even toyed with the idea of adjusting the shelves... since we rent, I didn't want to risk breaking a shelf or not being able to get it back in or something silly like that.

before                                  after

 after                                before

after                                before

Want to check out what else we have accomplished this month?? (We thought so!)

Niki's 15 minute bathroom clean up

Niki's Bathroom Drawers

Shannon's Bathroom Drawer

Niki's Bathroom Drawers part two

Niki's Linen Inspiration

Niki's Linen Closet

Don't forget to pop over and enter our spring giveaway!! Just click here to go to the post.

ps. We're linking up here:

Linen Closet

Tuesday I shared with you some of my linen closet inspiration. I have a $0 budget so I will be re-arranging baskets and bins from other parts of my house.

This is where my linen closet started.

Ugh.

Double Ugh.

My ultimate goal is to completely get rid of this whole situation. However, I don't have anyplace else for a lot of this stuff. And we like to stock pile. So, something will have to give.

I started with your general sort. I stuck with a stays in the cupboard, stays (but somewhere else), toss and donate. I can't think anyone would want half used products or ratty towels, so I am not selling anything from my linen closet.

This is my linen closet completely emptied out, ready to be loaded back up.

Here it is after I put stuff back in. I have an empty shelf! What the heck?

Disregard that baby on the washer. I swear he's safe there.

That is due to this pile of goodwill stuff! That's not even all of it! I am very proud of myself. :)

Here is a good old fashioned before and after! Because who doesn't love those?

Also. I bought some plastic bins that will be making their way in here this weekend. This momma had a busy week of appointments and stuff, so they didn't make it yet. Stay tuned. :)

Did you participate in the linens and loo challenge? Share your ideas and progress with us!

Linen Inspiration

This week I am tackling my linen closet. It houses everything from extra sheets, shampoo and cleaning supplies. I am not sure where I want to go with it. Its just a big wooden free-standing cupboard. My long term goals include painting it (inside and out), and maybe changing up the shelves. But for now, I just want some organization that works for us, and allows me to shut the doors.
So, I turned to my favorite place for organizing inspiration, Pintrest. You can follow Shannon and I on Pintrest, if you want. Sometimes we pin cool stuff. :)

I am loving this zero budget linen closet from Fox Hollow Cottage. She also has some great inspiration from other places to. Check her out if you are redoing your linen closet.

The blog Design Build Love has a 30 days to an organized home challenge with specific linen closet challenges. I love that she has a doable before and after. This is closer to what mine will look like. :)

There are many things I like about this linen closet from A Sort of Fairytale. I love the cheerful, colorful baskets. I love that they are from the dollar store. The whole make-over cost about $20! I could handle that. I also love the use of the back of the door storage. Also, this linen closet houses a lot of the same things that mine does, so that makes it easy for me to translate!

What linen closets are inspiring you lately? I can't wait for my revised linen closet to be done. I have already started with my initial purge. I didn't take a picture, but it filled a whole garbage bag!

Challenge: Bathroom drawers, part dos

We are back in my bathroom. Welcome. Glad you stopped by! I'm sure you are happy to be here! Today we are finishing the vanity drawers. I know you were hanging on to the edge of your seat waiting to see what happens with two drawers in my vanity. So, here goes!

PS. You know Jen from I heart organizing challenged us to organize our linens and the loo, right? Have we mentioned that? And you know how much we love Jen. So if she challenges us, who are we to deny her?

I forgot to take a before picture. I was in such a rush to get organizing. Plus, I only had about 20 minutes. So, here it is after I sorted everything out.

That is a lot of stuff for such a little drawer. And there's more, that didn't fit in the picture. Holy spicy guacamole.

Here is the drawer after I put the be-u-tiful drawer liner in it:

Who doesn't want to see fantastic zebra lined drawers when they are getting all beautified in the morning? I know this girl is excited!



This drawer has my make-up box, my acne medication, my moisturizer, and other misc. things like my contacts, cotton balls, nail polish remover, stuff like that. I am so excited to open this drawer in the morning and get beautiful.

This is what my hair drawer looked like before. It was just a hodge podge of hair stuff and other stuff. Not so fantastic.

I will spare you the disgusting intermediate steps of cleaning out the drawer, sorting the stuff and throwing away a pile of stuff that is dried out or I no longer use.

Here is the beautiful after picture!

This is mostly my stuff, but I do have Faith's brush and some of her clear elastics in here too. I LOVE my Paul Mitchell straightener that my loving husband got me for Christmas a few years ago. I just recently grew enough hair to be able to use it again and I am so excited.

I don't have my hair gel in here, or my giant bottle of Kenra hairspray. I have a cupboard next to the drawer that has that kind of stuff. That guy is next in line. There will be a ton to purge over there.

Here is a great after of both drawers. I feel so much better!

Are you working on linens and the loo? Let us know what you are doing!

Challenge: Bathroom Drawer 2.0

No, you're not losing your mind, and neither are we. (well, that might be debatable actually) What I mean is, we aren't doing the same post twice. Last week Niki posted about cleaning up her bathroom drawers and this week I'm tackling mine.

Since our blogger bff, Jen at I heart organizing, is having linens and the loo month, we are totally game for joining in. She even has a cute name for a challenge about bathrooms. Seriously. If we were to name it, it would just be "bathroom challenge" or "towels and toilets" neither of which sounds like much fun.

I have the only, yep that's right just one, big drawer in the bathroom. There's one little midget drawer above it. However, until now, my drawer has been well in a state of disarray to put it nicely. But what I really mean is that crap was just dumped in there when we moved in and never organized or dealt with in any manner.
Really, just look at it, you'll understand.

So in true organizer fashion, I dumped everything out on the floor and gave the empty drawer a good wipe down with an antibacterial wipe.  ( I did just sweep and mop-so its not as bad as you think). I started separating things into categories, just to see where I was at with my supplies.

I may have an over abundance of hair accessories. Although I wouldn't have known that by looking that the drawer before. I had to dig just to find a hair tie. Clearly, I have plenty of them now.

Oh and some completely ridiculous unused storage devices. really?? These are what I was using in my bathroom cabinet before we moved- check that out here.

I put all of my less frequently used items way in the back. I left them in the bag, just to keep them contained. Then I started filling in, working my way towards the front. I popped this shelf in and was happily surprised that it actually fit! Where was that shelf before you ask? Oh in its most logical storage location, next to the entertainment center in the living room. (seriously the things I spaz out and ignore sometimes!)

Headbands got separated into two types and popped into the two larger bowls. They are under the shelf, but I can still easily reach in and grab one. And if for some reason I need a certain headband, the shelf just lifts up a bit without causing all the bowls on top to dump over.

So I popped that shelf in and put these pretty bowls in that I snagged at Hobby Lobby for 40% off. The small white bowl was reused from my former bathroom organization and the extra bowls found homes elsewhere. Since everything on top of the shelf is nicely contained, its no big deal to take them out quick and remove the shelf if I need something from the way back. I would rather have a smaller shelf that doesn't take up the whole width of the drawer, but that will have to wait. (there is currently one residing in my freezer that I would like to steal after my freezer reorganization)

the top shelf

watches, bracelets, and lip gloss that didn't fit in the small bowl

bobby pins and hair clips

hair ties and lip care

earrings

the front of the drawer

under the shelf

A few watches and bracelets are now easily accessible so that I might actually wear them more often. They were formerly in these baggies, yep still from the move 6 months ago. The necklaces made their way over to the closet to join the other necklaces that I already had hanging. (this is also the home of my "linens" with the exception of my sheets, which live on the shelving above the washer and dryer. As that is clearly the most logical place for storing them. My bathroom closet got its own makeover not too long ago, and I am happy to report that it is still looking just as good. Read about my closet clean up  here. 

What about the blowdryer and flat iron?? They have found the most wonderous home--on the back of the cabinet! Hello wonderful un-utilized space! I just popped two 3M Command hooks up and bam! instant storage. That made a huge impact on the space I had to use in the drawer. No idea how I couldn't think of this on my own---you know I found the idea on pinterest.

I am over the moon in love with my new functional bathroom drawer. I love that I can easily pick out pretty jewelry for the day and grab a headband for the gym without having to dig through anything.