30-day Reorganization Update #1

image via Container Store

I introduced you to my 30-day total house reorganization and deep clean project last week here. As promised I am creating weekly updates to share what I've learned and accomplished.

In the first week, I focused a lot on the bathrooms. Maybe it's because they have the smallest drawers and seemed easier to tackle at first. I took one-and-a-half shelves worth of stuff in the second bathroom and put it all in an over the door hanging organizer. It's stunning how much space we created by doing that. And I got help. The Bug is at that age where organizing things is fun, so she divided everything up into their assigned pockets and did a great job. My only concern is that the door hanger is a little bit heavy now. I'll have to watch it and see how it goes. But it looks pretty great and now we can see all the stuff that has been hidden under the cupboards.

I tidied up my once supremely organized drawers in my bathroom. Several years ago I invested in plastic drawer organizing trays so I can divide up all the bits and pieces and keep them in one place where I always know they will be. It also seems to really help a person's desire to keep things clean when it's very simple to put them away and they look nice where they belong, not too jammed up. I also took the time to wash all my hair brushes and makeup brushes.

I also went through a mountain of papers The Man brought here before he left and all his mail from the past months. I filed everything and recycled a ton of paper. Major project made easier with Netflix on my laptop watching some favorite TV shows online. It's amazing what I got done. Just thinking about it makes me tired.

The big accomplishments and revelations were these:

1) Throwing Old Stuff Out -- we have a lot of junk going bad in the cupboards even though I go through them all about twice a year. There was a lot to throw away, particularly in bathroom that The Man and The Bug share. I also threw away some aging potions & make up from my bathroom

2) Organizing to Eliminate Overbuying -- The Man is prepared for any body care situation times ten. He has no idea how much of everything he has because it's not well organized. Hopefully now that we have all five cans of foot spray and all his dental floss, soap, shampoo, conditioner, shaving gel and sunscreen in one place he'll be able to find everything he's accumulated here over the years more easily and he'll use it up instead of buying more. A time saver and a money saver.

3) Creating New Open Space -- For the life of me I can't figure out what was taking up all that space I have now created in both bathrooms. I can't quite remember how I had the organizers in my bathroom, but they are feeling much more open and spacious. And I now have 1 1/2 empty cupboard shelves in the other bathroom. Just wait until we tackle the other cupboards in both of those bathrooms.

My personal takeaway this week is that for about an hour a day of work, I am getting a huge amount of satisfaction from this project and a lot done. The added benefit is the new space availability we will enjoy after this. It's a triple win situation.