Simplify the Bathroom

Starting in December my husband and I have done a big purge of our household to try to simplify. I wanted to show you how the bathroom is turning out. This is the solution I finally settled on for jewelry. I found driftwood-type sticks and wrapped them with hemp string to make hangars. It is a lot simpler than most of the ideas I've seen, and a heck of a lot cheaper. 

I gathered all of my bottles in one of those wire CD keepers. Who has CDs anymore? I like it better than wicker just because I can run it through the dishwasher when it inevitably gets sticky. There's another view here, just because I like the little glimpse into the bedroom. With everything off the counter it takes only about 7 minutes to completely clean the bathroom. I also just realized that you don't need glass cleaner to clean mirrors! No Windex, no vinegar "green" mixture that leaves spots. I just scrub it with a wet rag first, then squeegee it down. No spots. No kidding. I fantasize that evil cleaning chemical executives seeded the advice columns with crummy recommendations about vinegar glass cleaners and newspaper scrubs just to make people run screaming for special glass cleaner.

And finally, here is what I am proudest of. We cut down our bath products to the bare minimum, and I bought that many matching pump hand soap bottles. After dumping the soap into my refill container, I removed the stickers, decanted the shampoos and body washes into them, and labeled them. I wrote on them with a Sharpie and stuck packing tape over the top. You could even print pretty matching labels as long as you laminated them with packing tape. The whole effect is much less hectic than different kinds of bottles everywhere. 

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All my life I have waited to become more sentimental. It almost happened in high school but it fizzled. I generally like the stage of life I am in at present much better than the stages of the past. In my fear, however, that someday I’ll want to vividly recall some other time, I’ve kept scrapbooks, curios, bad photographs, stuffed animals, and cards. I keep all of these things in storage because I don’t actually ever want to look at them. When I look at them I shudder. But this is my 29th year, and I am realizing that as a whole person I abhor clutter past and present, and that will not change. All of the sentimental stuff is just clutter to me. I think photo albums are untidy and don’t like photos on my walls. I hate it as much as I hate having things on my kitchen counter. I hate it as much as I’ve grown to hate decorative throw pillows on my bed. They end up on the floor all the time. No one shows that in the home magazines!

Some people are uncluttered because they are very organized. Not me. I am very simple-minded in practical matters. All of my brain and will-power is directed toward creation and parenting because making beautiful things is very important to me. Anything that threatens my time and ability for those things literally gives me nervous shakes. So the only organization plan that really works for me is this: Don’t have much more stuff than you actually need. I get rid of extra pairs of socks from our closets and extra spoons and bowls from kitchen. Toys that are neither beautiful nor creative go to charity. It’s time to get rid of most of the "sentimental" things in storage too. Wish me luck!