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My make up bag is easier to sift through now and I’m not wasting space in my bathroom with products I don’t use since last week! And even though we don’t have a huge amount of stuff in our bathroom all the little things add up to make the space feel cluttered. Same goes for the whole house – a few extra things isn’t terrible but when there are a few extra things in this room plus a few extra things in that room and pretty soon every room has too many items that aren’t useful. 

If you are just joining us, here’s the deal: 

I still had this mindset of decluttering being a big ol’ chore up until a few months ago when I read this fantastic post from Nony at A Slob Comes Clean. It was like a huge light went off in my brain! Decluttering is simply the act of getting rid of what doesn’t belong, isn’t needed, or belongs in the trash. It doesn’t mean buying a whole slew of new bins for your things to go in or coming up with some type of system that you hope will change your life – that’s organizing. It’s a whole different ball game. Right now, I’m in the game of decluttering. I just want things GONE.

When there’s less stuff, especially less of what has no purpose in your home anymore, organizing can often happen naturally. You won’t be cramming thirty towels into the closet because you only need ten and they fit nicely. You don’t need to dig through a tub of medicines to find what you need only to keep coming across bottles that are long since expired.

Here’s my challenge: Each week, take on ONE area of your home. I’ve already made the list for you so that part is done. Go to the area, throw away trash, put items that you no longer need but are still in good condition into a donation box, and put other items where they belong. Simple!

You can read more about the challenge on the week one post.

Week 22: Bathroom Shelves

After last week I realized that the beauty supplies I got rid of made up most of the clutter on the bathroom shelves… so I decided to take on the kid’s bathroom instead! I don’t use their bathroom much. It’s in the basement and is frequently covered in towels that I’ve asked them to pick up thirty times and toothpaste that shouldn’t be there since they brush their teeth upstairs. I don’t understand. 

They have four shelves in their cabinet and all of them have clutter. All of them. A bathroom that only gets used for going to the bathroom and showering sure seems to collect a vast amount of “junk” that shouldn’t be there. 

That box in the picture on the right? We filled that box with all the random items in our medicine cabinet at the old house. It’s ALL STILL IN THERE. Old bottles of medicine, a few random coins, stickers, and so many odds and ends. It’s been in this box for almost three years. Clearly we don’t need this stuff or we would have gone looking for it! At least now I have somewhere to put anything else I discover to toss. 

And there’s a pack of wipes in the back of that first shelf that are bone dry. They are also probably from when Mercedes still wore diapers, you know, in 2014. Also discovered were an empty soap bottle and a set of Crayola Color Wonder finger paint. Why was that in the bathroom? I just don’t even have answers sometimes. 

Now there is room for towels once they are washed plus all this extra space for… I don’t know what. I have all the cleaning supplies in the laundry room to keep them away from the kids so I guess this spot remains empty for now. It’s okay to not stuff every nook and cranny with “things” just to make use of the space. 

Share a picture in the comments or on social media with the hashtag #clutterbusterchallenge of what you found to declutter.

Come back next week for week 23 to clean out the bathroom drawers. Micah and I each have our own drawer and mine is the WORST. It’s all those bobby pins and hair binders. They breed in the dark, I tell ya!