Organized Master Bathroom

Hello All,

We've made a few changes in our Master Bathroom.  On my husbands side there was no medicine cabinet so instead we used a silver tray to corral some of his personal items. It worked for a time, but water would occasionally splash onto it and would rust. And wiping down the counters was a pain.

 Well, after two years, I had it with the rust.  Time for a change!  On the wall there was one lonely little circle towel bar thingy for a face towel.  Instead, we chucked it and opted for a hook.
                                                                 
These picture ledges are from IKEA, $10 ea.  Now the items are off the counter (not my husbands items, they're my photo props) and I can wipe the counter in peace.

My bathroom drawer is organized using what I had, such as Fig newton cookie packaging and the top of an egg carton.  I also hot glued the magnetic strip for my bobby pins and such.

I found this item at Dollarama, originally intended for a locker since there are magnets on the back.  I just sewed a couple loops with ribbon (you could hot glue for a no-sew solution) and added hooks (Dollarama).  This houses my hair bands and head bands that I use for working out.

As for all the the little extra do-dads that accumulate, you know, the free samples you get in the mail, the travel sized toiletries you acquire at hotels, and all the other little extras you have that you don't use everyday?  They're in the closet behind the door.  To prevent it from swaying and banging every time the door opens, I attached adhesive hook-and-loop tape to the bottom corners.

One last feature. The shower.  We had placed an over the shower head caddy over the water handle, but it just wasn't working so great. I realized we had some great hooks that work on tile and glass (not walls).  They're the As-See-On-Tv hooks with suction.  And voila!

Mornings are more fun to get ready for when everything has they're place.  Yes, I said mornings are fun.

Blessings,
Christina

Simplifying

Since I've been training for this marathon coming up in May, I've been practicing discipline and fortitude in my life.  When I really want to sleep, I get up instead to go run, knowing this sacrifice will pay off in the end (hopefully).  When I feel like giving up, and think "Why am I putting myself through this again?", I keep going.
I'm not saying this to toot my own horn here.  I'm just letting you know that this is how I'm practicing these virtues.

I'm finding that practicing these two virtues are snowballing in other areas in my life as well as other virtues.  One virtue I'm really working it at is, simplicity.  We're organizing up a storm in our house.  Purging, sorting, putting things in their place.   I'm also putting restrictions on my computer and internet usage.  I've limited myself to 30 min a day.  So now I must be very selective in how I use my time on the computer.  No more watching videos on Global online.  Less Pinterest, less blog hopping.  The computer is like a black hole for time.  Precious, precious time.

This will translate into more time doing the things that ought to get done in this house such as cleaning, organizing, sewing and most importantly, family time.

With this in mind, I've decided to not blog about my Looneyspoons adventure.  It's taking too much time, taking pictures of the food, deciding on which picture is best, posting it, etc.  This blog isn't a cooking blog and I never intended it as such.

I was even debating on keeping this blog.  But I still have many useful ideas, tips and projects to share so I will continue to post on projects, organizing ideas, family life and helpful tips.

Here is one tip that can help you with putting limits on what ever you need.  An online visual timer.

Here's one you can purchase.  www.timetimer.com

A free online one that I use can be found here.  You can set it for any time you need.  There are also different kinds too.  A bomb countdown, sand timer, even a metronome!  It's great for kids.  They can see how long they have left for computer time.  Also great for 15 min purging, or a 30 min house cleaning blitz.

Speaking of using up my computer time, I've used up my 30 min of the day for this post.  Hope it was helpful.

Blessings,
Christina

Frugal Whiteboard

We are blessed to have a large whiteboard in our computer room which is just off the kitchen but since most of our school is done around the kitchen table it would be more convenient to have one closer.  We have a patio door in the kitchen that is all window, so why not use that?

You can tape any size paper, or a bunch of papers if you don't have large sized paper.  Take it down when you want and put it up as needed.  Without the paper it will look like this:

Blessings,
Christina

Organized Kids Bathroom

Hi everyone,

 I have recently been watching a lot of videos from Professional Organizer Alejandra here.  There are a lot of great organizing tips.  After being inspired by her skills I recently re-organized our kids bathroom. I only have after pictures.  It wasn't bad before but it's much more functional now.

This is under the sink.  Facecloths are folded upright in the wicker basket.  Toilet bowl cleaner is in the background, towels on the right and TP on the left.  I like to buy square or rectangular baskets when I visit the thrift store.  You can do a lot of organizing with them, hence below picture.  But also they work great in the pantry or in dresser drawers to corral undies and socks.

The medicine cabinet holds extra shampoo and bubble bath.

The crowning jewel is behind the door.  Everything has it's place.  And the kids can just see what they need and grab it.  It also makes it easier to put thingsaway and encourages it.  All I need to do is label the pockets.

Starting from the top. If I have the cleaning products readily available I am more likely to clean without making excuses.  Extra flossers are kept here as well as extra toothbrushes which I need to buy.

Kids nail clippers, extra bar soap, curlers I made following this tutorial, head-bands, hair clips and creams  have their places.

Lastly, in this bottom section, each child has their own spot for their toothbrushes.  The hair brushes are easily available, as well as hair bands and toothpaste.

Garbage on the left, kids bath toys on the right.  Notice the re-rolled toilet paper?  Not unusual in our house, or any house with a toddler.

I removed the one bar towel in favour of the Ikea multi-holder.

A close up of the artwork I made.  I bought 4 canvases from the dollar store, painted them blue and then mod podged scraps of fabric.

 So that's it.  Much more functional.  All that is left to do it patch up the holes from them previous towel holder and label the over the door pocket organizer.  It's from Canadian Tire by the way.  This did not just come about over night.  It's been in the works for a while.  The over the door pockets did transform it quite a bit over night though.

Blessings,
Christina