Bathroom organizing and making boxes

While the little monster was napping, I decided to organize my bathroom drawers, at least the ones that I use the most. The husband's side will just have to wait for another day. and yes, that really is her... she's tiny.
Here is what I started with...a disorganized jumble of stuff. (and some dirty laundry but pretend you didn't see that :) )



Don't you just love my bathroom counter top? Beautiful granite :) I'm going to work on the cabinet part this summer so it matches the standard. I painted that shortly after we moved in and it didn't hold up too well... but that's another story so back to today's organizational efforts.

I took a look through my recycling to figure out if I had any old boxes that would work and I also found 3 little trays at the Target dollar spot.. gotta love it. I found a couple of things I thought would work with some modification. A granola bar box and a Ziploc baggie box.


Here's what I did. I cut the back of the granola box and reinforced the sides with packing tape to make a shallow square box. I cut down the Ziploc box and used painters tape to close up the holes and reinforced with the remaining cardboard from the granola box, ending up with a total of 3 boxes, 2 rectangular and 1 square. Perfect. Some day I may even cover them with wrapping paper to make them pretty but for now i figure they'll work just fine.



I completely emptied out the drawers and divided into 4 groups; jewelry, hair stuff, makeup, and other. Why those 4 categories you ask? Well, that is what I knew I had mostly in the drawers. After going through the other pile and getting rid of some empties, moving some things that didn't belong, and paring down the contents I tackled my travel bags. I am a sucker for a cute travel bag. I have tons of them. However, I don't need them all and I certainly don't use them all.


I ended up keeping 4 from my stash, a red one that I bought when I lived in England, a green one that has all my makeup in it from Clinique, a pink one from Clinique, and a black and white pattern one that is large enough to carry as it's own bag.

I divided the contents of the drawers so they were easily accessible. Top drawer now holds the q-tips, my little perfume and lotion, face creams, and necklaces. That ring box back there is the one that my engagement ring came in. I keep it for sentiment and if I ever take off my ring I have somewhere to put it.


The second drawer is mostly hair stuff; brushes and combs, headbands, hair ties, sprays, gels, mousses. The other things are earrings/bracelets, makeup remover, a mirror compact, and some fake eyelashes (I think from Halloween).



The third drawer holds the bigger stuff; the hairdryer, curling iron, travel bags, makeup bag, and rice sock (used as a heating pad when I was preggers, worked well!).


And there you go, 3 beautifully organized drawers for my bathroom.

Sorry for the pictures, I'm still new to this whole blog thing/capturing my life on film/iPhone.

Linking up to:

Wardrobe essentials.

This is me at work, before 7 a.m. Eeesh. Early. I never realized the light shined off my face/head like that. (taken with my iPhone on the flipped side)

BTW -- What color is fuchsia and what color is magenta? We were trying to figure that out this morning because of my shirt. Apparently they are the same color but I've always thought magenta is a little more pink and fuchsia is a little more purple. Any thoughts out there?

I've been thinking about my #14 on the 30 b4 30 list, go through closet and simplify wardrobe. I have promised myself that I WILL NOT buy clothes until I am at a size that I am more comfortable with, so I have to make due with what I've got. Which is okay because I have a ton, TON of clothes in my drawers and closet that I don't even wear. Some of which is too small, but some I just don't wear. I need to start this organizing and get rid of the things I don't wear and all the things I've been hanging onto because I'm hoping to be that size again. It will be more fun to get new clothes when I am smaller anyway!!

My first task to begin organizing my closet is to make a list of wardrobe essentials for work/play/workout/DIY/dress up and then do all my laundry so that all my clothing is available for me to sort through. Here are the facts: I am a mom of a baby, I work 4-5 days a week and our dress code is "business casual ", I don't workout much but I want to, and I need some slob around clothes for cleaning and doing projects like painting. Also, I live in MN and have about 6 different seasons to account for with outerwear... Any suggestions on essentials?

Efficient

*totally meant to post this last week, my bad! here it is anyway

There is a push for efficiency in most workplaces. At the same time there is a push to be healthy as well. When walking back from lunch, I am torn between being efficient by going from break room to bathroom and then back to my desk or being healthy and going back to my desk to drop things off and then back to the bathroom, thereby taking extra steps and being healthier... Is there a way to be both efficient and healthful at work?

Little monster's baptism was on Saturday (march 17). It was a gorgeous day in MN, hot even. We walked over to church and she slept through most of the mass and almost all of the baptism ceremony. She didn't cry at all. She was just a little startled when Father John put all the water and oil on her head/hair. He really caked on that chrism oil... she still smells like it even now, 3 days later!

monday morning brain dump

Well I finally did it. Took a big step toward one of my 2012 challenges and one of my 30b430 goals. I joined Weight Watchers on Saturday. I had done Weight Watchers once before and it worked really well but then I got pregnant, let myself go, and gained back every one of the pounds I had worked so hard to lose. I'll admit, I haven't really, really tried to lose the weight again, just kind of thought about it but now, I am determined to do it! And since I'm paying for it, I will be more likely to actually do it because I am more accountable. Plus going to the meetings really helps me.

Is it too much to ask that when you see a mother carrying a baby in a car seat carrier, a purse, and trying to balance a pizza box and her keys to open the damn door for her? What happened to Minnesota nice??

I hate daylight savings time. Saving? saving's? I don't know. Any way. Losing an hour totally sucks. Especially come Monday morning. This morning was rough getting up but at least monster was still sleeping because she thought it was only 5 a.m. instead of 6. yay for small victories. But, putting her to bed was not so good last night because she doesn't sleep well unless it is really dark and now that it is light at bedtime it's harder to get her to go down right away. We have "room darkening" blinds but they don't seem to be that dark. I'm on the lookout for curtains now. And, hopefully it will help with naps too. :) Happy spring though. :) 60 degrees yesterday and sunny. very nice.

Have been getting ready for baptism this upcoming weekend. I know most kids are done with this before they are a couple of months old but with the holidays and such, we didn't do it until now. Plus, I wasn't even sure that I wanted to go to all the trouble for it anyway. But, now that we are it seems like a good idea. I like the idea of being a member of a church and the tradition of going to mass on Sundays, but I just have problems with the execution of it. I haven't yet gotten the motivation to actually attend a service but maybe I will.

# 20

Before:






And After...






i didn't get new pillows but these work well :-)

1 down, 29 to go.

sneak peek

can you guess what this is for?