Organized Bathroom Counter

If you don't have a drawer or cupboard within easy reach then a basket works great to organize bathroom essentials. It will keep your counter uncluttered and easy to clean.

Some day I'm going to make up a basket for guests that is filled with lotion, shampoo, toothpaste, a toothbrush, a hairbrush, etc. for them to use when they visit in case they forgot anything. Do you think it will happen any time soon?

Bathroom by Jane

Join me every day this month for GeMoOrgNo - Get More Organized Now! I started an official group at NaBloPoMo. If you would like to join you may go there and request an invitation.

More Participants
Multi-Tasking Mommy
My Pursuit of Happiness
With an Angel on my Shoulder
Just About Perfect
Tyler's Triumph

If you also want to join me in posting your own organizing photo every day leave a comment here and I'll add you to the list.

Organize Your Sink

It may not be pretty but I keep a little scrub brush next to the bathroom sinks for easy clean up. I'm much to lazy to go into another room to grab cleaning supplies. In fact I'm too lazy to even reach under the sink for it but if it's sitting right there I will scrub the sink out every day. Another bonus of doing it often is that you don't need any type of cleanser.

One night I got up to use the bathroom and the faucet felt sticky so I scrubbed it in the dark. Or I may have dreamt the whole thing. Who knows?

The scrubber is also handy for scrubbing out stains. Keep a squeeze bottle of liquid laundry detergent in the bathroom and your clothes will be stain free from now on.

(The scrubber is from Target.)

Join me every day this month for GeMoOrgNo - Get More Organized Now! I started an official group at NaBloPoMo. If you would like to join you may go there and request an invitation.

More Participants
Multi-Tasking Mommy
My Pursuit of Happiness
With an Angel on my Shoulder

If you also want to join me in posting your own organizing photo every day leave a comment here and I'll add you to the list.

*I'm sorry my permalinks aren't working for November. This has never happened before so I have no idea what the problem is! You will have to link to my home page instead of individual pages until I get it figured out. Thanks!

Sugar N Spice

Looking at my two girl's hair in this post, one blond and one brown, made me think of sugar and spice. Not only does it describe their coloring but their personalities as well!

Karen at Family Briefs asked me to show how I do the ponies in their hair. It made me laugh that someone asked for my advice on hair because I am not a primper, on myself or my girls!

Two High Ponies

I see so many cute girls wearing ribbons and bows with everything coordinated but the most I can manage is a few pony tails to keep their hair out of their eyes. Persistence is growing her bangs out so it's a necessity and Lovely wants her hair "pretty" too.

Four Diagonal Ponies

I found the elastics at a hair supply store for half the price I was paying at Walmart and was so excited to find clear and black and brown for a change which look good with any outfit.



The elastics are so cheap that I just cut them out of their hair at night. It fast and easy and painless. Just make sure your girls know not to try this themselves or they will be growing out more than their bangs. Ask me how I know!

Five Diagonal Ponies

Yes those are tweezers Lovely is picking her nose with. What else would they be for but booger extraction?

Two High and Two Low

I use a rat tail comb and a spray bottle and with the little Lovely I have to work FAST! That means things aren't always straight and even but I'm getting better at it.

And she is getting better at holding still. Well, I wouldn't say holding still but at least she's not climbing off the counter. I sit her in front of the mirror while she "organizes" our baskets of clips and elastics. It's great practice for her to learn how to put the basket of clips away before she gets out the elastics or the "Barbie" pins. (Do your girls call them that too?)


Cleaning the mirror with the spray bottle and a wash cloth is also a great diversion.

Three and Two Bigger Ponies

I've even been known to hide a baggie full of Craisins in our stash for her to munch while she gets pretty.

Three and Two Smaller Ponies With Side Curls

Three Two One

I'm sure all you creative types can come up with your own fabulous versions of these ponies with ribbons and bows and the works. Show me what you've got!

I forgot to mention how cute it is, when you have a tiny girl, to make little ponies all over her head. Especially if her hair has some curl to it. I did this a few times with Lovely's hair but I never got a photo of it. If you start when they're little they get used to having things in their hair and they don't complain. One year olds are the worst at pulling things out!

I keep remembering new things to tell you!

If your girls are going to be outside with these hair styles make sure you put sunscreen on every single part.

I try to be as careful as I can when I'm doing the girls hair but it still hurts them sometimes and they would like to cry. What I have taught them is to say, "Ow!" instead, which doesn't hurt my ears as much. Just because their head hurts doesn't mean my ears should have so suffer! I always use conditioner in their hair to make it easier to brush the snarls out but I will still often hear, "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow," and on and on. Which I can handle!

Oh, and one last tip. I put a tiny bit of regular, not leave in, conditioner in our hair when it's wet and I don't wash it out. It's very dry here so our hair needs it. If you have dry hair like we do this may work for you too. The bonus is that one big bottle of conditioner lasts us for years!

For more fun tips visit Shanon at Rocks In My Dryer!

New toys that make me feel so much more organized.

This is what I'm playing with this week.

We made a trip to the thrift store and came home with 8 little cups to store in my dry goods. I'm always looking for one and one half cup measuring cups for a few pennies but I never have much luck. These cups almost exactly equal one cup so they'll work fine.

How I organize my measuring cups.



I also came home with this $8 bench for my bathroom.



I think it's hideously ugly but I love it! My closet is in this bathroom so the bench will give us a place to sit while we dress and dry off after a shower or bath. Originally I thought I would paint it and just use it until I could find or build something better. I wanted some kind of bench with a drawer for storage. But this one is so perfect that I think I will just make a cushion and skirt for it and store baskets under it full of towels. The transformation will be fabulous. At least it is in my head.



If you've ever been to my house before you will notice something different about the front bathroom. A mirror! Now the whining can stop. I don't know what the deal is with people who think they need to look at themselves.

It almost looks like a real bathroom now and someday way in the future it might not be so boring and plain. I bought the mirror at a garage sale years ago for a couple dollars and painted it white. When we moved here last year a gust of wind blew it over as it was sitting in the hall and the glass shattered. It cost me $15 to replace it but I think it was worth it because I like this old mirror.



A new $150 faucet to replace the one on the garage sink. The first one froze and cracked when our builder left the water on in our garage. No, he didn't replace it and we have finally got around to doing it ourselves. Hopefully Stranger will get it hooked up this week.



And how exciting is a new bug sucker hose cover? I knew you'd be happy for me. Now there will be no more saw marks on my corner baseboards. If you have a central vac then you understand.

It's a Beautiful Thing

In a "This is the first time its been clean in a year," kind of way.

We finally hooked up the water in this bathroom so I figured it was time to clean it. I'm so excited to have one more room to clean every day.

Organize Your Bathroom Drawer

*Updated
Alissa brought up a good point in the comments. Little girls love to get into all these fun hair accessories. When Persistence was little I kept them in a flat tackle box with a tight fitting lid. The clasp was too strong for her to open but she could get it out of the drawer and bring it to me. The tight lid andthe compartments kept everything from tumbling together. By the time she was old enough to open it she was old enough to stay out of it! Lovely hasn't made an attempt to get into this drawer yet. She isn't as, shall we say, persistant as my older daughter!

I was getting tired of this

It's a great organizing container that I bought at Target several years ago. It has lots of little compartments and the top layer slides back and forth. My problem with it was that it didn't have any big compartments for larger hair accessories. So I stopped at the dollar store and found some great stuff!


And so cheap! Why haven't I shopped the dollar store for containers before?

I don't know! I outfitted this drawer for less than three dollars and look how perfectly the containers fit! There is only a tiny corner of wasted space. I love it! I am just in want of some smaller containers to work with it. I have those round red dishes in there until...

...our next organizing adventure!

Get Well Basket

Thank you! I am feeling much better today. I can stand up without getting dizzy and nauseous. The kids have really pitched in and helped with the baby. Mostly I just lay on the couch while she uses my face as a stepping stool to reach things behind the couch. Things such as the Get Well Basket I made for myself. I think its way better than flowers. Don’t you? It holds tissues, cough syrup, Advil, water and my reading and writing books. I got tired of carrying all my gear from room to room in my weakened state so I dug a basket out of storage to contain it all.

Organize Your Towels

Here is my organizing project for the week. My kids will learn to hang up their bath towels when they are finished with them. This is something that I should have taught them long ago but I kept putting it off and picking them up myself. I finally sat down with them and explained how our new system would work.

• The red towels are Grey's.
• The yellow towels are Kate's.
• They each have a spot for their towels they can reach.
• I sewed ribbon loops to their towels so they wouldn't fall off their hooks.
• If I see one on the floor, I will know who's it is and they will pick it up themselves.

I have been amazed by the results of that one little five minute talk. Not only are they happy to hang their towels up but sometimes they even do it without being reminded!

I've been distracted again from writing. That doesn't mean I haven't been organizing. I wouldn't be alive if I wasn't organizing. Kind of like we say about my daughter, "If she isn't talking she's asleep."

For the first couple months of this pregnancy I was so sick that I had to scale down my expectations. I did dishes and laundry. The kids learned very quickly how to clean the rest of the house and pick up after themselves. The house didn't look great but it was livable. All the training that I thought was going in one ear and out the other finally kicked in. For some reason when Mom is sick everyone pitches in a lot more with a lot less complaining.

Three weeks ago we started getting ready for an Open House. We didn't end up finding any serious buyers but we didn't work hard for two weeks for nothing. Our home will now be perfectly ready when the time comes that we do sell it. We painted, we hung doors, fixed and cleaned windows, scrubbed carpets and bathrooms. We rented a storage unit and cleared out all the unnecessary furniture and storage. We worked harder than I ever thought I could in my condition and we manage to get it all finished. I am determined not to let all these types of little projects go undone for so long in our new house. Why should I fix up my house for someone else. I want it beautiful for my family to enjoy not someone elses.