We’re friends, right?

Good, because you’re getting a peek at something I doubt too  many people would be volunteering to share on the internet: their toiletries drawer.

Lately things have been so hectic with work and social commitments that I admit I’ve let things slip around the house and have not been following my rule of leaving things as you found them. My bathroom drawer is just one such example.

I was just shoving stuff in there until it got to the point where I couldn’t find anything and stuff was falling over the back of the drawer into The Man’s below. I know it’s only a little problem, but when it was causing frustration at least twice every day and would only take a few minutes to fix, I had no excuse.

Eek, right?

My method? I started by taking everything out of the drawer and wiping it out.

I laid everything out on the floor and grouped similar items. I discovered I had not one but FOUR wide plastic hair combs (which would be overkill for anyone but ridiculous for me since I rarely even use a comb). I also found two brand new boxes of hairties, the second one of which I bought not realising I already had one somewhere in the depths there. I kept the hairties because they wear out quickly but ditched all but one of the combs. Also in the bin went the bent bobby pins and the pink bobbly hairties (which I have no idea why I owned in the first place). The gross makeup-covered headband went into a bucket of bleach.

Believe it or not, these drawer dividers were actually in the before photo (scroll back up and see if you can find them, Where’s Wally style). I got them years ago and they’re really handy.

Ahhh, so much better. It literally only took five minutes but has made my morning and evening routine so much smoother. Bonus: I should save money but not buying duplicates of items I already own.

Remember those heinous tiles in the kitchen? They’re baaaack and rearing their stripy head in the laundry. Nothing that our trusty tile paint couldn’t handle though. Plenty of putty and white paint hid most other sins.

After:

Despite attacking it with white paint, I didn’t want it to look too stark, so I added a pop of colour behind the shelves. Unfortunately the laundry serves as the only thoroughfare between the inside and outside, so the splash of green also helps the areas flow together.

With no shed or garage, the laundry had to have adequate storage for gardening gear, paint, tools and hardware in addition to cleaning gear. We called in the professionals to install some overhead built-in cabinets, while hooks on the wall rescued the cleaning gear from the pile on the floor. I actually wasn’t intending to have any blue in here but every item of cleaning gear we bought ended up being blue so I figured I’d the universe was telling me to just go with it.

On the opposite wall, a set of rails keeps small and frequently used items handy. The lanterns and cutlery (of which you can see the green handles poking out of the white ceramic pots) we use when eating dinner in the courtyard. With everything out in the open, friends automatically know what to do if they want to help out by setting the table – handy if The Man and I are busy with the barbecue.

Since it’s not a room that we can simply close the door to hide everything, it’s nice to now have our laundry easy on the eye… all for a price that was easy on the wallet.

P.S. Remember the kitchen cabinet desk from my office makeover? Head over to Ikea Hacker today to see it, plus tons of similar projects.

Image source

There are a lot of people who think that anyone daring to put fake plants in their home deserves a visit from the Decorating Police and charged with Grievous Tackiness. I suspect that most people in that camp are only there because they are having flashbacks of the dust-covered, cheap artificial roses in their auntie’s house.

To avoid the same fate, skip the ineffective duster and the messy wet cloth and use a lint roller to dust your faux plants.