Tuesday, May 3, 2011

the bathroom is complete!

That's right, folks. The "Get Sorty" project in my bathroom is, more or less, complete! While things may have seemed a little quiet on the blog front, I have actually been at work. Chipping away here and there and getting all the more closer to realising my organisational dreams.

The reason I began with the bathroom is because it is a room that contains items which I have absolutely no emotional attachment to. It was very easy to get in there and turf unwanted and unused items. After I threw away (or gave away) a few bags of toiletries and other random items, I planned my solution. It took a little bit of time to research and track what I was after, but I think it was worth the wait.

This is what the bathroom was like before...





































One problem I had was that everything was just shoved into the drawers or cupboard wherever there was space. This meant that no one could ever find anything and when you did locate what you were after, you would end up pulling out about five other things with it.

Another thing was the assortment of towels piled onto the towel racks. Not only did it look dreadful,
but nothing ever dried properly either. I don't know about you, but I prefer not to 'dry' myself with a damp towel. (shudder)

Finally, I thought the storage of the bath toys could be improved too.

So, here is my solution...

To address the major problem of clutter in the vanity, I invested in some drawer dividers ($4 from Kmart), a shelf insert ($4.99 from Ikea) and large woven bags ($16.99 set from Ikea). These allow us to keep most of our bathroom bits and pieces within different categories. It looks a lot neater and we can actually find things!!

I also spent quite a while looking for the ideal cabinet to fit towels and other toiletry items in. We were fortunate to have a space of approximately 400mm between the toilet and bath to fit something in. I'm sure you'll agree that what I found looks great and fits so much in it. It is originally from Ikea, but I paid $60 for it on ebay. I really love the frosted glass with floral design.

Initially for our towels I thought a freestanding towel rail might be the go, but my husband suggested that he could simply install another double towel rail. Genius! He had installed an extra towel rail two years ago, but unfortunately they no longer make that style in white. So rather than have a chrome towel rail sticking out like a sore thumb, we opted to get the cheapest white rail we could find. A hard task since the current 'in' thing is chrome. ($50 from Bunnings)

I also bought a plastic basket for the bath toys to keep them contained at the end of the bath. ($4 from Kmart) I chose this kind because I assumed that it would be likely to end up in the bath with the boys. And I was right. It ends up in the bath every time! 

One last thing I would still like to do is get my husband to make a small shelf insert for the cabinet. (I'm yet to tell him this - The Ikea ones were about 10mm too deep. Bummer!) This will allow us to fit our medicine bottles in a safer place high up in the cabinet

And there you have it! One room down, five to go...


6 comments:

  1. Wow Corrine, living proof that you can do anything if you set you mind to it :D It looks fantastic

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  2. So neat and tidy! I love it! I so need to tackle or bathroom! We have a very large cabinet, which is great, but means a lot can accumulate that doesn't get used. You've inspired me - well it's on the to do list for later!

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  3. I LOVE the ikea cabinet-great find!! Adele

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  4. Thank you for your encouraging words. So glad to hear I've been inspiring other people towards 'organisation' too!

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  5. Thanks Ronnie! And thanks once again for your great advice.
    Stoked that now everything has a place, we have been able to maintain that level of cleanliness and order quite easily.

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