… And Everyone Who Uses It
Did that headline pull you right in? Did you think, “Fall back in love? Whaa?”
Good.
Yesterday, you learned Gretchen Rubin’s strategy to end nagging in your relationship. Today, organizing and cost-cutting expert (and good friend) Leah Ingram tells you how to stop arguing about bathroom disorganization. I don’t know about you, but my bathroom has been the cause of much marital distress. When my husband and I first started living together, it was all about the toilet seat and whether it stayed up or down. My sister in law eventually gave me a little alarm that would sound whenever my husband left it up–thus training him not to so do. As soon as I told him about the alarm, he agreed to put the seat in the down position–always. Later on we got in arguments about what was allowed on the bathroom counter top versus what goes in a drawer.
And most recently, we’ve been vexed by my hair and how it continually clogs the shower drain.
Anyway, enough about me. Leah is the author of Toss, Keep, Sell! and the creator of the Suddenly Frugal blog, which I read religiously. What follows is an excerpt from her new book. I hope it brings happiness into your bathroom and your life in general.
Bettering Your Bathroom Organization
By Leah Ingram
Toss, Keep, Sell! The Suddenly Frugal Guide to Cleaning Out the Clutter and Cashing In (Adams Media, 2010)
In my house, a big part of the preparation for the daily dash out the door occurs in the bathroom. Whereas you may think that a bathroom is supposed to be a sanctuary where you can escape from your stress, in my house the bathroom used to be the cause of my daily stress.
My husband rushes to shave—and leaves his razor out on the counter because there was no place to put it. My teenage daughters shower in the morning—and leave their towels bunched up on the floor. That’s because either there was no more room on a towel rack or because no one had emptied the overflowing laundry hamper.
For a while, the lack of organization in our bathroom was making our mornings chaotic, and the mess that people were leaving behind showed it. However, once we took the time to streamline what we stored in the bathroom and how we organized our toiletries and other essentials, we had a calmer time during the morning rush—which wasn’t much of a rush at all anymore—and fewer messes to clean up in the long run.
You can’t begin to calm the chaos in your bathroom until you can identify where the craziness is centered. That said, let’s start by evaluating how you use your bathrooms and what you store in them.
Leah Ingram
If your home has more than one bathroom, each one will likely require a different kind of organizing based on how your family uses it. Take a walk around your house and go stand in the doorway of one of your bathrooms. Now think about what exactly occurs in this bathroom on a daily basis. Is it like our master bathroom, chaos central for the daily rush to leave the house? Is it the bathroom where your kids perform their periodic extreme makeovers? Or is it a place that guests use on occasion only?
Now look at the bathroom with a fresh set of eyes. What do you see? Are your countertops cluttered with remnants of the daily routine? Are there hair styling lotions, potions, and tools scattered about? Where are the towels that people use after bathing or washing their hands? How is your supply of toilet paper, toothpaste, and more? Are there things in the bathroom that belong in another room?
Asking yourself these questions and giving each bathroom a once-over will give you an honest evaluation of how your bathrooms are used on a daily basis and what evidence is left behind. This exercise isn’t to change how the members of your family do what they need to do in the bathroom each day or to point fingers at those family members who don’t clean up after themselves. Rather, this process should help you start thinking about how you can help make the daily routine easier on everyone—and the clean up from it even simpler.
Copyright 2011 Leah Ingram, Reprinted with permission from Toss, Keep, Sell! The Suddenly Frugal Guide to Cleaning Out the Clutter and Cashing In (Adams Media, 2010)
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I love this post! The bathroom is the hardest room in my house to keep clean. My husband never cleans the hair out of the sink after shaving. He leaves empty medicine bottles. He would never be caught dead taking out the bathroom trash. And sad to say I am not much better. I have half a dozen bottles of body spray on my side. I work on keeping our bathroom clean because it makes me happy to have a clean bathroom.
I guess i’m lucky to have a double vanity in our new house. He keeps his however he wants (messy usually) and I keep mine how I want (clean and tidy…most of the time). I clean his counter only when I need to wipe down the counter or the mirror (twice a month maybe). I now consider myself extremely lucky to have one less thing to fight about!
Oh…also, my mother in law did a GREAT job in training my husband. I have NEVER had to tell him to put the toilet seat down. NEVER!
Let’s see, I have to keep all of my stuff in bins in the bathroom, or in a drawer, or in my closet. (Her rules) I clean her hair out of the drain in the shower as needed.
Holy crap! I am “trained”! LOL
My wife & I like Mary already have the perfect solution. We each have our own bathroom..HA! Out of sight our of mind so to speak. Also although I keep mine clean hers is the one that any guest would use so she is comfortable with that.
Next Problem…LOL
Ron
Mary, it is funny I have a double vanity too. But my husbands empty bottles and whiskers manage to migrate to my side. I just don’t know how you can put up with one messy side. I can’t!
Oh, how I miss our double vanity… those were the days… fortunately, we’ve managed to live with just one sink. Oh, the sacrifices.
Thankfully, we don’t have a toilet seat problem, either.
We do a “Family Clean” every two weeks where DH and I split the major chores (bathroom, floors, beds, kitchen), and since I usually end up with the bathroom, I clean out the drain every time I clean the bathtub.
I didn’t read this blog. We have no issues in our bathroom. We have two sinks – hubby keeps his clean 99% of the time after shaving and trimming facial hair. I catch my hair before it goes down the drain and remove my “shower spiders” (what I call the bunch of hair I stick to the shower wall) upon exiting the shower.
Our toilet seats and lids have been down since forever – I have two cats that like to play in water – if the lid is up the seat is sopping wet. Before that, I had a dog that liked to drink out of the toilet and I thought that wasn’t healthy for the dog. Besides, a bathroom looks so much neater when the lid is closed.
I won’t talk about the organization that needs to occur under my sink. I scares me to look under there. Are bathrooms don’t have medicine cabinets, so everything that would be in one is under the sinks. I’ve recently discovered The Container Store and plan to spend some serious bucks in that place to organize all sorts of things in my house. But I haven’t gotten there yet. And hubby’s under the sink area is fairly neat, so no one is complaining out loud.
I am jealous Drummer Guy, having your own bathroom is the ultimate luxury,(well not exactly, but I think you know what I’m talking about.)
We are cursed with a cubicle sized bathroom, which we have been planning to enlarge ever since we moved in. The upside however is that there is a lot less space to clean. I will often start with the bathroom since it is such a quick job. (easy accomplishment there).
And speaking of toilet seats, my Mom taught us this cute little jingle as kids. “If you sprinkle when you tinkle, be a sweetie, wipe the seatie.” Always like that.
Kathy until your comment I thought I had the worlds only cats that like to play in the water. She also discovered a love for playing with the toilet paper, shredding it, then dragging the shreds through the house. ARGGG!!!
This causes us to have to leave both bathroom doors closed so she can’t get in unless we are in there.
It’s funny though the newest kitten in the house loves to jump in the shower with me. She will sit on the edge of the tub the whole time waiting for me to finish so she can jump in the tub & play with the water drippings that are left in the bottom. If I run the sink in the kitchen she jumps on the counter & crawls in the sink. One day while doing this I thought “I’ll fix her”. I waited until she was dead center in the sink & turned the faucet on. She got soaked. But instead of getting scared she looks at me like “hey that was fun, do it again”…HA! Cats are the silliest people
Drummer Guy,
I don’t like the cats in the bathroom with me, if I’m taking a bath. I’m afraid they’ll fall in, and I’ll end up shredded.
They’ve only messed with the toilet paper a few times. Thank goodness.
But they are as bad as a dog, and like to get in the trash.
One of my cats used to love to be sprayed with the sprayer at the kitchen sink. On rare occasions she’ll still insist on her “shower”.
At our prior Vet’s, she’d clime into the sink in the exam room and wait for the doctor to come see her.
My cats are completely nuts/goofy/pains in my arse/lovable/independent/needy. They also come when they are called (most of the time). They will also mind me on the rare occasion.
I clicked on this because of the EXCELLENT TITLE of this post. I want to get a copy of that book.
We actually have a pretty un-cluttered bathroom (which doesn’t mean I love it though). I use either soap shampoo (more about that here: http://mothering.com/jennifermargulis/overpopulation/the-problem-with-palm-oil) or buy in bulk so we have almost no containers taking up the counters. We do have plants on the countertops though… I’m worried about plastic and endocrine disruption so we no longer have the POUNDS AND POUNDS of plastic bath toys that we once did… Sigh.
I can’t wait to read Leah’s book. Thanks for letting us know about it.
I think having two seprate bathrooms, or at least 2 seprate sinks in the same bathroom, can save a lot of marriages!
I know for me, I need my space in the bathroom, and many an argument has risen over a dirty, dis-organized bathroom. Very true!
It’s funny how the seemingly little things add up, isn’t it?
Good thoughts to ponder as I re-do my bathroom, thanks!
Many Blessings,
-Sarah Liz