Welcome back, if you are joining me on my decluttering and organising journey. Today I am back in the bedroom. You may remember back in November I was having a good clear out of my hair styling products. In this post, I am going to be focussing on a different drawer from that same unit. Like many other people I have a spares drawer, it is the place that new products go when I have bought them because the currently being used product is running low.
This weekend things in that drawer came to a head, and I had a bit of a toiletry overload situation, so I decided to pull the drawer out and see what I was storing in there!
Before I started Decluttering
As you can see in the image, not only was the drawer full but it was an unorganised mess, along with the new supplies there were product ranges I no longer used, opened products well past their best and things that I could store elsewhere. The first step was to empty everything out and put them in categories as I did so. There were a few things that I could move straight away, like the pack of nail buffers you can just see in the image above. I pulled these out and put them in the back of my nail polish and manicure drawer, behind my “regular” products where there was room for them. Other easy wins included disposing of these contact lens cases. I haven’t worn contact lenses since I’ve been living with Fibromyalgia which is over two years now. There is very little chance I will go back to them, and if I do, I will get new products.
Old Product Ranges ready to be donated
Now my face has become more sensitive I have had to change the products I used to look after it. I talked about this back in October, I have got an old product range just sitting in the spares drawer waiting for – nothing! It is pretty obvious I am not going to be using any of these products even though they are brand new. I’m glad they are a budget range and only cost a pound each. Thankfully they will no go to waste though because I can donate them to a local charity that supports refugees. So all of these bottles have made their way out of the drawer.
How does the inside of drawers get dirty?
I mean, I know naturally airborne dust even makes its way into drawers, but I couldn’t believe how dirty the inside of the drawer was! I have to admit one of the products may have leaked a little bit, which would more than account for some of the mess. I was still surprised by how dirty my Microfibre cloth got cleaning it out. I also realised that as practical as the small desktop ones are I really don’t like plastic drawers. I bought this set of drawers years ago in my single days, and they are not the most straightforward material to clean. When it comes to one day establishing our forever home, I will take the lead from the cupboard under the sink and have a wooden cabinet with clear acrylic storage containers in it. A far better compromise.
Not quite such a toiletry overload
So, to complete this project I got together all the small bits and pieces such as toothbrush heads and razor heads and put them in a container. The problem was that the only suitable box I had to hand was far too big for just these odds and ends. To enable me to complete the job, for now, I also added in the spare toothpaste and all the replacement supplements. This box takes up about half the drawer which leaves the other half free to add the remaining products in as best as I can.
A work in progress
Well, the drawer is still very full but at least it is more organised, and the items in there are all wanted. Because the drawer was such a mess before and you couldn’t even see what was in there we have ended up with several spares of some products. Michael had four deodorants in there for a start! Some of the overcrowding will resolve itself when the stock reduces to just spares. I also plan on having a smaller tub for the bits and pieces like the toothbrush heads and then a separate container for the extra vitamins. Micro storage solutions suit Michael and me as long as they are easily accessible. The current box has a lid which stops the easy access bit so the system will work much better long-term if I order from Amazon some smaller versions of the Kitchen Binz I used in the cupboard under the kitchen sink.
Until next time,
Gentle Hugs,
Susan
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