As you’ve no doubt noticed, I am a huge fan of organizing things; clutter and chaos makes me itchy. I don’t know when the compulsion to organize began, because my mother can tell you stories about my years of teenage-bedroom-slobbery. I distinctly remember finding a glass of fungus on my bedside table during one of the many forced clean-outs. I was not a born neat freak. It wasn’t until I had my own place that the nesting instincts and subsequent organizing fetish really developed.

With over two years to think about what my dream bathroom would look like, I had plenty of ideas when it came time to outfit our new space. My wishlist went something like this:

• A convenient place to hide my hair and makeup arsenal
• A place for my jewelry, preferably one that reminded me to wear it
• Q-tips, cotton balls, etc. in easy reach
• Organized reading materials (no messy pile of magazines thrown behind the toilet!)
• Outlet for my blow dryer
• More storage! The hidden kind, so I don’t have to look at all my junk.
• A reachable place for shower goods – soap, shampoo, lotions, razors, etc.

The vanity solved most of those problems, since it has ample drawer space. I threw a few plastic organizers in there, and voila – instantly, I felt better about life. Even the toothpaste is out of sight in a top drawer, which is great because we’re not so good at keeping it tidy looking. The end of the tube is usually a giant sticky wad of disgustingness.

Most of our solutions were super cheap or free, since we recycled things we already owned. My absolute favorite recyled piece is the shelf-turned-jewelry-organizer:

The shelf was $10, on sale at JoAnns. We’d been using it in another room, but it works better here. We put about 10 hooks in, and my collection of necklaces are now on display. The mix of colors and textures are pretty to look at, and it makes picking something out much easier. No more de-tangling strands at 7am. The ceramic dishes (thrifted for $1) on top of the shelf hold bracelets, and the basket holds hair doo-dads. My earrings are in a plastic see-through container in the makeup drawer, so I see them every morning too. Because the more in-your-face something is, the more likely it is that I’ll wear it.

Below, a shelf gifted to us by my sis-in-law; it’s originally from Target, and was white. It got a coat of paint and clearcoat, and now holds all our hygiene necessities in thrifted milk-glass containers. My rarely-used (but hard to part with) collection of hair gels, face masks, etc. sits in a basket on the bottom shelf. Same principle as the jewelry – if I see them, i just might use them. The books and magazines are within reach of the toilet, for a certain someone who likes to educate himself in the bathroom.

Everyone had great suggestions on where to put our shower goods; based on your ideas, we went with a two-part solution to the soap/shampoo problem…

First, a super easy-to-reach chrome caddy holds our basics – a wash cloth and a bar of soap (neither of which are pictured here, but these things look pretty there, don’t they?!) for bath time.

To wrangle multiple bottles of shampoo and conditioner (because you have to switch it up – every girl knows that), razors, body washes, and all that other crap that keeps us primped and smelling like wildflowers, we put up a porcelain shelf. It’s directly behind the shower riser so it’s easy to reach, and it’ll withstand any water drippage that goes on. This shelf used to be in our downstairs bathroom but I think it works better here.

I’m working on creating my own Victorian looking labels for all these goods so we can put them in prettier containers. Because I am totally obsessed, and the neon green Garnier bottles do NOT match our color scheme. ;)

We also have two places for towels – a 24″ bar within arms reach of the tub for our daily-use towels, and a little salvaged chair (this was in the scary back room – it’s in the third pic down – can you believe it?!) that will ideally hold clean towels for potential guests. Right now we don’t have enough matching towels to keep this strategy up, but someday we’ll get there.

With all the extra space and storage, I feel like a queen! It is quite an upgrade from the teeny bathroom we’ve been using downstairs these last few months. I can almost bear sharing it with Teague in the morning ;)