31 Days Of Decluttering In December: Day 14

Good morning! It is Day 14 of our 31 Days Of Decluttering In December!

Today’s challenge is decluttering, cleaning, and organizing the main bathroom in your home. We have 2 bathrooms in our house. The bathroom on the main floor and the bathroom upstairs. All 7 of us share both of the bathrooms therefore making them probably the busiest rooms in the house when everyone is home. That being said, I will declutter and clean the bathroom today and probably by tonight, someone will have messed it up which is so frustrating but it still needs done!

Today will probably take you the longest of all the challenges so far. If you don’t have much time, divide the challenge up and do one cabinet, clean the toilet, or the bathtub. Do what you can! Just because you don’t get the whole challenge done doesn’t mean you failed! If you get one thing done, that is one thing that wasn’t done yesterday, which is a win! I’m planning on being home today, where some of you may be already celebrating Christmas with family or have other obligations to tend to. Don’t feel guilty about it, do what you can and feel good about that!

There are many items needed in the bathroom. However, there are also many things that make it into the bathroom that do not need to be there. At our home those would include: toys, clothes, cups, and possible backpacks if someone ran in directly after school! In our bathroom, storage space is very limited, so it is important to maximize what space is available.

One important step in decluttering your bathroom is deciding what needs to be in there, what products do you actually use, and what you will never use again.

Here are my recommendations for decluttering the bathroom:

Remove all clothing from the bathroom and put either in the hamper or the proper bedroom it belongs in.
Start at the top and work your way down. Cobwebs first and then move to the cabinets. (I declutter first and then I clean.)
Do one cabinet at a time. If you run out of time, you don’t have nearly the mess!
Take everything out of the cabinet, wipe it out and then start putting the like items together. If the item will be going in a different cabinet, set it aside until you get to that cabinet. If something is broken, throw it away!
Check items for expiration dates! Make-up will grow bacteria if it is kept too long and can harm you.
Remember, if you haven’t used the items in a long time, it’s time for them to go! This is also true for items that you know you won’t be using (curling irons, waxing pots, etc).
As far as lotions, shampoos and other products, decide how much is enough. If you have 20 bottles of lotion and 7 are half used up, something can probably be tossed. You can donate the full ones or toss the half used up! If you are like me you have your favorites. Feel free to keep those and get rid of the rest!
Remember as you are decluttering and cleaning that if you find something you are out of (toilet paper, feminine products, etc.) grab your list and write it down! It will save you from trying to figure out what that item was later on!

I’m excited about this challenge because I am sure I will find some items to bless others with as well as I love having a clean bathroom. (I’m also hoping that if I get energized enough from decluttering it, I might get the energy and ambition to paint it soon. I’ve been wanting to paint that bathroom for 3 years!) I’m looking forward to hearing what progress you make on your own bathrooms as well!

If you want to link up, snap a picture and meet back at 6 CST. For those of you who don’t blog, leave a comment and let me know what you were able to declutter, and hopefully bless someone else with!

Here are the previous challenges in this series: