Master Bath Cabinet Reorganization

Two weeks ago Todd started a new skincare routine based on my new skincare knowledge acquired the last few months.  I started my own new routine back in May.  Both of us are in our late 40’s, so we really needed to step up our skincare game.  The problem was, there was my skincare products, Todd’s skincare products, and OUR skincare products.  And it was spread out in three different drawers in our bathroom.  He was confused about where to find the items in his AM and PM skincare routines (which I put together in a spreadsheet for him).  It was not intuitive and it was badly organized.  So, a rework of the process and organization was in order!

We have a really large cabinet for bathroom storage in between our sinks.  It was a perk from our 2009 total master bath remodel.  We really have a lot of storage in our bathroom, but it was just disorganized.  We have a lot of large drawers and under sinks storage below this cabinet too!

The above was the “before” situation.  I can’t reach the top shelf without a step stool, so we didn’t keep much up there.  It was a mish mash of stuff everywhere.  The bottom shelve was mostly medicine.  The 2nd shelf was travel related toiletry items.  The 3rd shelf was also a mish mash of storage and travel related items.  The space was badly organized and not optimally used.

So I cleared everything out.  I took the shelves out too, and cleaned those.

Before I put the shelves back in, I decided that the bottom shelf was going to be dedicated to our skincare routines, and all our skincare products from the drawers below would be consolidated into it.  But how could I make it easily accessible and be able to see everything?  I thought back to my organization improvements from last month and the solution was clearly the 2-tiered lazy susan spinners!  I measured the width inside the cabinet and it was 22”, perfect for fitting in TWO of the lazy susans at 10.5” width each!  So I ordered them and they arrived two days later from Amazon.

So now, Todd’s skincare is on the right spinner, while mine is on the left.  Although, I have items on the right too, since I needed more space, ha ha.  But all the products in his AM & PM skincare routine is on the right spinner, so he doesn’t have to look anywhere else but there for his products.

The rest of the shelves, from the bottom up.  Second shelf are travel toiletries.  Third shelf has medicines and also the TSA-approved travel pouches that I couldn’t fit on the second shelf.  The upper shelf has extra stock-up items such as face wash, toothpaste, and soap.  We don’t need to get to the next toothpaste or soap that often, so they’re good to go on the upper shelf.

We’ve used these spinners inside our cabinet for 1.5 weeks now, and it’s vastly improved our skincare routine process!  Now everything is in one place and easy to find!

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Organized Pantry

We have very limited pantry space in our kitchen.  The way our kitchen is laid out, there just isn’t a closet for pantry.  Instead, we only have a wall of shelves on the side of the kitchen.  In the past, we didn’t use the pantry shelves efficiently, because there wasn’t enough shelves to really store what we wanted to store.  So everything was sort of haphazardly strewn, and stacked on top of each other.  We decided to finally really remedy the situation with more wire shelving, and dry goods storage. 

I forgot to take the “before” photos, so you’ll just have to imagine what it would be like without the additional white wire shelving and containers.

I saw on Clean Mama’s blog that she used mason jars with white screw-on lids to store some of her dry goods.  I thought that was a really great idea, because we had been hoarding mason jars for various purposes and have a BUNCH of them in the cupboards in the laundry room.  I took them all out and was chargrined to see how many jars we have!

For convenience’s sake, we went and purchased some regular and wide mouth white screw-on caps for the mason jars.  Then we went to work on the dry goods and used my label maker to label each jar.

These mason jars, combined with the Oxo airtight containers that we had previous purchased, have helped make our pantry a lot more organized!  We did also have the problem of things stacking haphazardly on top of one another.  So we purchased some white wire shelving (one tier, and two tier) to make everything look more neat when stacked.  It also made the small space way more efficient.

Our last pantry problem to solve was our huge deep snack cabinet that was built into our kitchen peninsula.  It was just really deep shelves in disarray.  So I purchased some clear bins that are 14.5” long so that they were almost as deep as the cabinets.  Now I can pull all my teas and Keurig k-cups out and see what I have, pick one, and put them back without a hassle.  I’m all about products and processes that make life easier or save time! 

This year we are decluttering and re-organizing our house one little project at a time, mostly on the weekends.  Some of these small changes have really made a big difference in our satisfaction with our space.  Ever have something that you use everyday that annoys you?  To me, that kind of annoyance can start to permeate your life and actually make you feel worse.  So why not think of your processes and come up with solutions to finally solve those small annoyances that can get you down?  These solutions make me happy!

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Best of July 2016

It’s hard to believe that another month has gone by already!  Summer is flying by!  Time for another “Best Of” monthly post!

Todd’s parents came to visit and we took them to Coasterra for dinner. 

On the same day, we went to the San Diego Symphony’s Bayside Summer Nights “Star Spangled Pops” concert on July 1st.  Lots of patriotic music and fireworks afterwards!

Todd’s parents got to hear Todd speak at the annual American Mensa conference, which happened to be in San Diego this year.  Todd gave a talk about how to make friends as adults (because we all know how hard that is!)  They were so proud of him!

We also walked at Miramar Lake.

Wore these heels to work.  I don’t normally wear heels at all because I hate being uncomfortable, but these 3” heels are actually quite comfortable. 

Went running at the coast.  Oh San Diego, how we love you.

Todd participated in the “Cake Off” contest at work with his chocolate caramel cake.  Sadly he did not win.  I’m pretty sure it was rigged.

We tried out a new-to-us restaurant called “Brothers Provision”. 

We had a weeknight movie date to see “Kiki’s Delivery Service”, because we love Miyazaki’s animated movies.

We got a new refrigerator.  Our old one came with the house when we bought it in 2001.  It was time.  Todd was very excited!

You might be wondering, why are they buying and upgrading and re-doing all these things around their house?  Well, we’ve saved up some money, and we believe that things around the house should enhance our everyday experiences rather than annoy us.  So, as much as we’re able to make our house a place of comfort, that’s what we’re doing.  New windows?  We’re enjoying them so much.  Opening them every morning and every night is a great everyday experience and huge upgrade from our old windows.  New office?  LOVE the experience of being in it now that it’s open, airy, organized, and bright.  New fridge?  It’s big and all the food is organized and it’s energy-efficient.

We donated the old fridge (still works), two bookshelves, and a big filing cabinet.  Todd had to take the doors off the fridge and got help from our neighbors Tyler and Fred in order to get the fridge out our front door.

Todd officially joined the San Diego Triathlon Club.  He went on two bike rides with them, plus a couple of ocean swims (but I don’t have pics). 

I took a Friday off and spent the 3-day weekend painting my craft room and hauling all my boxed up stuff back into the craft room and organizing it.  Here’s a peek, but I’ll blog the craft room makeover later in August.

We tried a new Hawaiian poke place called “Poke Go”, not too far from us.  I deemed it pretty good.  Nice to have poke not too far away.  It’s a decent closer-by choice for sure. 

We went to a concert at Open Air Theater and we saw Howard Jones…

OMD (Orchestral Maneuvers In the Dark)

And Barenaked Ladies (our 5th or 6th time!)

It was like re-living high school and grad school all over again!

Todd went salsa dancing with some co-workers.  He’s in the Swing Dance Club at work, but this was different type of dance.  They got lessons too!  Next time I’ll be joining him.

I printed out photos for the first time since last September (10 months ago!).  I’ll be scrapbooking again soon, now that I’ve made over my craft room.  For various reasons I haven’t scrapbooked since 10 months ago.  I feel like doing it again.

Dad & Shelly came to visit and we celebrated their combined birthdays with lunch at Duke’s La Jolla.

Followed by a walk around the Cove.

Went to the Padres game downtown at Petco Park with AJ & Meera.  They ended up beating the Cincinnati Reds 2-1 in 10 innings.  Love hanging out with AJ & Meera!

Cooked a bunch of great meals at home.

We helped Noodle celebrate his 6th birthday by letting him lick some Cheetos.

Some more Noodle antics in July:

I didn’t take any photos, but I got to have lunch with my scrapbooking friend Pearl and also visit her new house.  I loved it, and loved spending time with her!

I’ll blog my craft room makeover in a couple of weeks.  We are SO looking forward to August because we’re taking a week off work and just staycationing here in San Diego.  It’s our favorite thing to do! We love San Diego and living here is a dream.  And also, Peppermint will be coming to visit! 

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