Your Daily Morning Routine and Organizing Your Bathroom Drawers

When you get ready for work in the morning, can you find what you need in a snap? If you have never considered your morning routine and the storage within your bathroom, you probably have tons of items spread all around in random fashion. When you begin to determine what you need to actually get going and out of the door quickly, you are on your way to creating more order in the bathroom!

Once you have taken a tally of what you actually do every morning and every evening, you can begin to organize the tools you need to complete each task. Are the items you use regularly in a convenient location?

When you begin any organizing project, there is always a moment when you appear completely disorganized. In fact, you are! You need to take everything out of your cabinets and spread them all over the counters and possibly event the floor.

The groups you choose should mimic your daily routines. For instance, as a man, every morning you use your toothpaste (let’s hope!), shave crme and razor, facial cleanser, sunscreen, comb and hair gel. Start by finding and placing all of these tools into one pile. Your routine each evening before bed, might require the use of your toothpaste and cleanser, but now also use dental floss and moisturizer. Separate these items out of the mix.

There will always be the undiscovered goopy pack of Certs and old shoelaces. Try not to get grossed out and simply discard these and move on. If you find money and coins, consider this your reward and start a collection bin. Later on, you can place this coin bin in the area where you normally undress so you can easily empty your pockets. This might also the perfect place to charge your cell phone and place your keys at night.

Clean out your drawers and take a tally of what items you have not yet moved into groups and make quick decisions about where they will best fit into the mix.

Now you can begin to move items back into your drawers. Keep only those items that you use on a daily basis in your top two drawers within quick and easy reach. If you have more than two drawers, perhaps you can store the other less frequently used items like your teeth whiteners and the hairbrush.

Using this method to store your items is a process called organizing by function. Realize that no two folks have the same routine and there is no one-way to organize. If this method seems a bit strange, try making one of your own. The main point here is that you actually consider and create zones for your lifestyle and don’t have random storage by default.

Now, for those of you without bathroom drawers I am sure you are still waiting for solutions to this seemingly impossible situation. You should probably look up and take a visual tally of the open vertical space in your bathroom. Do you have any open walls beside your sink? If so, buy a shelf unit and hang it there. If you need drawers, which are always helpful, buy small baskets to hold your loose items. Again, if you can store morning vs. evening routine items together, you can simply pull out a basket in the Am and PM and perform your routines with less effort.

If you don’t have any wall space by the sink, there is always space above the commode. Use a pre-made toilet shelf or install several shelves above. If you have a recessed area, consider going wall to wall with your shelves for maximum storage. Hang as many as possible about 12 inches apart and at least 12 inches deep. If you can squeeze in18″ deep shelves, you can also easily use this area for towels, washcloths etc.

If you are a woman in this situation, it gets a bit more difficult. We do require many more accessories in the bathroom! One quick solution might be a three tier hanging basket from the ceiling to hold your hairbrush, blow dryer and other hair related items. If you prefer to keep your hair dryer or curling iron plugged in, mount a large hook on the wall beside the sink. Tie a knot into the cord and drape it over the hook for safe keeping in-between uses. You can get really fancy and add a twist tie to the loop for easier on/off access!

Finding a place to store makeup is a big challenge if you do not have bathroom drawers. Do not feel like you have to put on your makeup in the bathroom. It might be easier to use the top of your bureau. Install a lamp or overhead fixture so you have nice lighting and you might end up liking it better than your bathroom. An ingenious client uses a tabletop jewelry box to store her everyday makeup. She saves tons of time each morning by opening the shallow drawers ad accessing her makeup quickly and effortlessly.

The main point of organizing any space is to save time and energy and there is no better place to start than in your bathroom. Get energized and streamline your bathroom routine so you can spend more time having fun!

Chia Trams is an expert author, professional organizer and image consultant she ia also a contributing author for addspacetoyourlife.com .