Declutter & Organize: Bathroom Cabinets Cleanout

published Jan 22, 2014

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Day 15: Wednesday, January 22
Assignment: Clean and declutter your bathroom & medicine cabinets

Get this done today and I guarantee you’ll be a happier camper tomorrow morning. Why spend precious moments each morning searching through an overcrowded jumble in the bathroom when they could be used to be blissfully snoozing…or sipping coffee…or how about about catching up with the posts on your favorite blog? You are just one cleanout session away from a smoother, streamlined start (and end!) to your day. Ready? Let’s go…

Today’s Assignment:

• Go through your bathroom and medicine cabinets, cleaning and clearing. Unsurprisingly, the cabinets in bathrooms tend to be one of the biggest clutter magnet trouble spots in many homes. The good news is that there are some simple guidelines that will help make the decision making process on what can stay and what should go a bit easier.

Here’s a cleanout process:

First, take everything out of the cabinet and keep like things together, sorting by type of item as you go.

Use a good all purpose cleaner to wipe down the interior and shelves. Also clean any organizing caddies, containers or boxes.

Now, comes the purge. Have a trash bag and an outbox bag on hand and then dig in to your stuff while keeping this in mind: your cabinets are not a storage warehouse. You don’t need to keep everything that you MIGHT need someday. Keep what you actively use and let the rest go, using the following simple guidelines from the Eight Step Home Cure.

Dispose of everything that:
• You haven’t used in 12 months
• Is past the expiration date
• Is empty or nearly empty
• You don’t need any longer

Note: Follow proper disposal guidelines for medications. Here’s a post with good info and links.

Once you’ve done the sort, replace the items you are keeping, taking care to give the items you use most often the most visible and/or easily accessible spots.

Add anything that needs replacing to your shopping list.

Voila! Cleaner, clearer and you know exactly what you’ve got and where it is.

January Cure Calendar:
• Download our PDF to see the full upcoming schedule (and print it out if having a hard copy is helpful to you)

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January Cure Main Page: Click Here for the assignment posts so far

Questions? Comments? Pictures? Email us about your progress at januarycure@apartmenttherapy.com
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