Never have a "Bad Hair Day" again!
You’ve heard of the bad hair day. The other day a woman commented that she was always having a bad hair accessory day. Hair ribbons, bows, clips, pins, elastics, combs etc. overwhelmed her limited space in the bathroom. Allow me to review a few of the organizing principles that cause your space to stay organized and how that applies to the bathroom cabinet with all the hair accessories.
Remember to insist on a proper fit. If you only have so much space you are only allowed to have so many accessories. The less space each accessory consumes, the greater number of accessories you get to keep.
Only keep the items you are using at least once a month inside your bathroom. Items used less often than once a month should be stored in a nearby storage space, not your living space. A bathroom is a living space. Become aware of how many hair accessories you will definitely use over the next month. If you don’t wear hair clips 30 days out of the month you don’t need 30 hair clips. If you only wear a hair elastic once a week you only need four elastics. Hair accessories are sold in sets. The elastics came in a package with several other elastics. So did the clips, combs, pins, ribbons etc. Do you really need all of them or have you just kept them because they came with the set? The first thing I would recommend is to figure out how many of each accessory you or your daughters are really going to wear over the next month and only keep that many of each accessory inside your bathroom. Establish a proper fit by getting rid of the extra duplicates and the rarely worn accessories.
Store the accessories at the place you first use them. A typical bathroom has three regions. A bathing region, a grooming region, and a toilet region. The grooming region is usually set up in the space surrounding the sink and the power outlet. That space should only contain items that are used for the grooming activity. Let me share with you three different solutions we have found for clients over the years. Perhaps one of the solutions will work for you.
Pam needed to store accessories for herself and one daughter. She was able to use the drawers immediately surrounding the sink and power outlet to store the accessories. She only kept the accessories that she used at least once a month. In trying to create a proper fit Pam chose to use drawer dividers where she built the divider walls around the contents so all contents had a perfect fit with the size of the container/divider. The dividers came in 1 inch, 2 inch, and 3 ½ inch heights. Pam was sure to get the height that was the closest to the height of her drawers. She built the walls so the hair accessories only took up 80% of the space within the walls she built. That created a proper fit. A proper fit helps Pam maintain a clutter free bathroom.
Melanie had five daughters and herself all using the same bathroom to do their hair. Her bathroom drawers were full of other grooming supplies so she used the cabinet under the bathroom sink to store her hair accessories. Remembering that she should store items within their own region so they are at the place they are first used she realized that towels do not belong under the sink. They should not be stored in the grooming region. They should be stored within her bathing region which was surrounding the tub or shower. Melanie realized that extra toilet paper should not be stored under the sink. It should be stored near the toilet. There are plenty of decorative toilet paper holders to store extra rolls of paper at the base of the toilet. Any additional rolls of toilet paper should be stored in a nearby closet or storage space, not her living space. Melanie recognized that the cabinet under the bathroom sink is in the grooming region and it should be used to store grooming supplies such as her hair accessories. She installed a shelf halfway up the cabinet. She purchased open baskets that were the right size for the hair accessories she needed to keep in them. She filled the baskets with the hair accessories. She placed them on the shelves beneath the sink. She was careful to leave enough space between the top of the baskets and the shelf above them so she could remove or return hair accessories in one swift motion. That way she didn’t have to pull the basket out in order to get or return the hair accessory she wanted.
Lisa built a hair accessory center along one wall above her bathroom sink and cabinet. She could only have shelves that were six inches deep so she had to build several shelves and use little containers. She had to divide the accessories into smaller groupings so she could maintain a proper fit between her shallow shelves, her small containers, and her accessories. She was also careful to leave enough space between the tops of the containers and the shelves above them so she could retrieve and return the accessories in one swift motion. Lisa and her daughters had to use moderation in accessories due to their limited space. It was all part of living within their spacial means. They only had so much space to accommodate their hair needs so they only had the luxury of having so many accessories.
Be sure to label the containers and the place the containers belong so each container gets put back in the exact same place every time. That way everyone can go on automatic pilot and be able to put things away without having to look for the container.
These suggestions all follow the organizing principles of insisting on a proper fit, store things at the place they are first used, make it easier to put an item away than it is to get it out, eliminate extra motions in the putting away process, label and maintain your systems daily.
Now, organize your hair accessory center and then let your hair down knowing it will stay organized with very little maintenance.
Remember to insist on a proper fit. If you only have so much space you are only allowed to have so many accessories. The less space each accessory consumes, the greater number of accessories you get to keep.
Only keep the items you are using at least once a month inside your bathroom. Items used less often than once a month should be stored in a nearby storage space, not your living space. A bathroom is a living space. Become aware of how many hair accessories you will definitely use over the next month. If you don’t wear hair clips 30 days out of the month you don’t need 30 hair clips. If you only wear a hair elastic once a week you only need four elastics. Hair accessories are sold in sets. The elastics came in a package with several other elastics. So did the clips, combs, pins, ribbons etc. Do you really need all of them or have you just kept them because they came with the set? The first thing I would recommend is to figure out how many of each accessory you or your daughters are really going to wear over the next month and only keep that many of each accessory inside your bathroom. Establish a proper fit by getting rid of the extra duplicates and the rarely worn accessories.
Store the accessories at the place you first use them. A typical bathroom has three regions. A bathing region, a grooming region, and a toilet region. The grooming region is usually set up in the space surrounding the sink and the power outlet. That space should only contain items that are used for the grooming activity. Let me share with you three different solutions we have found for clients over the years. Perhaps one of the solutions will work for you.
Pam needed to store accessories for herself and one daughter. She was able to use the drawers immediately surrounding the sink and power outlet to store the accessories. She only kept the accessories that she used at least once a month. In trying to create a proper fit Pam chose to use drawer dividers where she built the divider walls around the contents so all contents had a perfect fit with the size of the container/divider. The dividers came in 1 inch, 2 inch, and 3 ½ inch heights. Pam was sure to get the height that was the closest to the height of her drawers. She built the walls so the hair accessories only took up 80% of the space within the walls she built. That created a proper fit. A proper fit helps Pam maintain a clutter free bathroom.
Melanie had five daughters and herself all using the same bathroom to do their hair. Her bathroom drawers were full of other grooming supplies so she used the cabinet under the bathroom sink to store her hair accessories. Remembering that she should store items within their own region so they are at the place they are first used she realized that towels do not belong under the sink. They should not be stored in the grooming region. They should be stored within her bathing region which was surrounding the tub or shower. Melanie realized that extra toilet paper should not be stored under the sink. It should be stored near the toilet. There are plenty of decorative toilet paper holders to store extra rolls of paper at the base of the toilet. Any additional rolls of toilet paper should be stored in a nearby closet or storage space, not her living space. Melanie recognized that the cabinet under the bathroom sink is in the grooming region and it should be used to store grooming supplies such as her hair accessories. She installed a shelf halfway up the cabinet. She purchased open baskets that were the right size for the hair accessories she needed to keep in them. She filled the baskets with the hair accessories. She placed them on the shelves beneath the sink. She was careful to leave enough space between the top of the baskets and the shelf above them so she could remove or return hair accessories in one swift motion. That way she didn’t have to pull the basket out in order to get or return the hair accessory she wanted.
Lisa built a hair accessory center along one wall above her bathroom sink and cabinet. She could only have shelves that were six inches deep so she had to build several shelves and use little containers. She had to divide the accessories into smaller groupings so she could maintain a proper fit between her shallow shelves, her small containers, and her accessories. She was also careful to leave enough space between the tops of the containers and the shelves above them so she could retrieve and return the accessories in one swift motion. Lisa and her daughters had to use moderation in accessories due to their limited space. It was all part of living within their spacial means. They only had so much space to accommodate their hair needs so they only had the luxury of having so many accessories.
Be sure to label the containers and the place the containers belong so each container gets put back in the exact same place every time. That way everyone can go on automatic pilot and be able to put things away without having to look for the container.
These suggestions all follow the organizing principles of insisting on a proper fit, store things at the place they are first used, make it easier to put an item away than it is to get it out, eliminate extra motions in the putting away process, label and maintain your systems daily.
Now, organize your hair accessory center and then let your hair down knowing it will stay organized with very little maintenance.
posted by Christi Youd at
12:00 PM
