One Week To A Better Home: Potty Time!

Its Potty Time, yall! This has always been one room where I had to come up with serious solutions, for small spaces. We rented many an apartment before we bought this house, and only one of those had double sinks, therefore doubling our counter and storage space. Jas and I usually only had the space under the sink, or if we were lucky- a drawer or two, to squeeze everything in! Here's what I came up with that has pretty much stayed the same the past few years.

MEDICINES:
Kids: I store all of the kids medicines in a large plastic bucket. They are divided by baggie into: Infant (just for Morgan), then Pain, First Aid, Cold & Allergy and Tummy Trouble. The bucket is stored up on a shelf in our laundry room since he doesn't lock.Grown-ups: I used to have a couple baskets that stayed up in either the top shelf of the pantry in the kitchen, or if we had drawers, in the bathroom. We'd pretty much throw all of the medicines together in there and hope that what we wanted was there when we needed it. This bugged me because we usually didn't. So, typical me, I took inventory of what we had and used often, and then categorized. I keep these plastic drawers in the cabinets (which have baby-locks). The four categories are:

• Pain and Prescritions: Tylenol, Advil, IcyHot patches, Bengay... Then anything prescribed in a child-safey container goes in there, too.
• Allergy and Cold: This is for Benedryl, cough drops, Nyquil in pill form, Zyrtec, eye drops, nose spray, etc...
• First Aid Supplies: Band-Aids, Neosporin, guaze, tape, alchohol wipes, etc. I have also been meaning to add a "Tummy Trouble" label, too, because this drawer also holds Tums, Pepto in pill form, and any other meds associated with your gut.
  
• Nail And Skin Care: This is for nail scissors, clippers, files, cotton balls, all of my nail polish and removers. I also keep lotions and razors in there, too.

Always make sure your medicines haven't expired! If you find a prescription that you have no idea what it was for, you can call the pharmacy and they will tell you. Flush them, don't throw them away.

MAKE-UP: I keep all of the make-up that I wear on a daily basis in a make-up bag that stays in my purse for the most part. I have a basket up in the cabinet above the potty, where I keep the make-up I use less often (dark eye shadow, different colored eye liners...) *Old make-up can take over your bathroom! If it was the wrong shade, just throw it away. Seriously. You're not going to return it and your skin color is not going to change to the right shade without some major work on your part. Make-up is cheap. Let it go. Same goes for anything that is half used and just sitting in a drawer or cabinet. THROW IT AWAY. Please. If you love the sample, then go buy the real stuff. If you do that, then throw away all of the other kinds you had.

HAIR STUFF:
This is so ghetto-fabulous- But it works like a dream and a half. I use a shower caddie to keep all of my hair irons, dryer and products in. It fits perfectly under the sink and holds EVERYTHING! I felt it was destiny, when my round brush and the hair dryer fit perfectly in the little holes in the middle. I just pull it out, use what I need, wrap up the cords and put it back. Couldn't be easier. See those two product bottles? They used to have MANY other room mates over there. I used to buy products all the time, because there where all over the place and I didn't really know what I had. (Shame, shame.) So, now all I need are theses two guys: one is a root-booster, the other is a straightener/protector. If I want big, straight hair, I mix them together. I realized I didn't really need more than that. Oh- and hair spray, but Olivia keeps that in her bathroom.DRAWERS:
If you have them, whoo-hoo! If not, I sure hope they were kind enough to give you a medicine cabinet! If you don't have either, or the medicine cabinet it not cutting it, never underestimate how much you can store on the counter- IF IT IS HIDDEN. No one want to see your deodorant, or contact solution sitting out there. There are TONS of cute baskets and boxes out here that will hide those things in a snap. No excuses.

If you do have drawers, the make sure you store things neatly. Here is where one of my favorite things ever invented comes in: the plastic drawer divider! I use one in my vanity drawer to hold anything that goes in my hair: Bibby pins, hair ties, clips, combs... Then I just store my deodorant, and the face products in there, too. We have a drawer closer to the sink that holds our face wash, moisturizer (Yes, Jas is a devoted Clean N Clear follower. I swear to you- I have used these two products for the past 12 years and my skin rocks. His, too once he started using it religiously.) Anyway...Then... there's Jas bathroom drawer. (Sigh) He doesn't believe in all of this organization- neatness- mumbo-gumbo. Seriously. So I just don't look in there. (Unless I am out of razors, and then I peek through my fingers as I dig around for one.)
KIDS BATH:
Oh, Pretty Land. With two young girls, we have hair-clips and hair-ties, not to mention bows by the dozen. Again, enter my friend, the plastic drawer organzier. There is one for hair-ties, clips and bobby pins. The one is the back holds elastic headbands and the puffy covers I use at the ends of braids. (God Forbid, a hair-tie EVER show!!!) Then the white one holds her comb and the Skinny Serum. If you have a kid, you need this stuff. Its Paul Mitchell. It smells like heaven. And it can detangle your hair just by you looking at it. Get some. It has saved us from any more teary, knot-yanking horrors. Please excuse the plastic tub in the drawer. It holds hair gel. That I bought in serious bulk. Because it was $1.99. Luke decided to drop the bottle and it cracked. Ugh. So my cheap-ass put it in a tupperware. What can I say.
The other drawer holds their toothbrushes, toothpaste (and a People magazine so can catch up on my gossip while they play in the tub. We Yarbroughs love our People.) All of Olivia's hairbows are hanging in her closet. Morgan Jane's are in the bottom basket of that guy: I am not crazy about him, but a) he has lots of storage and b) he is small enough to stand there and not look ridiculous. One day I'll jazz him up. But for now he holds in this order: the kids shampoo and body wash, rolls of toilet paper, nothing yet and then all of Morgan's "Pwet-tees."
One of the lower cabinets holds little bow sets (stored in a plastic bin), her curling iron and the hair spray. Luke's pull-ups are kept in the cabinet under the sink and then the cabinet closest to the tub holds all of the clean towel. When the kids are done, they hang them on their hooks. Towel rods are a messy, pain in the tush when it comes to kids. I just do a clean sweep of the hooks every two or three days and we rinse and repeat.

This is no original idea, but I like these cute glass jars to old bathroom things like cottonballs, Q-tips, I even kept all of my bead necklaces in a large one. They are very PB. BUT DON'T BUY THEM THERE. For heaven's sake- they are $3 - $10 at Ikea and only a smidge more at the 'mart. I had more. Wonder what happened to them...Maybe someone knocked one into the sink while getting ready one time.... Or was cleaning and thought she had set it back on the counter and totally missed...I don't know just a thought...

Well, that's all I've got. And on top of it, I have a screaming, teething baby that just woke up, so have to wrap this up.

TOMORROW: Random Things