120 Minutes in Heaven

Do you have that one place that is heaven on earth to you?  My fiancé’s is the Augusta National Golf Club.  I graduated from the University of Alabama, so I know plenty of folks who believe Bryant-Denny Stadium is heaven on earth.  There are plenty of places I’ve been to that were awesome:  Amsterdam, Hawaii, Monte Carlo.  But I’ve never really understood this idea of heaven on earth; until July 10, 2013.  The day I stepped foot inside The Container Store in Atlanta.  The sliding doors opened and the air was as pure as angels’ breath.  I stepped on the escalator, and as I slowly ascended, I could hear the faintest sound of a cherub choir.  I took my first step off the escalator and at that very moment I understood what it was like to enter the pearly gates of heaven.  I spent the next little bit wandering aimlessly down the aisles, absorbing all that I could, all of my senses at maximum capacity.  Occasionally I would wipe away a tear of joy that had trickled down my face.  I have never felt pure joy and bliss like I did at that very moment.

Two hours later (yes, I spent two hours inside of a store smaller than your local Bed, Bath, & Beyond) and after spending more money than my monthly mortgage, I was on my way home with a new lease on life and a new project in store: to build the greatest pantry the world has ever seen.

My pantry had always been a bit of a nuisance to me.  Of course it had the basic builder grade fixed shelving and of course I hated it.  In addition, the floor of the pantry was utilized just as much as the shelving, meaning the puppies liked to trap themselves inside and scavenge for treats.  I have tried different ways to organize it.  I had certain shelves designated for certain areas.  I’ll give you three guesses on how well the fiancé stuck to that plan.  Then I went out and bought bins to keep the different categories of products in; again the fiancé found this terribly complicated.  So I blocked it out of my mind.  That is until one day, during hour 22 of Pinterest scanning, I ran across this picture.

It was love at first sight.  I had to have it.  It consumed my thoughts, my dreams, my life.  (I’m not really a drama queen.  However, I am extremely obsessive).

I tracked the picture down to The Container Store website, for their Elfa products.  I remember Elfa from the plastic crates back in the day.  You remember the ones:

Honestly, I didn’t know the company was still around.  Well, they are and they have some fantastic products.  After drooling over their website for days on end, I found the starting point for my new dream pantry: pantry drawer kits.

I was able to live chat with someone off the website and make a few modifications to the set they had online. I needed them to be taller than the set on their website and thankfully the units came in a taller size.  In addition, I added three adjustable shelves above the drawer kit.  I am not much of an internet shopper; I need to touch and feel things before making purchases.  Unfortunately (or fortunately for my checkbook), there is not a Container Store in my area.  The closest one is in Atlanta, 2 hours away.  So, I checked my calendar and found a weekend that I could make the drive.  However, the organizing gods were on my side because the next day at my day job I was told I needed to go to a meeting in Atlanta at the end of the week.   And just to give my faith a little bump, I discovered that a new Container Store had just opened across the street from the office I was going to.  Across the street!!

So, I made it to my meeting in Atlanta a little early so I made a drive by to check out the Container Store.  I couldn’t see in, but I could tell it was GLORIOUS!  I battled through my two hour meeting in the office and literally skipped across the street to The Container Store.  I cannot stress to you how awesome it was.  I have a very severe case of OCD, but even if you only have a slight infliction, you must go check one of these stores out.  Now.  You can finish reading this blog post later.  It won’t hurt my feelings.

So, I checked out the drawer kits I had looked at online and they were fantastic.  So, I made my purchases and with the help of a friendly Container Store employee (everyone I interacted there was awesome, to add) my SUV was filled to the brim.  And I was off to battle rush hour Atlanta traffic.

That night when I got back to my house, I took no time clearing out my pantry and ripping down those god forsaken fixed shelves.  My fiancé was kind enough to patch the massive holes created the next day while I was at work (even though I could tell he thought this entire project was ridiculous) and I spent the evening sanding and building the drawer kits.  I have put together many an organizing product and this was by far the easiest ever (those Swedes are brilliant).  I had the entire kit together in less than an hour and only needed a small rubber mallet.  No screws = Awesomeness. 

The next morning I prepped for painting and then painted the ceiling, walls, and trim of the pantry (this is where friends and family got concerned, but I couldn’t put that gorgeous organizational product in a dingy, dirty, drab pantry).   After literally watching paint dry, it was time for install!  I got the drawer kits in the pantry and the shelving hung (another brilliant product that took no time or effort to install).  Then the real fun began – loading my beautiful new pantry.  I designated each drawer to one category and started filling them up.  I stored pasta and cereals in canisters on the shelf created by the drawer unit, along with a basket for our overflow of bottled water, and the fiancé’s protein shake supplies.  I then used clear turntables by InterDesign on the first shelf to house all canned goods and stored my beloved crock pot on the second shelf along with our stash of sodas.  On the top shelf, I stored a few items that I don’t access very often:  paper products, lunchboxes, and miscellaneous small appliances (like the electric knife.  Who ever uses an electric knife? And why can’t I get rid of mine even though I’ve never used it??).

The last step, of course, was making labels.  Oh how I love labels.  Labels for each drawer.  Labels for the canisters, labels for the baskets.  Labels, labels, labels.  It’s amazing how small pieces of paper with common English words printed on them can make me so full of joy and happiness.

And with that, I present to you, the greatest pantry the world has ever seen.

Please let me know of ways in which you have organized your pantry. And if you live in the Birmingham, Alabama area and could use my help in taming any organizational issue in your home, email me at TheNeatFreakOrganizer@gmail.com.

If Betty Crocker had OCD

I love to bake.  Decorating cupcakes is my favorite.  I think it’s the idea that if the first one doesn’t turn out quite right, you have 23 more to make it perfect.  It’s the OCD perfectionist in me.  A few weeks ago, I made my nephew Camouflage cupcakes for his birthday.  (Yep.  Pinterest).  When I opened the cabinet to get started, I was hit in the face with a bottle of vanilla extract.  Guess who found a new organizing project?  This girl! 

During a Christmas baking extravaganza, I performed a very minor organization of the baking cabinet.  Originally I just had everything tossed on a shelf.  Ingredients, cupcake liners, icing bags, icing tips, food coloring, etc.  It was always the rouge rolling pin that got me. 

So, I found some empty canisters I had stashed in my organizing bin and proceeded to give everything a home.  Cupcake liners in one canister, food coloring in another canister, nuts in a third.  I tossed all the chocolate chips, coconut, and other various ingredients in a plastic bin and the cookie cutters in a cute tin left over from Christmas.  The few remaining items stayed on the shelf.  One of which was the jumpy vanilla extract bottle.

However, although this quick and dirty system got the chaos under control, it still wasn’t a completely functional setup.  If I needed cupcake liners, I had to move three other items out of the way, get the cupcake canister out, get what I needed, put it back, and then put back the three random items.  Not so good.  But it was an improvement, so I carried on with life.  Then I walked into my local Bed, Bath, &Beyond to kill time one afternoon and discovered the Bake Stack.  It is what I have been missing my whole life.  My life to this point has been a lie.

This handy contraption made use of the vertical space in my small cabinet instead of simply the horizontal space allowed by the shelf.  It has three drawers with dividers you can space as you see fit.  (I love this feature.  I hate organizational products that restrict how you can use them). 

I was able to house my cupcakes liners, pastry bags, icing tips, food coloring, birthday candles, sprinkles, and the vanilla extract in the drawers.  I then found glass canisters at World Market to hold the baking ingredients – chocolate chips, coconut, powdered sugar, marshmallows, brown sugar, nuts, etc.  I also now had room to move my sugar and flour canisters into the baking cabinet and out of the pantry (a massive pantry renovation is coming in the next few weeks – I’m sooooooo excited.  Stay tuned!).   I had a few random items that didn't fit in the Bake Stack or in canisters so I tossed those into small tins I found at Wal-Mart.  The last step, of course, was adding labels.  The Bake Stack came with printable labels however I went with cute red ones from the Martha Stewart Avery line at Staples.

I now love my baking cabinet.  Might have to whip something up tonight.  But more than that, I love how a quick, meaningless trip into Bed, Bath, & Beyond opened my eyes to an organizing project I had completely ignored.  Who knew that big box retail stores were the breeding grounds for creativity and imagination!  And people say shopping is a waste of time.

Please let me know of ways in which you have organized your cabinets. And if you live in the Birmingham, Alabama area and could use my help in taming any organizational issue in your home, email me at TheNeatFreakOrganizer@gmail.com.

Loads of Fun

Sit back as I tell you the story of the greatest invention ever invented in all of the history of inventions.  It is called…the Laundry Basket Dresser.

If you are in the 12-step program for Pinterest, as I am court-ordered to be, I’m sure you have seen the “Laundry Dresser” pins.  Based on my research, this advancement in home organization is the brainchild of one Ana White, a Nobel-Peace-Prize-deserving homemaker and blogger in Alaska.  I fell in love with this idea the first time I saw it.  However I have a teeny tiny laundry room so the dresser on Pinterest was way too big for my space. 

I obsessed over this laundry dresser for quite a while.  I measured my laundry room and tried to draw out every configuration that would work with the small footprint of space I was working with.  I tirelessly researched online trying to find pre-fabricated shelving units that would fit in my space and laundry baskets that would fit within those shelving units.  Just when I thought my quest was going to end as a complete and utter failure, I discovered deep, square laundry baskets at Wal-Mart.  Their smaller surface area made it possible to construct a “Laundry Tower” that would be narrow but tall (like me!).  After more measuring and drawing, I had the blueprints for my Laundry Tower.  And with a little coercing, I had my fiance on board with assisting me in building it.  (Perhaps his surprise birthday trip to play golf all weekend at Callaway Gardens had something to do with his eagerness to help me - I have no shame in bribery).

The measurements I drew up were not exactly on point, so we had to make a few minor modifications to my original plans.  Had my measurements been more precise, I feel we could have shaved about an inch or two off the width of the tower, but as it is, it works great.  We added some edge detail to clean it up a bit and threw a few coats of white paint to match the trim in the laundry room.  

I now have a basket for my clothes, one for my fiance’s clothes, one for the dirty towels, and an empty basket that is ready for clean laundry to be taken out of the dryer.  It has been a while since we constructed this gem and my organizationally-challenged fiance has found no way to screw up this system.  Success!!

Since I have severe OCD and obsess over every detail of every project, my laundry tower project turned into a shelving project made of plumbing pipe (another idea stolen from Pinterest)…

Which turned into a clothes rod also made of pipe for clothes that need to hang dry…

Which turned into organizational baskets (with framed labels of course)…

Which turned into labeled drink dispenser and vase for my laundry detergent and dryer sheets (this is where friends and family started getting concerned, but I think it was the perfect finishing touch to my pretty, organized laundry room)…

My theory had been that if we had a nice, new fancy washer and dryer in a pretty, organized laundry room the chore of doing laundry would be more enjoyable.  My theory was proved incorrect.  I now enjoy standing in my laundry room and looking at it in all its organized glory.  However, the anger once caused by piles of dirty laundry has been replaced with anger whenever I find something in my beautiful laundry room out of place (*cough* fiance *cough*).  Looks like my plan backfired but at least I have a pretty laundry room! 

Please let me know of ways in which you have organized your laundry room, especially if you have constructed a laundry dresser. And if you live in the Birmingham, Alabama area and could use my help in taming any organizational issue in your home, email me at TheNeatFreakOrganizer@gmail.com.

It's an Organizing Field Trip!

I like Christmas.  And puppies.  And babies.  But nothing brings me unbridled joy like turning an unorganized mess in my house into an ordered and functioning space.  The only think I enjoy more is tackling organizing projects around other peoples’ houses.  I get excited when friends approach me and ask for my help with an organizing problem they have in their home.  When friends and family request my assistance, they are much more receptive to my advice than when I voluntarily tell them how to fix their messy homes.  Shocking, I know! 

So, when I was in a bit of an organizing dry spell in my own home, I sent an email to family and friends asking if they had any projects I could help them with.  Within two seconds, I got a response from my best friend; we’ll call her Jackie (because that’s her name).  She proceeded to send me various pictures from areas around her house that were in need of organizing solutions.  All the usual suspects:  closets, drawers, cabinets, under sinks.  After a little discussion, we decided to tackle the master bedroom closet.  Here are pictures of what her master closet looked like. 

It probably looks pretty familiar.  Basic builder grade shelving that gives you just enough hanging space to survive but not much else.  You have 2 options – hang it up or throw it on the floor.  Jackie and her husband made great use of these two options.  I decided she needed more options.

 

So I did a little planning, shopping, and then headed to Georgia.  The plan was to keep the hanging space but also make use of the unused wall space between the clothes and the floor and make use of the wasted space above the rod.  The best option for closets is using adjustable shelving.  Unlike the fixed shelving contractors love to install in new homes, adjustable shelving allows you to modify its arrangement as you need.  For Jackie’s closet, I chose to use ClosetMaid Shelf Track.  Rubbermaid makes a similar product called Fast Track and FreedomRail products are based on the exact same design.  The Rubbermaid and ClosetMaid products can be found at your local Lowes or Home Depot.  FreedomRail can be ordered on their website. 

My first goal was to get the shoes off the floor.  I did this with shelves along the bottom of the wall.  I used both a deep, flat shelf and an angled, shoe shelf.  I also put a small shelf above the shoes to hold bags and purses.  I shifted the hanging rod and shelf up just a bit and stored the luggage up out of the way.  

For accessories, I added a few hooks for belts and an over the door hat organizer for ball caps. 

For her husband’s side we mimicked Jackie’s side with shelving along the bottom for shoes and jeans and shelving along the top for hats and items not accessed very often, such as coveralls.  Her husband is approximately 8 ½ feet tall, so although the added length of his clothes caused a bit of an issue when we first started laying out the shelving arrangement, we were able to make use of all the wall space on his side.  We re-used a rack for his belts and ties with easy access on the end. 

This was not a massive closet remodel.  We didn't put in marble floors and crystal chandeliers (although I proposed the idea).  We actually re-used a number of elements that were already in place.  She simply needed a few minor adjustments to make better use of the space.  In one day and for a few hundred bucks in materials, we were able to take her closet from a cluttered source of stress for the couple to a functional space for the two of them.

Please let me know of ways in which you have organized your master bedroom closet. And if you live in the Birmingham, Alabama area and could use my help in taming any organizational issue in your home, email me at TheNeatFreakOrganizer@gmail.com.

A Place for Everything, and Everything in Its Place

I get a lot of calls from my fiance wanting to know where things are at the house. 

"Have you seen my flip flops?  I've been looking for them everywhere for over a week and can't find them," he says.
"You mean the flip flops sitting on top of your sock drawer in the closet?" I reply.

"We're out of milk," he says.
"There is a full gallon.  It's behind the butter on the bottom shelf," I reply.

I'm growing more and more concerned with his failing eyesight as the days go by. 

As I've stated time and time again, the key to organization and efficient time management is to have a place for everything, and have everything in its place.  Well, this past weekend I was looking for a certain article of clothing, and dare I say, I had to search for it!  I was on my way to the gym and could not find my black Nike shorts.  They should be on the left hand side of the third drawer from the bottom on the right side of my dresser.  But they weren't.  Oh, the humanity!!  I eventually found them, got changed, went to the gym, and finished my workout.  All the while I was in a panic that my home was falling apart.  I was on yet another mission:  Organize my dresser drawers. 

My original system consisted of lingerie in top right drawer, swimsuits and sports bras in second right hand drawer, all shorts (sleep and gym) in third right hand drawer, socks in top left drawer, and sleep pants and gym pants in second left hand drawer.  However, within each drawer there was no organization or categorization.  Bras and panties mixed together; gym shorts and sleep shorts mixed together, all socks mixed together.  The fact that I had to actually look for something meant the system did not work.

So off to Bed Bath & Beyond I went.  Mission #1 was to get the lingerie drawer organized.  I was working with a drawer that was 14" deep, 18" wide, and 5" high.  I found clear plastic bins that fit within those dimensions.   One larger bin was used to house my bras together.  The other two smaller bins were used to divide my underwear into two categories:  "Everyday Panties" and "Those really cute panties that are terribly uncomfortable and never stay where they should but you paid a lot of money at Victoria's Secret for them so you can't toss them out but they always get in the way when you're looking for those really comfortable full coverage granny panties".  Mission #1 accomplished.

Here's a hint when using drawer organizers, especially if you use "expandable" ones.  A problem I use to run into a lot was that no organizer is ever going to fit exactly perfect in your drawer.  And the expandable ones are created to move, so you will have issues with them shifting around.  The key to fixing this problem is double sided mounting tape (I prefer Scotch brand).  It's thicker than regular double sided tape and comes off of most surfaces relatively easy.  Use the mounting tape on the sides or bottoms of your containers and they will stay exactly where you want them.  Brilliant!

Mission #2 was to get one drawer organized just for my gym attire.  For this I simply needed a divider to keep gym shorts on one side of the drawer, sports bras on the other.  I didn't want to use containers because this would just cut down on the amount of actual space I would have for storage.  So I looked into the expandable drawer dividers.  The first ones I tried were from Real Simple.  They were horrible.  They were flimsy and did not stay in place.  So, I increased the budget and went with the good ol OXO brand dividers.  They worked great.  They are much sturdier and have a locking mechanism that allows you to lock them into place whereever you need.  (The cheaper version only allows for you to lock them in place within designated ranges).  Mission #2 accomplished.

I used the same OXO dividers for my new "PJ drawer" to divide sleep shorts and sleep pants.

Mission #3 was to bring order to the sock drawer.  I needed to divide these into gym socks, house socks (that my fiance abhors for me to wear, but until he stops keeping the house cold as a meat locker I will continue to wear them), and boot socks.  I used the same OXO dividers for this drawer.

My final mission was to organize my ten swimsuits.  Why I have so many swimsuits, I'm not sure.  I live 4 hours from the beach so I find this a bit ridiculous.  I did toss out two that I deemed inappropriate for a woman in her 30's to wear, but I couldn't bare to part with any of the others.  For my swimsuits, I wanted each one to be in its own compartment.  I was able to accomplish this by using a fabric jewelry divider (like the one I had previously had my jewelry in).  The dividers I found had 9 small square compartments and one large compartment on the right hand side.  This gave me the perfect amount of space for my 9 bikinis and my one larger tankini.  Although I found my fabric dividers at Big Lots, you can find similar products (such as these) online.

Now that all of my dresser drawers are organized, I can start nagging the fiance to let me organize his.  Wish me luck!

Please let me know of ways in which you have organized your dresser drawers. And if you live in the Birmingham, Alabama area and could use my help in taming any organizational issue in your home, email me at TheNeatFreakOrganizer@gmail.com.

Take Two of These, and Call Me in the Morning

I have a Jack Russell named Booze.  Here he is.

He sure is cute.  He was purchased from a puppy mill.  Needless to say, he's not the smartest pup out there.  A few weeks ago I sat and watched him catch a red wasp and eat the entire thing within a matter of seconds.  The entire time I'm thinking to myself, "What a stupid dog."  A few minutes later I was walking in the area where the wasp homicide had gone down and that's when I realized the dog isn't as dumb as he appears.  Apparently he ate everything except the stinger, because the stinger was now lodged in the bottom of my foot.  I dropped to the floor in pain as my fiance stared at me like I was a crazy person. My dad is allergic to red wasps so any time he gets stung he has to hop in the car and head to the ER for a shot.  I had never been stung by a red wasp that I could remember but was afraid to find out if I was allergic or not, so I tell my fiance to please go grab me a Benadryl.  He looks at me and says where are the Benadryl.  Well, they are in the bin with all the other meds in the bathroom closet.  He goes in search for them and returns to say he can't find any.  So I hobble my crippled (and possibly dying) body into the bathroom, open the bathroom closet, look in the bin with all the meds, and pull out a Benadryl capsule.  As I give him the death stare, I realize I need a better organization system for my medicines.

This is how my "medicine cabinet" use to be organized.

Everything was tossed in a plastic bin and stored on a shelf in my bathroom linen closet.  Although I knew where everything was, there was no system to separate the different items so my fiance couldn't find anything.

Here is the new system.

I purchased a larger container with two large drawers and one smaller drawer.  Each drawer houses a specific category of medication supplies.  The top drawer has one container of allergy medication (so he can find the Benadryl for me when I have my next near-death experience), one container for tummy trouble meds, and another container for my anxiety meds (shocking I know; someone with extreme OCD would get anxious about things out of their control).

The center drawer houses cold and sinus meds (you can never have enough NyQuil) and pain meds.

 

 

The bottom drawer stores all of my vitamins that I never take and all first aid supplies.

 



 

Now, all my medicine supplies are divided and stored in their respective areas for easy access and quick retrieval when needed.  Plus I was able to purge out expired meds, something I apparently had not done since 2004 (I'm so ashamed). 

 

As a side note, I have no children (except for the puppy) in the house.  This is why I can use a plastic container and store it in the floor of a closet.  If you do have children in your house, make sure the container you use can either be locked or is in an area out of their reach.

 

Please let me know of ways in which you have organized your medicine cabinet. And if you live in the Birmingham, Alabama area and could use my help in taming any organizational issue in your home, email me at TheNeatFreakOrganizer@gmail.com.



Keeping the Bathroom in Order

So, my fiance and I share a bathroom (something that will not happen when we build our dream home!).  Here is a picture of my drawer:

 

I have a plastic divider so that each item I need access to has its own home, with room to spare.  I would now like to show you my fiance's drawer.  Brace yourself.

 



Just looking at the picture makes me a little light headed.  I obviously do not use this drawer or need anything out of it on a regular basis, which is the argument my fiance has when I ask if I can organize it for him.  Apparently my nagging got to him and he finally agreed to let me give him a little organization.  Here is the result (I stopped short of using the label maker.  Didn't want to push it with him.)

Now everything has a home.  Razors go in a compartment, contact lense care products in another, deo in another, and his massive collection of nail clippers have thier own home.  (Still haven't figured out why one person would need that many, but I guess that will remain one of the great mysteries in life).  The drawer organizers I use have a smaller tray that sits on the top.  This tray can be removed and house items you may not need access to on a regular basis, but still don't want to have to hunt down when you do need it.

The organizers I used are made by Madesmart and can be found online or at Target.  As I've preached before, the key to organization is having a home for everything, so these organizers do the trick beautifully.  Of course, I have more beauty products than what fits in that one drawer.  For the products I use on a daily basis to get ready each morning, I store them in a bucket (these are actually cutlery dividers I found in the picnic area of Target!).

One bucket holds items such as mouthwash, face cleaner, and deodorant.  I have a second bucket that holds all my hair products.

These buckets can easily be pulled from the cabinet, use what I need to use, toss it back in the bucket, then put the buckets back in thier respective home under the sink.

As you can see, there isn't much else housed under there.  I have a drawer organizer for all of my mani/pedi supplies, my makeup mirror, and facial steamer.  But I definitely have more beauty products.  Those are stored in a separate drawer, each category of product in its own container.

These containers hold the items I don't use on a regular basis, but still need to be able to find when they are needed.  Coconut oil for my hair (if you haven't tried this I highly recommend it!), baby oil, foot scrubs, etc.  This drawer could probably use a good purging, but no matter the level of OCD, a girl needs her beauty supplies!  As far as having a bulk supply of products, I avoid that my having my current supply and one backup.  For the products I use on a daily basis, I have the items I have in my shower, the items in my respective buckets, and the drawer organizer.  In addition, I have one backup of each of these items in a travel case that I keep in another drawer (along with a backup hair dryer).

My "Backup Case" serves two purposes.  First, if I'm taking a shower and end up using the last of my shampoo, I simply get a bottle from my backup case, then on my next trip to the store I buy a new bottle and put that bottle in my back up case.  Next time I run out of shampoo, my backup case is stocked and ready to go.  No need for three and four bottles wasting precious space in my bathroom, however I am always prepared.  The second purpose it serves is that I never ever ever have to pack my beauty supplies to go on a trip.  They are already to go.  That case has every product I use on a regular basis:  face cleaner, shampoo, conditioner, shaving cream, razor, body wash, deodorant, body lotion, toothbrush, toothpaste, mouthwash.  It has everything down to Qtips, cottonballs, and floss.  When I go on a trip, I simply grab my case and the hair dryer and go on my merry way.  (Well, in all honesty this time saver just gives me extra time to stress over what clothes to take).  I grew up in a house where we had 10 bottles of shampoo, 20 tubes of toothpaste, and more hotel samples of product than I care to think about.  At the same time we were a family of five sharing one small bathroom.  I see that as taking up valuable storage real estate for no reason at all.  I understand buying in bulk and purchasing items when they are on sale can save money, but by committing to the ''Backup Case", I allow myself the freedom to hunt for coupons and sales on items that I need without having to buy 20 of everything.

One last organizing system I employ in the bathroom is using decorative containers on the countertop to house cottonballs and Qtips.  These two items have a way of taking over a bathroom drawer and somehow always get dirty or destroyed before being used.  By keeping them contained out of the way of messy products, they stay useable and are convenient when needed.  I found these containers at World Market. 

 

 

In addition, I keep a matching box on the back of the toilet for feminine products.  

Please let me know of ways in which you have organized your bathroom clutter. And if you live in the Birmingham, Alabama area and could use my help in taming any organizational issue in your home, email me at TheNeatFreakOrganizer@gmail.com.