DIY Bathroom cabinet organization

Isn't it wonderful how a new year brings with it the desire to get our lives organized? That's been especially true for me this year—since I'm writing a book, I don't have time to be disorganized!
But here's the sad truth about what the cabinet under my bathroom sink looked like:



That doesn't exactly look like the personal space of an organized person, does it?

To be honest, I was a little stumped about how to organize this cabinet, since I knew I couldn't add any kind of stationary fixtures that would block access to the plumbing. But just about anything would be better than the mess I had, right?


I started by removing everything from the cabinet and giving the interior a good wipe-down. As you can imagine, I threw away a LOT of what was in that under-cabinet mess!

With the items I had left, I realized I needed five different areas of storage:

• travel bags I like to keep ready-to-go
• large items that need to stand upright (e.g. cans of hairspray, bottles of peroxide)
• medicines
• skincare items
• small haircare items

Your list might be different, but this was what I needed. Since my space is not very big, I decided to do 12" deep shelves on one side and pull-out bins on the other side. 

I started by buying 12" boards and painting them white. I recommend wood for under-sink shelves, since MDF will be ruined if it gets wet.

Next I created my pull-out bins, since those had to be precisely the size of my baskets.  I used these Sterilite Ultra baskets. I bought mine at Target; you can find also find them at Walmart or from amazon.com (affiliate link).

I measured my baskets to determine how wide this area needed to be, then cut two identical pieces of board to serve as side supports and one larger piece to go across the top of those two side supports. It's like a little table, really. Then I glued on small pieces of wood to serve as runners for the baskets, like so:

The baskets will simply hang on those side runners and pull partly or completely out for easy access.

Note that I couldn't place the right side support completely against the wall of the cabinet or else the baskets would run into the hinge. I simply placed a piece of wood on the right side so that the shelf unit has something to stand against.

For the other side of the cabinet, I made two shelves. The size of the shelves was determined by the space I had left in the cabinet after making the pull-out bins. The shelves were easy to create. I simply allowed the floor of the cabinet to function as one shelf, then built another little "table" of two identical side supports plus a board to lie across the top. The whole thing sits in front of the plumbing. It stays in place because it's pushed firmly up against the wall of the cabinet on the left side and against the pull-out bin "wall" on the right.

Every bit of these shelves is completely removable. None of the pieces is sturdy by itself, but when placed all together, it's firmly wedged into the space and is quite sturdy!



As you can see, I used another basket to corral some of my tall items. Under the tall items are my travel bags. I keep those bags loaded with toiletry items. Behind the striped bag is a quart-sized Ziploc bag with small containers of liquids. I try never to check luggage when I fly, so all my liquids must be in containers of 3 ounces or less.

I added Command hooks to the insides of the doors. One holds a washcloth that I use for drying my face after removing my make-up at night. It seems that I nearly always have a tiny bit of make-up left on my skin, so the towel ends up with make-up stains on it. I don't want to ruin my nice bathroom towels, so I use old white washcloth as face towels. This hook keeps one nice and handy. The other hook I use to hang my shower cap. (I only wash my hair once a week, so a shower cap is a necessity!)

So now I've gone from this



to this:

I breathe a sigh of relief when I open this cabinet now. Everything I need is at my fingertips, and it can all be easily removed when need be. 

Have you completed any good organizing projects lately? I'd love to see!

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I'm joining these fun parties:

The Scoop

Inspire Me Tuesday

Wow Us Wednesday

Getting organized for your soul's sake

Happy new year!  Last year, one full of momentous events at our house, flew by.  I'm glad to have a nice new year stretching before me!

I've realized something about myself.  Year after year, I do the same thing.  Although I'm not a great goal-setter or maker of formal resolutions, every year I resolve to do a few things better than I did last year.

And pretty much every year, my greatest hope is to be more organized.



No, I'm not hopelessly disorganized.  We don't live in squalor.  I'm not dealing with total chaos.

But I am dealing with less than what is best for me and my family.  Less than organized, less than orderly, less than peaceful.

Every year, despite my hopes, despite scattered efforts great and small, I end up back in pretty much the same spot.  And I think I may have finally realized what I've been doing wrong.

Instead of confronting my problems with disorganization honestly, I look for ways around them.  It's easy for me to read one more organizing article, buy one more organizing book, acquire one more organizing tool.  Rather than addressing the underlying issues, I've been developing mechanisms for coping with the outcomes of disorganization.

Instead of getting organized, I've become a master of coping mechanisms.

Maybe you've done the same thing.  Perhaps I'm not the only one.

This year, I'd like to tackle the problem from the inside out.

Being disorganized is not good for my soul; of that I'm sure.  I'm going to explore what it means to be organized for the sake of my soul.  I'm going to dig into what my soul needs and what I can do to achieve it.

I'll never be an organizing expert; of that I'm sure.  That's not one of the gifts that God gave me.  But I believe that if I work on this issue with an open mind and an open heart, I can make real strides.

How about you?  Would you like to get more organized for the sake of your soul?

DIY Jewelry Organization

Organization is a struggle for me, but I've just completed a small project that's going to make a big difference.  I organized my jewelry.

Let me be more specific:  I organized my necklaces.  I don't have problems with small things like rings and earrings.  They fit neatly in my jewelry box.  But my necklaces were a mess--they were lying in a drawer, all tangled up with one another, and I'd swear that they were becoming more tangled as they lay there!  Once I finally got them all separated, I vowed to do something to keep them disentangled.

This was a very inexpensive and easy project.  All I bought were two 20" x 30" foam core boards.  Mine are inexpensive boards made by Elmer's; I paid less than $4.00 each for them.  I used two just to make the whole thing a little sturdier.

I found a piece of fabric in my stash large enough to cover the board, and I simply wrapped it like a present, securing it in back with a staple gun.  The staple gun worked like a charm on the foam core board!

I knew that I wanted to hang my board on the wall, so I wanted it to be extra sturdy.  To that end, I cut off six inches of spare wooden yardstick and glued it to the top of the back of the board with E-6000 adhesive.

Then with the same E-6000 adhesive, I glued on pop tops from soda cans onto the yard stick to serve as hangers.  

Then I flipped the board over and added push pins in a neat row across the top.  I just used clear plastic push pins that I already owned.  I figured the jewelry would make the board beautiful, so why bother with buying pretty push pins?

Hanging the board was easy.  I measured the distance between the two hangers, then drove two nails into the wall that distance apart.  I used a yardstick and level to make sure my two nails were lined up correctly.  One nail is attached to a stud.  The other is just attached to the drywall, but it seems quite sturdy.  If I have any trouble, I'll re-do it using a drywall anchor.

My jewelry board is hanging in my long, narrow walk-in closet, which is unfortunately a bad place for taking photos, but you get the idea:

Not a tangle in the bunch!  Bonus: since I can now see my necklaces, I'm wearing them more often.  It's a win-win-win.

Do you have your jewelry organized?  Any tips to share?

I'm joining these wonderful parties:

One Project at a Time at A Bowl Full of Lemons

Wow Us Wednesday at Savvy Southern Style
Tutorials, Tips, and Tidbits at Stone Gable

DIY Family Command Center

Here's my latest attempt at getting our busy family more organized:

For as long as we've lived in this house, I've wondered if I should do something with this little sliver of space at the end of the kitchen cabinets:

Our kitchen cupboards are beadboard, and this cabinet end was nicely finished. Yet it seemed that this space could probably be put to some purpose. . . I just never could figure out what that purpose should be. For awhile I thought that I shouldn't do anything to make this space too informal, since it's right beside the door into our dining room. Then it occurred to me that, since this spot is where our dog's food bowl sits, the atmosphere there was already pretty informal.

So I created a planning center. And here it is:

The frames were both thrift store finds. The large one held a painting on hardboard, so at first I made it into a chalkboard, which was cute:

But we needed a corkboard more than we needed a chalkboard, so I cut some foamboard to fit the frame, then glued on a sheet of cork. Now we have a place for our calendars with some room left over to pin up other important papers.

I used the smaller frame to make an attractive white board.  I found a magnetic white board and pen in Target's One Spot.  To make it fit the frame, I had to cut about an inch off the white board, but that was easy to do. The note card and pen holder is magnetic, so I just stuck it onto the whiteboard.  We use the white board only occasionally, but we use that note card holder a lot.  I keep blank 3x5 cards in it, which cost about 50 cents for 100 cards.  No one ever has to search for a piece of paper to leave a note or make a list.

The tin sign I found at Hobby Lobby, on sale for $4.99. This wall is one of the first things you see if you enter the house through the garage or the side door of the front porch, so I like this little blessing. My middle son says it's a little too reminiscent of the inscription at the entrance to hell in Dante's Inferno ("Abandon all hope ye who enter here"), but he's 16, so he's supposed to say things like that.

Maybe having this planning center will make me much more organized than I've ever been before. There's plenty of room on the large weekly calendar. In addition to appointments and due dates and practice times, I could plan and post menus! Or schedule my blog posts! The possibilities are endless.

Okay, maybe for those goals I should abandon all hope. But overall I'm very pleased with my project.

One more look:

I'm happy with it!  What do you think?  Do you have a command center in your home?

I'm linking this to Thrifty Decor Chick's Before and After Party 

and Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch.