Conquering Clutter: The Bathrooms and Utility Room

Week 5 of our conquering clutter challenge was bathrooms and utility room! If you are new to our challenge check out the following posts:

Week 1: Kitchen

 Week 2: The Living Room

Week 3: Bedrooms

Week 4: Closets

Week 5: Bathrooms and Utility Room

Week 6: Guest Room/Office

This challenge has been so rewarding yet so tough at the same time! Here are some of the great things I’ve learned thus far:

Here are some of the great things I’ve learned thus far:

1. I’m getting quicker in my decision making. You see other rooms being transformed. Clearing the clutter AND stress gets you fired up to keep going!
2. I’m learning good habits. I’ve been working hard to keep the kitchen island clear of paperwork and clutter. When Dustin grabs the mail I make it a point to go through it that night, so it doesn’t sit there and accumulate. Also instead of putting something down out of convenience I really think where does it go, and just walk and put it where belongs.
3. Even though the kids are still young I’m trying to teach the oldest to put their shoes in the basket when they get home, put dirty clothes in the hamper etc.
4. Doing a challenge keeps me accountable to keep going, especially since our garage sale is coming up soon! (April 1st!)
5. Decluttering is like working out. You kind of dread it, but once you do it you realized how much you needed it and feel super accomplished!

Here are some not so great things:

1. It’s hard to declutter the house when Luke threw up all Saturday night and Andrew threw up Sunday night…
2. It’s hard to keep focused when you are going through stuff. You can get sidetracked by looking at something specific like pictures or other items. Give yourself a time limit in each room. Put on some music, podcast, or audiobook to keep you engaged.
3. It’s important to realize that “organizing” is not the same as decluttering. If you don’t get rid of stuff and just move it around it’ll likely get bad again.
4.  Some items we were having a hard time parting with. We decided to put them up for a couple of weeks. If we truly miss the. If we do then we’ll take it back out.

The bathrooms were cluttered some, but not as bad, because we do not have very much storage area in them. Especially the master bathroom. I remember when we moved in and I was unpacking our bathroom I couldn’t put up half my stuff up because of the lack of storage. Now, I’m kind of glad because I went in each bathroom and it took me like 20 minutes to declutter each bathroom. We also have a small bathroom in the utility room that has a small stand up shower and toilet. I did not add a picture of this bathroom because there is no storage in this room. In the master bathroom, I tossed some lotions that I never use as well as some old hair product that I don’t absolutely love.

In the master bathroom, I tossed some lotions that I never use as well as some old hair product that I don’t absolutely love.

In the kid’s bathroom and threw away extra toothbrushes and some old lotion they had. I also tossed some bath toys that were moldy on the inside…yuck!

Master Bathroom:

 

 

 

Kids Bathroom:

 

 

 

In the utility room, we have the washer/dryer. There is a sink with some storage as well as the deep freezer as well. When we moved in Dustin added a pole over the washer and dryer so that I could hang clothes right away. Sometimes we tend to leave the clothes hanging here for a couple of weeks. To help with this I have added a reminder for Sunday afternoon to pull the clothes from the utility room to go into their respective rooms to keep this area cleared.

What about you? Do you feel like having more space in your home makes you keep more stuff? Does having a smaller home and/or areas force you to get rid of stuff?