Make Space for Life

Chapter Seven: Bathroom, Laundry & Linen Your bathroom, utility room and linen cupboard are as likely to collect clutter as anywhere else in your home. And, as elsewhere, a multitude of miscellaneous items not only reduces the usefulness of these areas but can also make these rooms an eyesore. If you stop and think about them, bathrooms serve a number of different functions. The quick shower before an even quicker weekday breakfast has a different feel to a slow Sunday soak used to sooth away those physical and psychological strains that we subject our bodies and minds to. A bathroom is a place where we can be truly alone, where we can sing, think and solve problems. Solutions to difficulties that you have been worrying about are more likely to surface while soaping yourself in a shower or shaving than anywhere else, with the possible exception of the bedroom. Time spent in this room can be special but a cluttered environment can detract from our enjoyment. Where once there was only soap and shampoo there is now a staggering array of specialist products: face cleansers, body washes, facial scrubs, pre-shave balms and much more, and that’s just for the man in the house. Throw in the stuff our dentists expect us to use such as floss and solutions, boxes of contact lenses, things for our nails, creams to remove unwanted hair and products to improve the hair we want to keep, you soon sense that this stuff needs to be organized so you can find it easily when you need it. And while products we no longer use might not take up a lot of space on their own, they need to be culled ruthlessly so that we don’t grab for the earwax remover instead of the tea tree oil. Whether it’s a quick wash before hurrying off to work or a leisurely session at the weekend, well organized storage of all these toiletries reduces stress. Hunting for a nail file or tweezers is frustrating, as well as being an utter waste of time. Clutter a basin with any of the aforementioned products and sooner or later something is bound to slip into the water. It also goes without saying that crowded worktops take longer to wipe down and keep clean. And then there’s the first aid supplies which need to be stored safely, but still within easy reach so you’re not hopping on one foot trying to staunch the blood while desperately hunting down bandages and antiseptic cream. This is an area which can easily become cluttered with expired medicines, tablets and such like and needs to be regularly assessed. Whether you store linen in your bathroom, or in a room that houses a washing machine and tumble dryer, there is a danger that space for things that you actually use is choked up with old bath towels, duvet covers and bedspreads that have long ended their useful life, at least in your home. Keep this redundant stuff and sooner or later this storage space will be insufficient and things you need will migrate elsewhere. Bathrooms, laundry rooms and linen cupboards are three areas that are sometimes inter-related and in smaller homes sometimes sharing the same space. For this reason there can be a fair bit of overflow from one area to another creating havoc once you add the family’s many bathroom items, coupled with steeped high laundry baskets, and stacks of linen. We’ll deal with each area separately, and look at how to cope with overlapping areas, such as when we have a washing machine nestled into a corner of a small bathroom, and a linen cupboard which may well be located in the bathroom. Bathrooms need to be not only functional with their primary use being bathing, toileting and grooming, they also need storage areas for a wide assortment of items. Whether our bathroom is a shared family bathroom, or an ensuite off the master bedroom, it will always benefit from being well organized. So where do we start? Using our same format as in the other chapters, we’ll go through the following steps: ▪ Assessment ▪ Planning ▪ Implementation ▪ Evaluation Assessment Stand back in the doorway of your bathroom, and scan the area objectively. Ask yourself a series of questions such as these outlined below to get clarity on what’s working, and what’s definitely not working for you in this area of your home. ▪ Does the bathroom feel like mayhem in the mornings as everyone tries to get ready at once? ▪ Is your bathroom multi-functional, having to double also as the laundry? ▪ Do you have adequate storage space? ▪ Do you need more shelving, or cupboards? ▪ Is the vanity unit packed to overflowing with the whole family’s assorted items? ▪ What’s in the bathroom that absolutely doesn’t need to be there? ▪ What are your frustrations? ▪ Is the room properly ventilated or does it tend to stay damp? ▪ Are there toxic substances that a child or pet could swallow? ▪ Is this where you keep your medicines and if so, are they easily accessible and safely stored?