The bathroom/laundry area in this little mobile home is approximately the size of my bathroom in the old apartment and must do double-duty as my laundry area as well. In the apartment I had a separate room for laundry and storage but alas that is not the case here.
I get depressed sometimes looking at the bathroom here as a result and at times fear ever making any sort of progress whatsoever. This ends up being expressed by me allowing this area to clutter up some.
Yesterday while doing laundry I started looking through the contents of the overfilled bathroom countertop and it occurred to me that perhaps I wasn't doing as bad as I have been thinking. A few minutes of cleaning verified this.
This past year of seriously working to reduce, minimize and simplify has actually made a dent in the chaos that is my bathroom. Slowly but surely I am using up the incredible stockpile of supplies I kept in this room and instead of replacing them I am locating simpler alternatives that cost less and use less resources, taking up less space even.
Bathroom tissue and sanitary pads have been replaced with family cloths capable of handling both needs as well as having other uses like cleaning up random spills or messes and being used to actually clean the bathroom as well. Instead of purchasing disposable paper products I wash the same cloths over and over. This one change did not really result in saved space however; I have to keep a decent supply of cloths available at all times that is sufficient to allow me to wash cloths only once a week and allow them to dry for a day or so if it takes that long indoors. Also I was concerned over germs and contamination so I now keep a covered bucket behind my commode filled with sanitizer water to place these cloths in for soaking and germ control. The bucket doesn't really take up space that I would normally use but it takes up space nevertheless. I use an old laundry detergent bucket for camouflage.
When you consider that I used to purchase bathroom tissue by the commercial case the laundry cloths and the bucket actually take up less space than a full case of tissue but to be fair I consider saved space in this issue to be a wash.
Laundry detergent is now homemade--or will be totally homemade when I use up the last of the commercial detergent that I still possess. I was going to use homemade liquid laundry detergent because it offers the most cost savings but have decided that after this last 10-gallon batch is used up that I will go with the powdered version instead for a significant space savings. I don't do enough laundry to justify the cost savings between the liquid and the dry, especially when you consider that the liquid requires significant more handling, preparation and storage space.
I no longer use the dryer--or I haven't used it for a couple months or more. When I have not used the device in a year or so I will totally eliminate it from my life for a significant savings in space, electric, maintenance and replacement funding. Right now I use it as a workspace when folding laundry.
Shampoo has been replaced with baking soda and hair conditioner has been replaced with an occasional vinegar wash. Two more bottles eliminated from my life and the bathroom. There is a little left over from when I previously used these things but I am slowly sending them home with the kids when they visit (I tend to stockpile so originally I had an incredible supply of the stuff).
The numerous cleaners I previously used in the bathroom are all gone now, replaced with bleach, ammonia, vinegar and baking soda--all of which I can also use throughout my home in contrast to the specific cleaners I used to purchase exclusively for the bathroom. That has saved an incredible amount of storage space alone!
I still have the significant remnants of a gallon bottle of fabric softener as well as some dryer sheets. I use a small amount of fabric softener occasionally in my colored clothing and will eventually place the dryer sheets in drawers and cabinets to freshen them. I cannot see wasting the stuff!
My personal perfume and cosmetic stockpile has decreased by half in this past year alone. I have actually not purchased anything other than a single bottle of nail polish in over a year! I don't wear cosmetics very often so this has been a slow attrition from discarding things that have expired or dried up and refusing to replace them. I am trying to keep the attitude of "why waste money on something I so very rarely use" in this department. Since I have reduced down from several plastic containers to one container smaller than a shoebox I consider it progress :).
I still have a stockpile of aspirin, miscellaneous pain relievers and other over the counter medications. Most of this can be blamed on poor organization for much of it is duplicates. My simplification journey has enabled me to have all of these items pooled in one simple space now which has enabled me to avoid any unnecessary purchases for the past year in this department as well as reduce what I have by actually being able to locate it when I need it. Significant, wonderful progress!
I have taken some pictures here to document how much better the bathroom looks with the progress I have made on simplifying and minimizing. When you consider that the sink counter and the dryer were filled to overflowing before I started simplifying (not counting all of the stuff that is stuffed under the sink I am delighted with the progress that has been made.
I can also see that a dent is being made within the bathroom cabinet as well. It is still cluttered and filled with stuff but the items have changed and matured. No longer does it contain cleaners, laundry detergent and a huge stockpile of shampoo, lotions and the like--it now contains towels, rubbing alcohol, peroxide and other things typical under a bathroom sink. Attrition is slowly making progress in there as well, thankfully!