Bathroom
This week is probably not met with much enthusiasm. The bathroom is not my most favorite area of the home either, but I do know that I have visited many homes in my life and many of them had smelly, unclean bathrooms. I purpose to help train you to clean a bathroom properly.
Declutter
I know if you were to open other people’s medicine cabinets, and linen closets you might find them packed full of old, partially empty containers of medicine and supplies. This is an area of the home that does not get gone through often. You are going to need to ask your Mother first if it is okay for you to declutter this room. Keep a container that you are going to throw away items so that you can show her first before pitching them.
Grab your cleaning bucket filled halfway with warm water and ½ cup of vinegar to wipe insides of drawers and cupboards with.
Start with one cupboard or drawer. Empty all of the contents and wipe the inside out thoroughly. Pay attention to remove any stuck on dried toothpaste or hair products.
In the medicine cabinet, go through and check the dates on the medicine bottles, throw away any expired items. If you notice that you have multiple containers of the same medicine, line them up in order so that they get used up, the least to the greatest. If you know that they are not old and someone just opened two containers of medicine, you can combine the two bottles together. To avoid a child from opening them easily, make sure to double and triple check that you close them tightly.
If there is just a little bit left in the bottom of the lotion bottles, leave those out so that you know someone will use them up. For shampoo and soaps, you can add water, shake, and you will have a few more uses left. Purpose to use up all of the fragments. Don’t waste things. Put the older ones up front so people will know what to use.
In our household, it is best to keep new toiletries separate from the ones being used. This prevents people from grabbing the wrong ones. But it is something that someone needs to be designated to check for each week. If an item is getting low, they need to bring out another one as to not interrupt the flow in the bathroom.
Hair items, can get overwhelming. Keep a small container and put like items together in it. Remove all of the hair pieces that get stuck to the hair bands. For your hair brushes, remove all of the hair in the bristles. Take a long rat tail comb and slide it up the bristles in rows and push the hair to the top. Fill up your sink with some warm water and soap. Let them soak for a few moments while you go about cleaning the rest of the bathroom. When you are done, gently shake them off. If you have any rubbing alcohol, squirt a little on the combs and brushes to sterilize them. Set them on a washcloth or towel to dry.
**Do not put hair in the toilet, throw it away in the trash. It can clog up your sewer system quickly.
If your towels are stacked and continue to fall over each time one is grabbed, try rolling them. We have found this takes up less space and it doesn’t create a heap of towels on the floor when someone grabs one from the middle.
Keep cotton balls, and q-tips in a small container and put the remaining ones away in a closet. We have found that laundry soap lids work well for Q-tips. Any closed container work well for cotton balls.
Keep any hair tools with long cords keep wrapped up and clipped with hair clips.
If you have a bunch of small sample toiletries, use them up. Set them in the shower so that they get used.
Make up if that is stored in here, go through it. Remember that it only lasts about a year. Any gummed nail polish, throw away.
When you are putting items away, put them away neatly. Find smaller containers to store like-items in. Keep all of your first aid supplies together. Put things like nail files, clippers, and tweezers in the same area all of the time. It prevents having to go look for them when needed.
Having an organized bathroom, allows you to be able to glance to see which items you are out of and which you need at the store at a quick glance.
One important rule that I stress to my children, is to always have toilet paper available. Having no toilet paper when you are in the bathroom and need it, is NOT a good thing. Keep a few extra rolls at all times on the back of the toilet or in an area close to it. Make them visible so that guests can easily find them. Remember if you are the last one to empty the roll, instead of just setting the next roll on top, take the extra seconds that it takes and put the new one on the holder.
