Bathroom Organization and Cleaning Tips

Okay, so bathroom cleaning may not be the most exciting topic. But it is {unfortunately!} something that we all need to do.

With two little boys in the house and four bathrooms, there always seems to be something that needs cleaning!  So here are a few tips that I use to make it easier {and quicker!} to get the bathroom cleaning done.

• Simplify Your Cleaning Supplies - A little over a year ago, I did a total revamp of our cleaning supplies.  I really couldn't believe how many different cleaning products I had and I really wanted to go "green".  Now, I just use four main items in my bathrooms: a Norwex microfiber cloth, a Norwex window cloth, a spray water bottle, and the Norwex Sanira toilet brush system. The microfiber cloths pretty much clean EVERYTHING and have replaced almost all of my chemical cleaners as they just need water.  {Click on the above links to read more.}

• Keep Your Cleaning Supplies Close - Although it was more of an initial investment, I have each of the four items listed above in each of my bathrooms.  If something needs a quick clean-up, I have everything I need right there to clean it up in less than a minute. Command hooks work well on the inside of a cupboard to hold a microfiber cloth and a window cloth.  

• Clean As You Go - Since your cleaning products are close at hand, it is super easy to wipe down the sink or toothpaste splashes on the mirror as soon as you are done {there is something SO gross about left over toothpaste!}.  The toilet can also get a quick swipe on a daily or {in may case} somewhat daily basis.  

I showed you our two larger bathrooms in the first bathroom organization post and thought that I would show you the last two, smaller bathrooms. This is our main floor bathroom.  When we moved in, there was a pedestal sink and absolutely no storage in this bathroom.  We painted, changed out the sink and added the tall storage cupboard for extra towels, bathroom products, and some decorative items.

If you still need more storage space, add some shelving.

Or some baskets

I also like to add a little art work to the bathroom and our handprint tree seemed to work well in a new frame.

My toilet brush and basket with lotions and soap {and my one cleaning spray!} are underneath the sink.

I pretty much used the same ideas for our basement bathroom.  Nothing too exciting but here it is.

Okay, so I think that completes my bathroom projects {well, for now!}  Let me know if you have any questions.  You can also find more organizational ideas here.  

Have a great week!

I linked up with Tidy Mom, Home Stories A to Z, Somewhat Simple, Blue Cricket Design, Tip Junkie, Lil Luna, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Skip To My Lou, Ask Anna, Craft-O-Maniac, CRAFT, I Heart Naptime, Under the Table and Dreaming, Lolly Jane Boutique, Be Different Act Normal, Funky Junk Interiors, Tatertots and Jello, 30 Handmade Days, Whipperberry and Delightful Order.

The Creative Spark {No. 6}

Welcome back to another week of the Creative Spark! It is the last week of summer vacation here and we are trying to fit in the rest of our summer plans before the start of school.  I can't believe that it is almost September!!!

Anyhoo... what crafty and inspiring projects have you all been up to?  I am looking forward to another week of fabulous link ups!  Feel free to share anything that you have created to provide us all with that creative spark! Crafts, DIY, decorating, scrapbook projects, recipes - anything goes! 

Want to link up?

• Link directly to your specific post {not the homepage}.
• Please add The Creative Spark button to your post or blog {the code is in my sidebar}or place a text link at the end of your post. I would love for you to help me spread the word.
• Check out some of the other fabulous links. A few nice comments always inspires us to create more!
• Follow along with facebook to see if you have been featured throughout the week. I will also be posting My Sunday Sparks every week to showcase your work so don't forget to check back!
• Need help? Just let me know!

Jewelry Organization

I have started to re-organize our master closet and have been trying to come up with something to organize all of my jewelry.  Unfortunately, I don't have anything really fancy other than my wedding ring but I love costume jewelry and have a ton of it.  Up until now, everything has kind of been spread all over the place - rings in one spot, necklaces in another organizer, hair accessories in a drawer, etc. But, I wanted to have it all in one spot.  Since I haven't been able to find anything that would store it all, I had to come up with my own.  So, here is my wine rack turned jewelry organizer.

A couple of weeks ago my Mom passed on this old wine rack to me.

It turns out that it was the perfect size to fit into an empty cubby in my closet.  So I painted it with my chalk paint when I was painting my bedroom chest and practiced some distressing.  {I was seriously kicking myself for not spray painting this thing about 5 minutes into the project as it took forever to hand paint.  I definitely recommend the good ol' spray paint for this one!}

Once it was painted I added some hooks that I dismantled from an old jewelry organizer to three of the sides {7 hooks in total}.  I left the fourth side free to add bracelets with clasps that I wanted to hang.  {Note: You can also buy the little hooks from Home Depot or other hardware stores}

I took the little "spinny thing" off the bottom of an old spice rack that was waiting to go to Goodwill, painted it, and screwed it in to the bottom of the wine rack so that I can spin the rack around to reach the necklaces in the back.  It literally JUST fit into the shelf once this was added.

For the "drawers" I had a couple of clear drawer organizers hanging around that sat perfectly in the wine rack.  I headed down to London Drugs and bought a couple more and used the Silhouette to cut out some vinyl labels. For the ring drawer {which also houses my earrings}, I used the ring padding from the same old jewelry holder that I took the hooks from.  They also fit perfectly into the drawer.  One of those very rare projects that everything just seems to fit!

{Notice that there are no fabulous dangly earrings?  I tore one of my holes in my ears when I was in high school and now I can only wear little studs.  Boring!!!}

I also have a pretty ceramic egg crate that I use to dump my rings and earrings in if I'm just taking them off for a short period {or am too lazy to actually put it away!}

And there is one closet organization project checked off my list!  {I think a couple of wine bottles could also still fit in there too!}

Just before I go, I want to show you my other bins that I recently got for the closet.  

They were on sale at Superstore for $7.  Unfortunately, I had to drive around to 5 different Superstores to find them {I actually got 2 slightly larger ones two for other places in the house} but I think it was totally worth it!

Have a great week and I hope to see you all tomorrow night for The Creative Spark!


I linked up with I Heart Organizing, Today's Creative Blog, Skip To My Lou, CRAFT, I Heart Naptime, Under the Table and Dreaming, Lolly Jane Boutique, Funky Junk Interiors, Tatertots and Jello, Crafty Scrappy Happy, Whipperberry, Delightful Order, The Shabby Chic Cottage, Somewhat Simple, Blue Cricket Design and Lil Luna.

My Sunday Sparks {No. 5}

Happy Sunday everyone! I hope all of you in the path of Hurricane Irene are staying dry and safe.  Here's a little creative inspiration for you to hold you over as you wait for the weather to clear!

Jaime Lyn from Crafty, Scrappy, Happy linked up some really cute clay projects.  How fabulous are these custom knobs?  I will definitely be picking up some clay on my next visit to Michaels!

I love the color combination in this butterfly specimen art from Crafting Up My World.  The yellow adds the perfect pop!

If any of you are still looking for back to school gifts, check out these pencil coasters from Two Shades of Pink.  Use some seasonal pencils, and they would make a great gift for other holidays as well.

There is something about this chicken feeder that I love!  Susan from Homeroad turned it into a rooting station for now {love the jars!} but it would work great as a little shelf too.

You all know how much I love a good organizing project and you can't get much cuter than this command center from Landee See, Landee Do.

I am always amazed at all of the wonderful furniture transformations out there and this one from Lakeshore Cottage Living is one of my favorites.  Such a cute little "apron"!

And lastly, after a challenging day with the kiddies today, I thought this Tattle Monster from Giggles Galore was the perfect way to end my day!

Please feel free to grab a featured button {over on the side bar!} if you were featured here or on my Facebook page. I just want to say a great big THANK-YOU to all of you that have been sharing your ideas at The Creative Spark!  I love going through all of the links and have found some wonderful new blogs.  Keep up that creativity!  I hope to see you again on Tuesday night for another edition!

Scrapbook Saturday No. 8 - Do you Smash?

Hey friends! Due to summer vacation {and no time to scrap!} it has been a few weeks since I have done a scrapbook Saturday.  I am hoping to order some prints tonight so hopefully I will have some projects to show you next week.

In the meantime, I just wanted to share my Smash book that I received last weekend.  I have been wanting one of these since K & Co. released them.  Our local scrapbook store kept selling out of them so I ended up ordering mine through Crafty Steels.  {Just so you know, I don't have any affiliation with any of these companies - I just love the product!}

There are so many things that you could do with these {lots of ideas are on their blog!} but I made mine into a little inspiration and idea book {think of it as Pinterest in a book!}  The pens come in different colors and have the pen at one end and glue at the other.  Brilliant! I divided up my book into categories with the smash tabs.

It's been fun doodling away on the quote page - kind of reminds me of high school!

I have also been reading The Happiness Project and have decided to start my own project in September {more on that later!} One of the sections is devoted to ideas and plans for that.  Has anyone else read this book?  What did you think?

I also have a section to write down products, books, etc. that I find while reading magazines or hear of from friends that I want to check out.  Like these Sanuk sandals that are made from yoga mats.  How comfy do those sound?

And, of course, I need a section for my blog ideas.  I love these calendar pockets - you can just tuck your ideas into the pocket and then schedule your blog posts once the projects are completed.

So that is just the beginning of my book.  I also want to add a section to hold memorabilia from activities that we do and another one for favorite memories.

Do any of you Smash?  I would love to hear what you do with it!  I'm still hoping to get a few more embellishments for mine and add some of my scrapbooking supplies to pretty it up!

Don't forget to enter my giveaway for a free digital scrapbook software package.  The numbers are really low so you have a great chance of winning! :)

Happy Scrapping!

I linked up with I Heart Naptime, Under the Table and Dreaming, Tatertots and Jello, 30 Handmade Days, Somewhat Simple, Blue Cricket Design, Lil Luna, Tip Junkie, Skip to My Lou and CRAFT.

Chalk Paint Chest

One of the things about crafting is things never seem to go as planned! I originally purchased my Annie Sloan chalk paint to re-paint our bathroom cupboards but I didn't like the Old White in there {it was too cream}.  So...I was in need of something else to paint. Luckily my old chest in our bedroom stepped up to the plate!

Here she is before.  There was nothing wrong with it.  Just a little too matchy matchy with all of the bedroom furniture.

I am not a patient person, so the Annie Sloan chalk paint really appealed to me since no priming or sanding is required.  The paint also dries extremely quickly so there are no long waits between coats. I painted the whole chest with my favorite color, Paris Grey.  I really love this color - it has a slight bluish tinge especially when the wax is applied.  Beautiful! The paint covers really well and has virtually no odor. I think I ended up putting the paint on a little thicker than I needed to {and with the cost of this paint you definitely don't want to waste any!} but not bad for my first ever furniture re-do!

For the top of the chest, I used the same stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils that I used for my craft room.

Let me tell you, it is SO much easier stenciling on furniture than on the walls.  For the paint, I used about half Old White and half Paris Grey for a more subtle effect.  

I then cut out some vinyl for the est. 2001 {our wedding year} and used it as a stencil for the bottom of the chest using the same paint as I did for the top of the chest.

I waxed the entire chest and then distressed it a bit after the wax dried.  Just a little warning: you can paint again over the wax but it does change the paint color {even after I let it dry for a day}.  I had to touch up a bit of the stenciling on top and found that if I heated it with a blow dryer, the paint color reverted back to the original color {maybe the heat caused the wax to melt or something?}  Anyways, I have no idea why it worked but it got the job done!  There's also a great little You Tube video here with a quick overview of some Annie Sloan painting techniques if you wanted a bit more detail.

Not perfect but I love it!  I am, however, having second thoughts about painting the bathroom cupboards in this paint as I am not sure how durable it will be for heavier use.  Has anyone else done their bathroom??  I would love to see what chalk paint projects you have been up to!

Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend!

I linked up with Just a Girl, The Shabby Nest, Today's Creative Blog, My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia, Lolly Jane, Be Different Act Normal, Funky Junk Interiors, Tatertots and Jello, Crafty Scrappy Happy, 30 Handmade Days, Whipperberry, Delightful Order, The Shabby Chic Cottage, Somewhat Simple, Blue Cricket Design, Lil Luna, Tip Junkie, Home Stories A to Z, Skip to My Lou, Craft-O-Maniac, CRAFT, Under the Table and Dreaming and I Heart Naptime.

Guest Posters and Giveaways Needed!

Hey guys! I am still not wanting to admit that summer is almost over, but I am starting to do a little planning for the fall.

Source: parents.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

I am hoping to put together a little Halloween party for the beginning of October and would love to have you share your favorite Halloween projects!

Source: bhg.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Crafts, decor, party ideas - anything goes! If anyone is interested in guest posting, please let me know. I am also on the lookout for anyone that would like to do a giveaway for the party.

Source: marthastewart.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

Thanks guys!  This program will now be returning to summer relaxation!