Charming and I often dream of what it will be like when we own our own place. A time when we can knock down walls and get all new kitchens and level the floors properly. Actually I think the most exciting thing will be when we can get closet doors that actually work. I know that reality as a homeowner is generally non-glamourous home improvement projects such as furnaces and updating electrical, but a girl can dream, right?
One of the rooms in a house that is most limiting, unless you are completely gutting the place, is a bathroom. I mean all the furniture usually comes with the place, and generally in pretty basic neutrals (unless you have awful "avocado", which isn't usually considered a decor choice..). Also the rooms are generally pretty small, and we do a limited amount of activities in this space, so there isn't too much room for imagination.
My goal, as you can see, is to first have a soothing bathroom, and then to have one that can remain mostly clean. This means that it needs to function well enough so that excess stuff everywhere isn't causing stress, and making it hard to clean. To me, this is one of the best examples of minimalist decorating. Here is how I was able to make my bathroom beautiful, without spending very much money at all.
While decorating our bathroom I needed to focus on function. Actually whenever I am decorating my house I focus on function, which usually means storage. Since the purpose of our house is to store and then actually use our stuff, I have achieved both function and form by having things "function beautifully." For at least the past two years I have been using this technique and have really seen it pay off with a good looking and well organized house. Both these things really make me feel happy, make the house easier to clean and I have found make guests feel comfortable as well. Win!
Recently though I have started to really focus on trying to use what we have and repurpose things, rather than simply buy something. This is both as a way to save money, and to be more environmentally friendly. So whenever I find a problem, or need a new solution because we have new stuff I first write down the issue on my list. I then usually reorganize the stuff in the area as best I can for the time being and then start to investigate the best way to fix it. I usually look on pinterest and I have saved a lot of decorating magazine pictures. This often leads to repurposing shoe boxes, or finding the perfect sized organizer or container, because I actually know what size I need. Or I eventually just realize that the way it is currently organized is working pretty well. One of the most exciting things about the shelves in the pictures is that I got them from Wendy like 5 years ago, and never had anywhere to use them in my old house. But when we moved here, one day I just decided to try them in the bathroom, and they totally work! When you are creative and patient, often things just come naturally.
Reorganization often leads to purging or moving things to different areas. When I did our bathroom, I made the rule that the only things that could remain out on shelves were things that we actually used daily, or needed to have out to remember to use. And anything in our shower had to be stuff we used every time we shower.Getting rid of old bathroom products you have stopped using because they don't work is always a good idea. If they didn't work then, they probably will never be useful. I got rid of a lot of stuff, and some went into our "extra's" bin which lives in the storage room. Now whenever we run out of toothpaste or shampoo we look in the bulk bin before we go shopping. This really helps us use up what we have. We also keep all our extra towels and toilet paper in the linen closet, and I have all my makeup and hair stuff in the top drawer of my dresser. This eliminates bathroom conflicts on busy Sunday mornings.
Finally I will get new stuff! In order for things to be truly clean, sometimes they just need to be new. As much as I care about cleaning, and keeping our current things nice, so we don't constantly have to buy new things, there are some things that I just don't care about. For example, shower curtains. To me the idea of washing or bleaching a shower curtain, which is a household chore I still don't really understand since there is a lot of conflicting advice about how it should be done, seems like a waste of time. Our was about $6 at Wal-Mart and looks really great, so for that price I will use it and keep it clean just by rinsing it until it does start to grow mold, and then go buy a new one. Plus since it is the focal point in the bathroom a new one will give me a new look. I can handle paying $6 for that. Another thing I am really excited about is our splurge on metal shower rings that close like binder clips, rather than those awful plastic ones. The frustration of taking a shower curtain down and putting it back up again is another reason why I don't wash them. But maybe now that will be different.
And lastly I think about comfort. By focusing on the function of areas that I find presently uncomfortable I can quickly see where money needs to be spent. For instance, one of my favourite things to do is take long, loooong showers, so having a great shower head is imperative. Ours was the most pathetic, gross thing you had ever seen when we moved in. And I couldn't reach the toilet paper holder from the toilet. So we had to buy these things. Being that Charming is very handy we quickly bought a new shower head, and then we found that you can buy free-standing toilet paper holders. So without any permanent changes we quickly had a much-improved bathroom. And when we move we will take our items with us and see how they can be used there.
Love the shower curtain. It was always my easy way of changing the feel in the bathroom and easier than painting, even though I did that regularly too.
ReplyDelete