Yesterday, I was about to change the cat litter box out. I went to the cabinet in that bathroom to check on supply inventory, and was greeted by a major leak. Looked like it had been a minor drip for a while, but had apparently gotten worse. Huge mess...

Anyway, needless to say, that vanity got a cleaning. And to be honest, most of what was in the back of the cabinet was 15 year old expired stuff.

Since that leak did some long-term damage, we will go ahead and use the surprise plumbing job to do the remodel we have postponed.

Your challenge is a worthy one!!!! After what I saw down there, I will definitely find similar clutter in the upstairs baths!!!

OK, I'm in!

My big problem is that I now work at a place that gets lots of freebie beauty products and other toiletries. So there are way too many of those.

I once grabbed all my samples and freebies, put them in a box and gave to a local women's charity. They were happy to have some "luxuries" for the women they help. I'm cleaning 2 rooms today because the carpet guys are coming tomorrow1

I have console sinks in both bathrooms so no cabinets underneath. My medicine cabinets are gone through a couple times a month just because I don't have much storeage so no extra clutter.

But, I do have a huge kitchen cabinet that is over 36 inches deep in my kitchen- it is over the basement stairs. It is full of various serving dishes and bowls. I lack enough storeage in the kitchen as it is. Anyway, it is a jumbled mess. That will be my challenge this week and next, to organize it. It has been on the to do list for a while. Just have to figure out where to put the overflow that makes sense.

One of my favorite organizing tasks is "consolidation". I did a massive consolidation several years ago and shared it on this forum.

Going through my bathrooms and nightstands, I found hundreds of products from moisturizers to hair products not to mention the hotel samples from traveling with my job. I looked for the largest containers I had to consolidate like products. If it wasn't a "magic bullet" product I consolidated it. I even emptied tubes of products with more liquid products then shook them to mix.

All this goes towards my 401K as I figure that I won't have to buy certain beauty and household cleaning products for many years.

Sample of moisturizer consolidation:

RE: Consolidation. I consolidated the little free beauty products (the ones worth keeping) into one of the free makeup bags the freebies usually come with. I kept one or two extra bags for travel. The rest went to the charity pile.

This way, I organized the freebies, and put one of the bags to good use.

The system has been working for about 3 years now. Prior to this, every time I would try and recall where I put the little face cream tube, I could not find it. Now, when one runs out, I can grab the next. I like using things up!!! It feels gratifying.

For years I traveled with my job and collected a lot of the hotel miniatures. When I had a substantial number of items, I donated them. One of my colleagues who volunteered at the shelter I donated to told me that the "clients" didn't like them as they felt their lives were "temporary". I was shocked to hear my donations were considered insensitive.

I have been keeping all the freebies in a large decorative jar in the guest bathroom.

I'm with you, I love using up something. I have changed my purchasing habits so one down, one less piece of clutter.

I spent all day yesterday in the spare bedroom/office/what have you, weeding out recipes. My 3 inch loose leaf recipe book had become overwhelming and heavy. Lots of "What was I thinking" recipes made it to the trash, as well as some that I know I won't be using again. The loose ones I put in plastic sleeves and removed the ones that were on the sticky cardboard photo pages and put them into sleeves also. They are in categories, and weigh much less :-)

That was one of my winter goals. Next will be photos. I re-did albums and gave to my sons, then started getting rid of a lot of other photos, which they don't want. That project I started last year and hope to finish before spring.

I pretty much stay on top of kitchen and bath organizing, so no big projects there, for now :-)

Don't take the hotel freebies!

I don't take them any longer, I did originally to donate to shelters. I even carried a stash in the car to hand out to folks soliciting on the medians in the roadway. I was told that was demeaning!! My bad, just trying to help folks.

Susan..what's the reasoning behind not taking the hotel freebies? Some of them are almost normal size, and if you use some of the bottle, can't you take the remainder?