Main bathroom declutter (self trust + clutter blindness)

Time for another instalment of RECENTLY DECLUTTERED, where I share a space in the home I have recently decluttered and the deep thoughts my overthinking brain encounters from this practice.

 

A little bit, often 

It all started with realizing how dirty my bathroom ensuite floors had become.

I had taken before and after photos, but as I mentioned before – the ensuite is the Inner Sanctum of my Inner Feral Racoon – so sharing those photos made me feel vulnerable. 

So imagine, a before of dirty floors and walls, and then an impressive after photo. 

 

It was a Saturday Chores kinda vibe but I also didn’t overcomplicate things. I just washed the walls/floors and felt like I could trust myself to address the decluttering and counters in the future. 

(Update: Trusting myself to show up for me! I did clean the counters three days later.)

 

Main bathroom declutter

Then the next day, I went to grab some soap from the main bathroom drawer and saw with fresh eyes how chaotic this drawer had become . . . 

Clutter blindness

How long has it been like this? No clue. 

Just like we acclimate to the smells of our home, we also acclimate to the sights of our home. This is called SELECTIVE ATTENTION:  we filter out the clutter, and our brain pays more conscious attention to whatever is ‘more important’. Then we just live with this subconscious nagging of clutter, without really stopping and facing the things we are tolerating. 

Some things can interrupt our clutter blindness

  1. Taking photos of our space (especially if we look at them a while later when we are not IN our space)
  2. Thinking of what we want our space to look like, then really evaluating what it looks like right now
  3. Taking everything out of a space (not always reasonable, but you could take GROUPS of something out of a space)
  4. Planning to have company come over and overthinking their potential judgement of your space (do not recommend this strategy, even if it is effective for some of us)

Full transparency, I was doing strategy #4, even though I was having company who would never care or judge what my bathroom drawers looked like.  (yeah… as with most mind-reading, I realized that I was the one caring and judging myself.) 

 

Decluttering the main bathroom 

As I do with most recently decluttered, I want to share some simple steps I take, and the time it takes me (because “time spent” is GOOD DATA to help you know what you can get done)

Step One: Empty

I emptied the drawer. As I did this, I threw garbage into the bin beside me, and I made piles around the bathroom (stuff to go back in the drawer, stuff to go in another drawer, stuff to go in another room).

This took me two minutes

Step two: Clean

I vacuumed and wiped this drawer out and used some shelf liner I had in the kitchen. 

Step three: Put back

I put back the things I was keeping in this drawer. I tried to keep a theme to this drawer (bath and shower stuff) + stuff that is rarely used

From the time I started, this took me a total of nine minutes! (looking at the time stamp on the photos)

 

Using momentum

So this thing can happen when you start with something small, like a drawer. You get momentum and it feels easier to just keep going (objects in motion stay in motion). 

So I did the top drawer too

Using the same steps as above. Weird enough, it also took 9 minutes

Sort then buy cute containers

I grabbed some containers when I went into town later. If I can offer a tip to organizing your space, it is sort first then see what storage solutions you need. Don’t go buy all the containers without seeing what you want to store ,and how much, and where. 

 

You don’t have to do everything, right now 

This is another takeaway I want to share with you: you don’t have to do everything right now. 

I am in the habit of doing little things, often. 

This bathroom vanity has three drawers and I only cleaned two of them. The middle drawer is less chaotic and I wanted to move on to other things with my day. (Going back to trusting myself to show up for me later and take care of it)

 

I hope you feel more inspired to take care of your space, and I am talking in SMALL DOSES. Don’t try to overhaul your whole house this weekend, but start the practice of spending ten minutes on ONE drawer today, small things matter!

More posts on some of the topics mentioned in this post:

 

Recently Decluttered is a feature periodically shared in the Simple Saturdays email.  You can find the Recently Decluttered Archives here

 

2 thoughts on “Main bathroom declutter (self trust + clutter blindness)”

Leave a comment