doTERRA – Page 2 – Gracious Rain

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Yes, yes. I’ll admit it. The hall cupboard was a mess. This is the top shelf and all the things you want to keep from the little people. Cleaners, bug spray, and umm…game pieces…apparently.

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Second shelf was, sadly worse because with our newly acquired love of a more natural approach to healthcare, well…things on this shelf just got kinda stuffed in and neglected.

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The first step was to gather and throw away everything that was old, outdated, expired or otherwise deadly. The bag was huge…trust me. I would have taken a picture of it but it sincerely embarrassed me. So, instead I snuck it out and dropped it in the trash. Next, I put all the old lotions and perfumes in a bucket and tried to figure out if I wanted to keep them or not. I looked up “perfume and lotion disposal” on Google and found that this calm, non-assuming little bucket holds “toxic, hazardous waste” and that I wasn’t suppose to dispose of it in the regular trash…it was that bad. Funny that it doesn’t say anything like that on the labels. It just tells me how to apply it to my FACE. yikes.

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It was amazing how much space there was once all the crazy, nasty, old stuff was gone.

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There was plenty of room for the cough drops, and light bulbs and nail polish and chap stick.

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And best of all–I saved a nice, cozy spot for my oil box, smack-dab in the middle. Where we can all get at it.

Just as it should be.

or UPdo or undo. You can decide.

Now then, it goes without saying, though I’ll say it anyway, that anyone who shows you their bathroom on a busy day is indeed calling you a friend…in the truest sense. Seriously, you should be so flattered.

Having had several weddings, a dozen or so hairdo tryouts, a million make-over parties, a bridal shower and too many friend sleepovers to count, in the last few months, I could pretty much pick any day of the week and call it a busy, noisy day…and mean it.

After seeing the place, you would be a believer too.

Then, one afternoon, I had a thought. “Hey,” said that inner voice, “you don’t actually have any kids living with you in this basement anymore. So, why on earth do you have guy’s shaving cream in your cabinet and strawberry body spray made in 1987, on the shelf?”

I don’t know, inner voice. I don’t know.

So the gutting began. I hope you’re picturing puffs of smoke and things flying out the door right now–cause that’s how it happened, I swear.

Hair spray, foot spray, tanning spray, baby oil, baby powder, light bulbs, lovely smelling lotion, nasty smelling lotion, travel cases, body scrub, wet wipes, pump soap, polish remover, hair brushes, mirrors, flashlights, peroxide.

Oh, and six different sized curling irons.

Is there no end in sight?

Apparently not. Soap I love, soap that makes me gag, hair gel, bath tissue, toothpaste, spare sink parts, hand sanitizer, pomade, scissors, dental floss, cleanser, essential oils and a magic eraser.

Sort, sort, sort. Pile, pile, pile. Toss, toss, toss.

Some things went in a stack to keep, some went in a box to give away, tons went directly into the trash…without passing Go and everything else went into a big bag for all those married girls of mine, to sort through, because, well–because it’s quite likely that half this stuff was theirs in the first place–a decade ago.

Next, I picked up 10 baskets from the dollar store and stood in front of the shelf for a while trying to decide how I wanted it all to be arranged. What exactly did I need, where?

In the last 35 years, I’ve never been completely in charge of a bathroom, that had no one else in it, so I was free to get rid of anything that wasn’t positively mine. What an odd sensation.

Yes, it was very odd…but kinda fun too.

And since I live in my daughter and son-in-law’s basement, and they aren’t all in love with my kitty friends, I even made a place for Beany and Jiff to eat that is more out-of-the-way than before.

I found some hookey suction cups and tacked a shower rack in the window for the my Dove soap and scrub brush. The Serenity bath bar I hang in crocheted mesh bags to keep them from getting mushy. Razors go in a suction cup toothbrush holder to keep them from sitting in water–they last twice as long that way.

Yeah, I’m feeling pretty darn clever right about now.