My Daily Box

This little box of tricks has worked wonders for my morning routine! It's a similar idea to the little cosmetics bag I put together for keeping in my handbag / nappy bag.

It sits in my bedside cabinet and when I get out of the shower in the morning I just grab the box and it has everything I need right there! Now, this might sound like a bit of a no-brainer to some of you, but please bear in mind that everything was previously strewn all over. Makeup in one place, hair things in another. Deodorant here, contact lenses there. It really was an exercise in memory and fitness just to run around finding all of my daily essentials each morning!

Plus, with everything being in one place, it's much easier to keep moving it to different places out of my daughters way when she's hanging around me getting ready, rather than having to constantly scoop up and move loads of loose items. 

So, in here I have...

A mirror - I apologise for the reflection of our awful ceiling and tatty old light shade. Our bedroom is unfortunately well down the list of "things to spend money on" this year.
Face wipes - I'm too lazy to properly wash my face each evening, so I use a face wipe. I don't wear enough make up for it to matter anyway.
Alice band - to keep my hair out of my face when I'm getting ready
Bag of hair clips and bobbles - cause I usually wear my hair up every day
Deodorant - anti stinky
Hairbrush - to pull out all my hair since all I do is shed right now
Contact lenses - all the better to see you with my dear
Moisturiser - I do think I should be considering an alternative to "First Effects" by now. :o|
Eyeshadow and brush, bronzing pearls and brush, mascara - the only make up I wear usually if I bother at all
Witch Hazel - for zits
Q Tips - for my ears. I have an ear cleaning fetish.

Bedside Table / Nightstand Sort Out

This was the view when I opened my bedside cabinet door before I sorted it out last week. The bedside cabinet is part of a massive organising project that I am still on with, but since it's been a while since my last post I thought I'd best give you something. :o)

Okay, the top shelf had all kinds of crap up there - q-tips, contact lenses, face wipes, sleep mask, clips, blah blah blah. The middle shelf had an IKEA Skubb box full of waxing strips, spare deodorant, and other personal care items. The blue container to the left of that is the tub of receipts I mentioned earlier and some receipts aren't even in it, they're just stuffed in front. The bottom shelf has a box with our wedding stuff in - certificate, ring boxes, etc. Yes, we got married 4 years ago... There's also a Topshop shoebox with sentimental stuff in and some tarot cards. The black cosmetic case on the left was empty.

Are you ready for the transformation?

Ta daaa!

This cabinet is now my dedicated "personal care station". I used to have all of my hair, makeup, lady products spread out all over the bedroom in different places, but now it's all in one place for the most part.

Top shelf - Make up used less often. My daily make up is kept in my daily box (explained below).
Middle shelf - I used two IKEA Skubb drawer dividers. On the left is my waxing strips, spare deodorant, perfume, oil, etc. Things I don't use too often. On the right is what I internally refer to as my daily box. In a morning I just grab it and it contains everything I need to get ready on an average day. I'll post more detail about this later because it's really helped shave time off my getting ready routine!
Bottom shelf - Just other lesser-used items like leg tanning cream, spare face wipes, body lotion, glasses case, costume jewellry, etc.

Admittedly, if I had enough hours in the day a lot of these "lesser-used items" should be in my daily box, but I'm a mum of a 4-month-old and a 2-year-old. I barely have time to even dry my hair with a hairdryer these days, nevermind primp. :o)

Two Small Jobs to Check Off

2. Sorting out an essentials pouch for my handbag / nappy bag.
CHECK!
3. Getting together a kiddies essentials pack for keeping in the car.
CHECK!

Now I just need to work on a place to store all the things I need to keep close at hand while I'm about the house. I know what kinds of things I need to keep there, but now where I am going to put them. This will require a little thought.

Here's what I did today.

This is the bag of stuff we will keep in the car for the kids. The logic behind this is that we're trying to shave time off our leaving the house routine. It's annoying that we have to think about what we have to take each time. Completely going through our one nappy bag to check we have all items takes too long. Partly because we often have to do it last minute. I am hoping that knowing we have this bag in the car will enable us to get out of the house faster at least for little trips.

In it, I have packed a couple of bottles of water, jumpers, spare clothes, nappies and wipes.

The other small job I tackled today was the cobbling together of my handbag bits and bobs. When I leave the house I either take my main nappy bag or if I am lucky enough to get to leave on my own for a while I will take a handbag. It's irritating having to completely empty all the pockets to switch between bags each time I swap over.

This problem has been fixed by getting all these bits into one easily portable cosmetics bag.

Ignore how tatty it is. I will keep an eye out for a nicer one on my travels. Here's what's in it. My apologies to any male readers - there are tampons and sanitary towels in here...

OMG! Blogger will not display that last photo the right way around no matter what I do! GRR!

Anyhoo, in this little handy bag, I keep an important key, comb, pen, paracetamol, aspirin, Rennies, tampons, contact lenses, sanitary towels, vaseline, hair bobble and grips, sweeteners, breast pads, plasters, clear nail varnish, tissues, mirror compact.

Most handy when out and about!

Here's what the other half has been doing today:

Those are the cupboard doors for the nursery wardrobe. We also went shopping for hinges and handles. Hopefully, the doors will be put up by tomorrow. If not I can at least get his clothes put away because the shelving is in place and just needs to fully dry overnight. WOOP! We're sooo close to bottoming this massive job and I am excited!! :o)

Can you help?

Are you thinking that you have a great way of doing some of these things I am sorting out? If you are please, please tell me! Do you have a blog post of your own that might help me? If you do I would love to see it! Just leave me a comment with a link to the relevant blog post or a description of your helpful ideas and I will repost and link to any that I use in my blog. I am really new to this and relying heavily on inspiration from blog land!