30-Day Organization Challenge Day #14 – Organize Towel Closet

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Welcome to day #14 of the 30-day organization challenge! The bathroom challenges are going well and we are just about ready to move on to another part of the home!

But first, we must take care of this part of our homes – the places where we store the towels!

Day #14 Challenge – Organize Your Towel Closet

Our towel closet is in the kids’ bathroom.  They are also responsible for putting the towels away.  They do a decent job of taking care of the towels.

Towel closet before

Well, over the past couple of weeks, it became a super unruly mess.  They were just shoving towels in the closet after I would wash/dry/fold them and when I went to go get a new towel, I was amazed to see how this got to be so bad. It’s a large towel closet that has quite a bit of space, so “stuffing” towels shouldn’t have been an issue.

Top shelves before.

More before pictures. 

So I dug in and started reorganizing this mess.  I seriously cannot believe that something like this would look like this after not giving it attention, for just a short time.

I started by pulling out all of the clean towels and putting them in a basket….I quickly knew what the problem was……

They had the large footstool shoved on the shelf, that took up a big chunk of the shelf (you can sorta see some white plastic behind the dino towel). Apparently, one child put it there while she swept/mopped the floor and didn’t bother taking it out.  Then another child came along to put towels away, and instead of removing it, just decided to “stuff” their towels all around it.  And then that’s when it all began.

They might as well stuff a pool noodle WHAT?!? Who else stores pool noodles in their bathroom instead of the outdoor bin in the garage or basement? Sure the bathroom towel closet totally makes sense!

Anyway, it started with those two things and just got out of hand.

So after removing the very unnecessary bathroom towel, non-towel, closet items – I finally had tons of room again!

I put the towels back, refolded of course because every mom likes to refold clean laundry!

I had then been collecting the “hair things” again from all over the house in our previous tasks and had been putting it all in a bucket.  I found all of these in the junk drawer in the kitchen and the bathroom doors from those previous organization tasks.  I knew they would go back in here once I got to the closet.

Bottom shelf after

Hair things sorted by type in these cloth, foldable and affordable IKEA bins

We also have a basket in the closet where we keep all soap pumps from around the house, both empty and full.  This way, when a pump is empty, whoever found the empty pump, puts it in this basket and grabs a full one.  Then I come and get this basket and refill it with either my homemade antibacterial hand soap or a semi-homemade antibacterial hand soap that I make when I am short on time (I need to share both of these ideas/recipes with you!).  We have been using the same soap pumps for 3-4 years.  I haven’t bought new ones in that long and just keep refilling these.  It is a great, affordable system! Well, now this is back in place, not buried, not tipped over and ready to function again!

As far as the very top and the very bottom, well, bath toys in the bucket, and a pedicure foot bath live on the bottom.  Alex bought the foot bath for me many years ago, even before having kids.  Well, now my girls love to do pedicures and they use it way more than I get to! The top houses air purifiers and humidifier.

It’s all done and much more functional now.  This was a pretty quick task, although it probably looked like it took a lot of time.  It was mostly getting the towels back in order!  I am actually going to move the home medical bin from under the sink up to the empty shelf. After organizing this bathroom, that makes more sense to me.

How is your challenge going? What tips do you have for a more organized bathroom?  

And don’t forget…. to help you as you are working on the kitchen for the next few tasks, don’t forget to see these clever ideas and get some DIY Organization Inspiration!

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