Guest Feature with Gemma - The Bathroom

I am super excited to share with you a new Feature on the blog , called 'Gemma does Housework'. I have been friends with Gemma going on a few years now and we hit it off immediately. We share a common interest of organising, cleaning and decorating even though our tastes are quite different. I LOVE Gemma's home, even though I am not brave enough to decorate that way myself, I can still appreciate it for all its worth.

Gemma has this infectious, chatty , crazy personality and she makes you smile and talk non stop, whenever you are with her and I think that shows throughout her home. 

She is a beautiful Mum to 4 little strawberry kiddos, aged 6, 4, 2 and 7 months  and you could nearly say she has a case of OCD. I miss our catch ups, the flowing coffee, conversations and sharing shopping wish lists!

In the world of Instagram (because it does feel like a world of its own these days! ) she is insanely popular, and once she started sharing a few cleaning pictures, the requests started rolling in. 

"how do you clean ....?"

"How do you store ...?"

You get the picture! To make it easier for all, her posts were given their own hashtag ie: #gemmadoeshousework or #gemmadoeslinen (because her linen collection is super gorgeous!)

If you are in the world of Instagram, be sure to follow - Gemmahealymaver but for now, I am excited to share some tips and tricks from Gemma. These posts will be every Friday, and will cover different areas of her home and life, enjoy 

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Hi all! I'm excited to be contributing to Liz's blog and sharing some of my posts from the insta world. 

Life is a little crazy in our home, with 4 young kids but I have a love for decorating, chucking stuff out and a serious shopping addiction! 

But for now, lets talk bathrooms!

TOWELS||

 I absolutely love IKEA towels for the kids. They have one particular pattern each and there is no swapping. They have two sets each, best!

I also use matching IKEA bathmats and hand towels which are washed more often due to amatuer hand washing skills.

By giving each child a different pattern, they know who's is who, and as they get older , I know who has left their towel on the floor! ha

I use these IKEA GRUNDTAL hooks on my towel rail. They are perfect for hanging multiple towels and the hand towel at one end ( because I can't stand the thought of the kids drying their hands on bath towels). And the best thing about them? The kids can hang their own towels easily and neatly. The IKEA towels have a loop tag in the perfect spot. I also have over the door hangers on just about every door in the house, this is wear our youngest, Hattie, gets her towel hung.

SHOWER|| 

I clean my shower WHILE I shower each Saturday. I have tried just about every product over the years, bleach, shower wipes, enjo and I am back to the good old Bleach.  I use a bleach gel and an IKEA long handle brush. Doing it while you are in the shower is seriously the best, so convenient. Scrub , scrub , scrub all over, leave while you shower then rinse ( I love my hose shower head for this . I then put the bleach all over the drain and around the inside of the drain and leave until my next shower. Super easy!

The worst part is around the shower doors, around the hinges etc. Why so many grooves? I just use the scrubbing brush and wipe with a chux. My shower screens aren't sparkling but they are always clean as. I then bleach and scrub the outside floor tiles and bottom section of the screen. Then rinse off with a chux. The shower is the one thing that needs to be done weekly, maintaining is really easy but cleaning a filthy shower is hell! 

So these are the four products that my bathroom would die without. Bleach, wipes, brush and chux. I literally wipe down the vanities a couple of times a day, whenever in or passing them. I am totally wasteful and use a tissue to spot clean, I wipe the bench top and sink with one dampened tissue. 

The kids are constantly educated about washing down their toothpaste and soap etc and I am always on my poor husbands case, but hey? It has to be done!

On a Saturday, after I do the shower , I bleach the sink and wipe down the bench top with the chux. EASY. 

I use a Viva towel and windex on my mirrors. I end up doing them multiple times a week. All of these jobs are quicker to complete than a cup of coffee, no joke, so easy! I love these IKEA baskets for all of the products that get used daily, and these over - the - cupboard door hooks for the hand towels. I store these cleaning products in each bathroom and every bathroom should have tissues and a bin (mine is in the end cupboard). Just like every kitchen sink must must must have antibacterial soap. Just sayin'  ;)

BATH TOYS||

Ever wondered what a whole roll of toilet paper plus a bath full of water and 3 kids equals? THIS!! ARGH and you can just imagine the state of the kids. Oh dear!

Anyhoo I was asked about bath toys, so here it goes!

We have had many different bath toys over the years. The Tupperware buckets and boats have been loved and stashed (buckets in the bath spell bathroom flooding). BOON bath toys would have to be my favourite. But at the moment we have 2 things, Schilech animals and Barbie dolls. They seem to work perfectly together.  Any toys that fill with water like rubber ducks or squirting toys with small holes, they spell mould. I love the look and function of this VARIERA waste basket from IKEA. Oh so cheap to replace!

CLEANING BATH TOYS||

I like to fill the bath with hot water and Pinocleen and leave the toys and basket to soak overnight. Obviously keeping the door closed and empty first thing in the morning for safety purposes.

And toilet paper? Yeah I suggest you keep that well away too! haha

HAIR STYLING||

I stash one brush (a wet brush, if you don't have one, google and order NOW!) and a wide tooth comb, a water spray bottle and some dry shampoo spray in this handy IKEA basket, hung with the Grundal hooks. 

HAIR ACCESSORIES||

So as you can see, we aren't too big on hair accessories. My girls hate clips, traditional headbands hurt their heads etc. This is the top drawer of the vanity, using the IKEA SKUBB storage boxes to organise.  One box per item and one box of toothbrushes. These are the Target ones, use for a little bit and chuck. All the kids have their own colour.

So thats about all there is in the way of Bathrooms in my house. I could babble on for ages , and not achieve much more but this is the way I do things here.
Stay tuned for next week for my Linen storage.  Thanks for having me!

Gem x

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Wow, how cool is Gemma's bathrooms?! Loved this post and I am certainly inspired to give my bathrooms a good once over. I hope you have liked the first Gemma Does House Work feature, its nice to be able to bring you a little something different. Everyone does things in their own way, its a matter of finding what works for you. And this certainly works for Gemma !! Its gorgeous, and SPOTLESS!!

L x

Organising on a Budget - New Bathroom Storage

As an extension of my last post on our Ensuite Bathroom Cupboard makeover , I wanted to show you a little something extra that we added to our teeny tiny ensuite so that we had some more storage space. 

Just like time, space is of the essence, especially in our little bathroom . Even though I have never been a fan of these units in the past,  when I saw the Over - The - Toilet Cupboard , not only on sale but with $2 shipping from Deals Direct turn up on my emails, my mind started ticking. You see, freight for furniture, or any item really, is extremely expensive to get to the Pilbara , so I really wanted to make the most of the deal on furniture. Plus I knew we needed something to fix a few problem areas . 

This is our terrible gorgeous toilet space before

So a few weeks and $90 later, this beauty turned up and my clever husband set to work putting it together . Flat packs are a Blue job in our house for sure!

This unit has holes already pre drilled and for you to be able to attach it to the wall, however, because we are renting we wanted to avoid doing so. Instead we used little wedges (cut from rubber door wedges) to hold the base of the legs up (the floor is slightly sloped to allow for drainage and because I think its just a little dodgy) and also a bunch of command strips around the back of the top cabinet part. 

After a quick trip to our few shops , I found a couple of storage items and that cute enamel bowl on the shelf as a little decoration. 

The white frame is from Typo a while ago. I bought a few as they were out mega cheap and re homed it from another area of our house. 

The enamel tin has some paper type flowers that are scented. Something nice smelling in a bathroom is always a good thing :)

The main reason we wanted some new storage was so that our sharp items were out of reach of the children. With low cupboards, even though they know they aren't supposed to rifle through them, it is always a possibility and temptation. 

So on the top shelf from left to right;

The white tin holds my husbands razor and nail scissors. 

The glass jar is full of nail items, nail clippers, small cuticle cutters, tweezers etc

The cream basket has my husbands small clipper set (he uses on his face) and the various attachments for it 

The bottom shelf holds the commonly used items, so they are at arms reach but still kept clean and safe. 

Deodorants, shaving creams and face items for my husband. The white dish is where he pops his mouth retainer during the day (such a nice night time look!!) and of course the ever practical cotton tips and cotton balls in the glass jars (they were bought as a set of 3 from Thingz for $7)

We are extremely pleased with how the cabinet looks and functions. It has added a bit more storage to the area without imposing on space or practicality. It does shut out a bit more light from the window from what we had before, but that is not a major thing for us. If anything the room stays cooler! 

It was easy to assemble, a good price and great quality . You can't ask for much more than that! 

Organising on a budget - Ensuite Bathroom

As mentioned in my previous post, our ensuite bathroom is rather dated. It is a 80's style home and the wet areas havent' changed since the house was built. The laminate on the bench tops is marked, the trim and cupboards have water damage and the shower screen is cracked. Typical rental I guess. However our house is in a good area and we have new tiles and a fresh paint job through out so  I would consider ourselves very lucky. All in all, I do love our home. It works for us and things could always be worse!! 

Having said all that, the ensuite is bad , bad, bad!! Its small, you walk through our Walk In Robe to get in there and I HATE shower curtains. I do miss our large shower and glass shower screen. 

So , when embarking on this organising task, I knew I needed to make the room a little 'prettier' . Add some colour and spruce up the tired old cupboard. 

So here we have a before shot. 

Please note this isn't the before before shot. I had done a tidy up a few months ago and put everything in these baskets. And it doesn't seem that bad , but functionality wise. It just wasn't working for us and the large baskets became a dumping ground for everything!

I wrote a list and set out in search of the particular items I needed. I was lucky and re purposed some baskets I had bought previously and hadn't used and just needed a few new purchases.

The jars and enamel tin are from Thingz (I believe it is a WA chain but I am sure there would be something similar for East Coasters) and the Cosmetic organiser was from Kmart for about the $10 mark .

So first I pulled everything out of the cupboard and sorted it all into piles. I ended up culling and chucking a shopping bag of things we just don't use. Hair products, perfumes I just don't seem to like the smell of, makeup I don't wear because the weather here doesn't allow it etc etc.

I then could see how big each tub needed to be and used these existing ones we had in our house. The white baskets were from a plastic drawer set but you can get something similar from Woolworths. The clear pull out baskets are a Kmart buy and are $3 if you don't live in the Pilbara ($4 for us!! haha) and of course the cosmetic organiser in action.

I have a large tub for cosmetic and toiletry bags, with my nail polishes and supplies in the front. 

A tub for extra items. Surplus supplies that I buy when on special , so spare Tooth paste, makeup or moisturisers. 

And I love how I can see everything in my cosmetic organiser. There is a place for everything and my everyday basics are at the touch of my fingertips. 

The top plastic pull out drawers (with the handle facing inwards because otherwise they stick out too far to close the door with the drain pipe in the back there) . One side is skincare ( cleaner, toner, moisturiser, masks etc) and the other is our perfumes/colognes. 

You may have noticed that I also ran a strip of Washi tape down edge cupboard edge. The laminate is discoloured from water damage and it just didn't look clean and fresh even though I know it is. Washi Tape is the perfect width, easy to apply and remove and such a quick and cheap update. And it made the world of difference in this cupboard. I may have been going a little Washi mad as I go through each cupboard and area around the house! 

Next the baskets needed labels, much to my husbands disgust! He thinks he knows whats in each basket therefore we don't require them . Funny thing is, its him who has issues with putting things away in the right places! 

I used THIS great tutorial from the blog I Heart Organizing. It was super easy to follow and I am totally computer illiterate so I loved it! 

I stuck with a basic colour for the lettering as I wanted to use patterned paper as the border and already had the wash tape going on. 

It was a fluke that I found some patterned card stock in my stash that matched the Washi tape, it was meant to be. 

I then laminated them and stuck them to the baskets with Blu Tack for easy removal. 

I am very pleased with the final product and our newly organised cupboard. I feel happy every time I open the doors and see little bursts of colour , not to mention the fact I can actually find the things I need. Especially in the mornings when time is precious! 

We have also put in some new storage to this small bathroom,  that post is coming in the next few days. We needed a little more storage, and also something a little higher (out of reach of little hands). 

So stay tuned for the next Ensuite organising post.