We don't travel often, but when we do, we stay at hotels and motels. We often bring back the little bottles of shampoo and lotions and the cute little bars of soap (you know that they will just throw them out after they are opened.) The lotions are great for tossing in your purse and using on the go when you are feeling dry and flakey. And we have relatives that stay in really nice hotels all over the world that will gift us with the fancy soaps and lotions that they bring back.
After awhile, I noticed we had quite a bit of them. CLUTTER! I went online and looked for clutter busting solutions for this. I saw so many elaborate storage solutions for all the little lotions and soaps that it made my head spin. One woman dismantled her folding closet door to place a shoe storage hanger on the back to store all the little packages. What the heck? I came up with a very simple solution. Let's just use the stuff up!
Why store it? It will just grow and you have MORE clutter. I love these little soaps and bottles and don't want to stop getting them, but the solution is to use them up. It will save you money as you will not have to buy the shampoos and lotions and bar soaps for awhile.
Here is the solution. Find a pretty little container that you ALREADY HAVE! (don't fall into the clutter trap of going to stores to buy containers. Containers ARE clutter). Place all the soaps and shampoos in them and put it on the back of your toilet. You now have the shampoos right at hand. Open one up and use it up. Recycle the plastic and grab the next one. The shampoos are concentrated and you can get two or more uses of them. If you have more than what the container can hold, put the extra away, but make sure you rotate them out! Storage IS clutter. Anything stored is something that will be forgotten and duplicated.
"MELISSA...(I can hear the whiners in the background)...I don't like using the tiny bars of soap!" If that is the case, why did you bring it home? Pass it on to someone else. Homeless shelters and other such places always need soap and shampoos. Ask around and pass it on. Don't give the stuff you already opened. Ick, would you want some stranger's used Dove?
If you can't part with the soaps and find the tiny bars a bit hard to handle, buy a mesh soap holder. They are made with the sole purpose of coralling the little bits of leftover soap and using them completely gone. They lather rather nicely and I use them instead of washcloths in the shower.
Send me your clutter busting solutions. Heaven knows I am on a constant battle and am no expert.
Pictures of my cute little container that I have for my shampoos and soaps will be added later.
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