by Emily Schilling
Editor

The past several weeks I’ve been tackling some household chores that had been way down on my to-do list: organizing the bathroom cabinets. (I’m assuming cleaning the bathroom holds a similar spot on your to-do lists, too!)

Those cabinets had evolved into catch-all sites for medicines, cosmetics, hand towels, toothpaste, tissues, soaps and cotton balls. Since I tend to stock up on toiletries when they’re on sale, everything was piling up in my cabinets — and not in an organized way.

I started my cleaning spree not by choice, but by necessity. One evening, I opened the under-sink cabinet to look for some nail polish remover and noticed a musty smell. I looked a little closer at the cabinet floor and, lo and behold, it was wet. Not damp, but soaked — which obviously meant my sink pipe was leaking.

Immediately, I pulled everything out from under the sink. Most of my toiletry items had been corralled in baskets and everything in those baskets was drenched. I rescued what I could, pitched boxed soap and tissues that were ruined, and gathered up the pretty hand towels I had cross-stitched years ago which were stored under my sink. I threw the towels into the washer for a hot water cleansing, all the while hoping the mold stains would come out. Yes, there was actually mold growing on the towels, which meant my sink had been leaking for some time. In a couple of cases, the mold was so bad the towels had begun to actually disintegrate!

After a thorough cleaning and disinfecting of everything, my under-sink area is now neat and tidy, and equipped with plastic drawer units that should offer some protection in the event of another leak.

Since then, I’ve moved on to my daughter’s bathroom, and her floor to ceiling storage shelves. I filled a wastebasket with expired medications (some from 13 years ago!). While organizing her cabinet, I discovered three cans of hair spray I didn’t realize I had and enough sunscreen and sunburn relief gel to last through years of beach vacations. I found six boxes of tissue, some hidden behind the beach towels on the top shelf, and four bags of cotton balls.

Next weekend, I plan to organize the guest bathroom. I think there’s some potpourri from 25 years ago tucked away in a drawer, as well as some old magazines from the 1990s. After tackling a bad case of towel-eating mold, I’m up for any cleaning challenge!