After the Flood

While I was away at the NAPO conference last week, my husband experienced a flood in his bathroom. It was a relatively minor flood — the water supply line under the sink was leaking, causing a puddle in the vanity cabinet which led to a puddle on the floor — but it caused havoc nonetheless.

When I got home from the conference, I discovered that he had moved into my bathroom for several reasons. The main one was that he no longer had a working sink, and it was not clear whether we would have to replace the whole kit and caboodle (faucet, sink, vanity, marble counter top) or just get a new faucet. He had also taken the contents of the vanity and put them in his tub to dry out, so he was not able to use his shower either.

As with everything that happens in my life, I saw this as an organizing opportunity. As I have written before, we tend to accumulate things over time without realizing it. It often takes a crisis to get us to sit up and take notice of what we own.

I love organizing the contents of bathrooms because so many items have expiration dates on them. I made the executive decision that anything large and bulky should go under the sink in the vanity, and anything small should go into the medicine cabinet. While making room in the medicine cabinet, we found a lot of items in there that were past their prime so they got tossed. Some of the things that had been stored down below were also expired, and they got tossed as well.

Reviewing what was left of the displaced items, it became clear that many of them were no longer in use or had never been used. They got tossed, too.

When we were done, we had filled up a large garbage bag. His bathroom contents are now more streamlined and it will be easier for him to find what he needs when he needs it. And now I have my shower back!

I was able to find a replacement for the damaged faucet, and it should be installed today. So soon I will have my sink back, too.

When is the last time you took a hard look at the contents of your bathroom? Don’t wait for a flood — take a few minutes now to go through everything. You’ll find it very satisfying and I guarantee you’ll discover a lot of things you didn’t realize you still had.

 

 

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