Bathroom Decor

I've been on a house cleaning...thing. I'm doing what John taught me that his mother taught him:

The 30-Minute Clean.


So far I've cleaned out and organized more things than I've actually made things less dirty. The coat closet, the linen closet(s), the kitchen cabinets, and basically all the general clutter in our apartment has seen a real shake down. I just set the microwave timer for 30 minutes, and when it's done, I go back to studying.

When I cleaned off our bathroom shelves, I decided that I wanted to have something festive to put on them. I posted a couple of these photos on Facebook and asked the Internet to give me some suggestions.











































The Internet (and by that I mostly mean, Kira) responded with suggestions for things like:
- a basket of towels and small soaps for guests.
- a small candle, but probably not because the shelf is too low and it will create some soot.
- a flameless candle or some pretty, smelly beads that work like an air freshener.
- a diffuser (the thing with the sticks).


And here's what I ended up doing (so far anyways).






Ta-da!









Nothing schmancy, but it's an improvement. The top shelf will probably still have some tissues and extra toilet paper on it. Below, you can see I kept a bottle of lotion, and added the basket of towels (basket from Micheal's, 2 Roots wash clothes that were 50% off at Sear's), plus some ginger-scented shampoo, conditioner, lotion, and hand soap from Bath and Body Works (left over from a hotel stay...yes, we are those people).

Here's a close up of the green thing there:















It's a little container of fragrance beads from Pier 1 (the link is for a non-Christmas version). The tin pattern on top is pretty festive (one of my requirements for my "ask-the-internet" post on Facebook), though I wish it looked a little nicer when I opened it to let the fragrance out.

Here's a shot of the beads. They look a little like giant caviar. But they smell, well, like an enchanted forest! Just like they promised!

























At $8 (or $5 in the U.S., I think), they last for 2 months, they don't blacken the shelf above them or require matches, and they are a lot cheaper than a $30 flameless candle.* I think I may try out a diffuser at some point, but honestly, I cleared that shelf off because I was afraid of knocking the case for my night guard into the toilet. I feel like if there was a delicate vase of smelly sticks on that shelf, it would only be a matter of time until they accidentally fell.

So that's that! Our bathroom seems a little cleaner and less cluttered. Our guests can use the toiletries, should they need them, and the place smells like fresh pine. I basically consider it a success.

Thanks to the following folks for suggesting things to put on that shelf:
Kira
Natalie
Erik Jorgen
Molly
Kei
Aunt Becky

I'm glad to know that they are there when I need to call upon the wisdom of the Internet.
*Just for the record: not that I'm some well known blogger, but I'm writing about this product of my own free will. Pier 1 has no knowledge of my blog and didn't send them to me. But I wouldn't mind if they did, because I would probably buy a different scent in the future.