With the terror attacks in Paris in the news, my worries about cleaning out my house seem even more trivial than usual (especially since Sam and I just got home from Belgium). Still, daily life goes on, and in a break from listening to bad news I’ll share what happened when I emptied the cabinet in my hall bath — getting it cleared out feels like a victory of sorts. Most of these things haven’t seen the light in years!
See that Harvest Gold tile? Clearly it’s past time to remodel. I kept hoping that if I waited long enough, it would cycle back around and be “in” again. Dare I admit that the tub and shower tile are gold too?
Here are some things I found:
- Eleven plastic containers of hair goo, three of them from the 80s when I had (*blush*) a perm.
- Eight products for polishing metal. Really? Eight?
- Seven shower caps. Odd, since I wash my hair every day.
- Five containers of talc — I’m pretty sure three of them were my mother’s, kept because I couldn’t bear to let go of anything that had been hers.
- Two drawers full of shoe polish and leather cleaner (and my shoes are scuffed).
… and some things I learned:
- Before I realized it was so wasteful, I bought way too much stuff in plastic bottles. I will mend my ways.
- I only look at what’s in the front few inches of the space. Everything else gravitates to the back and gets archived. So … why have a big cabinet in the bath?
- So that’s what happened to my vintage red pendant. It’s not a real stone; I think it’s what was once known as “paste”. I remember buying it when out “junking” with a friend on a sunny afternoon in the midwest, and used to wear it often. And there’s that 3-1-1 packing kit I bought to snazz up my suitcase, as well as a box of Axion, a stain remover that worked so well that they quit making it.
- Big question: why so many hair products? I seldom use them. I’m guessing I thought they’d change my life, and when I found out they didn’t they got shoved to the back.
- I’m still loving my washable, re-useable shelf liner. I didn’t have to measure and cut new.
That’s one more cabinet cleaned and ordered. Time to move on to the next task.
And, remembering Paris on Throw-Back Thursday, here’s a photo of Bob and his father, having a coffee at a sidewalk cafe, mid 1980s…
More on the Weekly Photo Challenge: Victory
Hoarder Comes Clean 
I have equally daunting cabinets…and in one bathroom the fake marble resembles Hershey syrup and melted ice cream (not in a good way!).
I keep putting off the remodel — I think it’s because I’m embarrassed to have anyone come in and see it.
Love it! Especially “a box of Axion, a stain remover that worked so well that they quit making it.” !!
It was great stuff, and I even got spots out of upholstery with it. Now I have a little put by to use for the next emergency. (after all, if the new brands really worked, we wouldn’t have to buy so much of it, would we?)
The contents of that cabinet look very familiar even though we don’t have a bathroom cabinet. Old hair brushes are what accumulates here. Seems like there’s a mad rush to buy a new one when one gets misplaced (and that’s very often) but they turn up again leaving a mountain betimes.
Ah, yes on the hair brushes. And combs. And lotions… half-used lotions, even used-up ones that I apparently thought were memorable. Well, I’m now using up everything that’s still usable. Also polishing ALL my shoes today 😉
Thanks for the moral support — Sandy
Oh you’re more than welcome. I’m a long way behind you!
Ah, somehow I doubt that. (and you certainly wouldn’t say so if you saw the messy room I’m sitting in now)
I’m not a bit sure. Note that I’ve never had the guts to post pics of the mess!
I’m hoping confession is good for the soul! (at least maybe I can make other people feel better when they see my mess is worse than theirs)
That is certainly a lot of hair products. Eleven plastic containers of hair goo. I’m guessing some of them might have hardened over the year and really need to pay a visit to the rubbish bin 😀 Like you, I’m not big on using hair products. Each time I buy a hair product, I only use it for a short while. The other day I bought some volumising powder. Tried it on my hair and it didn’t hold very well. I put more, and then that made my hair hard and a bit itchy (too dry…).
Surprisingly, the hair products held up pretty well even when years old. I kept some to try again (I never learn). At least they’ll keep me from investing in new ones next time I feel bad about my hair. I wonder if there’s a secondary use for some of them — like — glue?
It must be preservatives or product regulators that hold the semi-liquids after all these years :O Haha. Glue? That is a good question. Some hair products dry hard when you apply them to your hair, so I’m not surprised if you have been keeping bottles of “glue” all along 😀
Well I have read that the stuff that’s advertised to treat split ends is actually glue.(which makes a perverse kind of sense) I guess the big lesson that it takes us all a while to learn is: figure out what our hair does well, then find someone who can cut it to do that naturally. Meanwhile maybe I can make my own post-it notes with my left-overs.
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