Hello! It’s the last day of spring – how is it treating you? It’s treating us really well, although today is pretty busy. We have to go register Lou for pre-K – in person, which is ridiculous and a total pain – and then we’re packing for (drumroll please) eight days at the beach. Well, eight nights. Seven days. We’re headed down to the Jersey Shore for some summer fun, bookended by weekend family activities. I am so looking forward to some calm, quiet family time. And to sleep. Bret flies in from Beijing today and I am sooo ready to say, “Tag, you’re it.” (Not that I haven’t had amazing help from my sister, my sis-in-law, my mom, even my college roommate these past weeks, but you know, he got me into this mess, so I feel better asking for his help in, to continue the analogy, cleaning it up).

Today’s post is about a small victory, but it is a win, for sure. If you’re just joining us, Wesley’s arrival (almost 6 weeks ago!) turned the whole apartment topsy-turvy. Making a space for him meant rearranging lots of furniture, and we even brought in two wardrobe units to our closet-less bedroom to up our storage and make a more private place to get dressed. When we did that, I moved my makeup (and jewelry and clothes) storage to the bedroom. For my makeup, I used this fabulous system.

Yep. That’s Wes’ cradle, holding my laundry. At least it gets some use, since Wes only deigns to be put down on our expensive mattress pad. No other non-human surface holds appeal for him. Bret actually suggested cutting a cradle-sized chunk out of our mattress pad (it is suuuuper nice memory foam) for Wes' use, and he was only partly joking.

But anyway. Can you see what a disaster this is? I just shoved this giant basket into the bottom of one of the wardrobes. It was a total fail when I was pregnant, when bending over was no fun, and an even bigger fail as entropy won out and I could never find anything in the thirty or so seconds I had to get ready. All I wanted was some sunscreen and to pluck out some stray facial hairs, and I could barely manage that. (Yeah. I look gooooood these days).

But there’s no where to put the stuff. There’s potentially room for a small vanity or shelf like item in the corner once we move Wes’ cradle out. But I just want to keep things readily accessible and super streamlined. So I decided to make use of the inside of my wardrobe door, using my bffs - Command Strips (3M or Scotch or whoever, when are you going to start paying me for constantly touting your products? Call me) and some Affixx containers.

I took the opportunity to purge, starting with a bunch of lipsticks I inexplicably took from my mom when she moved recently. I never wear lipstick, except for one unfortunate four-month-stint in China more than a decade ago, which I’ll talk about some other time. Just ‘cause it’s free doesn’t mean you should take it. Plus a broken hairspray bottle, some old concealer, some crusty mascara – this stuff all went to the trash. The remainders I sorted out among my containers to see what fit best.

Then I put those containers on my door. I’m assuming you don’t need or want a how-to for that, though I will say this: Follow the directions on the Command Hooks. If I clean my surfaces with rubbing alcohol and wait a while before loading on the weight, I have pretty good luck with them. I also have long used the cardboard the bobby pins came on to store them; it seems like the simplest way. To keep them, and hair ties and barrettes tidy, I just hung them all on hooks in their store packaging. Easy peasy. For more blogger cred, create new, cuter holders, but these work and it doesn't generate waste.

Hair and smelly stuff (lotion, perfume) go in these baskets on the floor of my closet for now. I almost never do my hair in the summer because it’s hoooot, (and I’m not sure I even remember how to operate a curling iron) and I’ve had the same bottles of perfume since before I got married, so I don’t require super easy access to them. Though it’s not a pain to reach them at this point, what with being able to bend down and all.

So that’s my small space makeup solution. It’s not super glamorous, but its functionality is so, so great. I wish I’d dug up the time to do it sooner, because it makes a huge difference in my daily routine.

My daily routine for the next week should involve morning runs and later-morning cocktails (or at least yummy iced coffees) and I don't plan to blog, though you never know. If not, I'll catch you the following week and we can celebrate by blogoversary together! Have a great one.