Article #3 in the Single women's retirement series: Evaluate current spending and begin to create a budget

Where did your Money go last month?

Using the data you collected in article #2, you now have the answers to that question!

Time to work with that data again. Insert your data into the following worksheet below.

NET PAY:

HOUSING
Rent/mortgage
Home owners insurance
Home owners association
Maintenance
Total

Budget experts recommend 30 - 35%.
Your percentage:

UTILITIES
Electricity
water/sewer/garbage
Phone
Internet
Cable
Total

Budget experts recommend 5%.
Your percentage:

FOOD:
Groceries
Restaurant meals
Total:

Budget experts recommend 15 - 20%.
Your percentage:

TRANSPORTATION
Car payment
Car insurance
Fuel
Maintenance
Total:

Budget experts recommend 10 - 20%.
Your percentage:

HEALTHCARE
Doctor
Dentist
Prescription medication
Total:

Budget experts recommend 5%.
Your percentage:

PERSONAL CARE
Clothing
Toiletries
Hair cut/color
Manis/pedis
Gym membership
Total

Budget experts recommend 5%.
Your percentage:

SAVINGS
Personal
IRA
401K
Total

Budget experts recommend a minimum of 20%.
Your percentage:

Break down is as follow:
15% for Retirement savings IF you are in your 40's; MORE if you are in your 50's and are behind on your nest egg accrual.
Emergency fund: 5 - 10% until you reach 6 months worth of living expenses.


The following categories do not have recommended budgetary percentages:
Pet expenses
Entertainment
Gifts
Child expenses
Debt
Charity

These items are assumed to be paid with monies "left over" after above items are paid for.

 My percentages are way, Way, WAY over the recommended levels!

( except for the savings portions, which are way, way under )

What can I do?

Cuts must be made in all categories. When one category is OVER, we must compensate the overage by scrimping in another category. The categories most easily decreased are Food and Personal Care, Utilities. Transportation is harder, but cuts can be made. The hardest category to whittle down is housing, especially when a mortgage is involved.

Another option in addition to reducing expenses is to increase income. Get a rent paying room mate, pick up more hours at your current job, get a 2nd job, or open your own home based side business. Building a profitable business takes some capitol and months or years of continuous effort; so it is not a good option for women who need more money and FAST.

Article #4 in the retirement series:

Strategies for trimming categories and creating a budget

 

Side note for people with budget surpluses:

The 50/30/20 Rules to budgeting

Under the 50/30/20 guide lines of budgeting, meaning 50% of net income covers all necessities, 20% covers Savings and Debt repayment, and all other "want" expenses are covered under the remaining 30%.

The problem with the 50/30/20 guide line is that most of us are spending way way more then 50% of our net income on necessities; especially single women! When basic overhead consumes too much of our incomes, then saving becomes extremely difficult, credit card fill gaps in our budget increasing our debt, and our charitable giving fades to extinction.


If these guide lines can work for your income and expenses then fantastic! It's the ideal situation if you can swing it! Effectively you are only living on 50% of your income, so even after savings, you will have plenty of money to have a great life style!

Retirement series Article #2 Let's evaluate where our money went last month

Where will I find the money to retire?

You will find the money through a combination of budgeting your current income to stretch it's possibilities to the furthest possible extent; and if necessary you will explore avenues to increase your income.

Where did your money go last month?

Knowledge is power. Finding where your money went and how much is the first step needed to identifying where your retirement nest egg will ultimately come from, and aiding you in creating a realistic and accurate future budget.

Using your checkbook register, or your on-line bank account, please fill in the following data:

HOUSING
Rent/mortgage
Home owners insurance
Home owners association
Maintenance
Total

UTILITIES
Electricity
water/sewer/garbage
Phone
Internet
Cable
Total


FOOD
Groceries
Restaurant meals
Coffee
Alcohol
Tobacco
Total:


TRANSPORTATION
Car payment
Car insurance
Fuel
Maintenance
Total:

DEBT
Credit card(s)
Student loans
Other loans ( RV, BOAT etc. )
Total:


HEALTHCARE
Doctor
Dentist
Prescription medication
Chiropractic/massage
Other
Total:

PERSONAL CARE
Clothing
Toiletries
Hair cut/color
Manis/pedis
Gym membership
Other
Total

PETS
Food
Veterinary care
Pet sitter/Doggy Daycare
Grooming
Other
Total:

ENTERTAINMENT
Tickets
Cover charges
Vacation
Books/magazines
Hobbies
DVDs, CDs, MP3s
Video Games
Other
Total:

CHILD EXPENSES
Daycare
Lessons/extra-curricular activities
Child support
Allowance
Total:

EDUCATION
Tuition
Books/fees
Supplies
Other
Total:

MISCELLANEOUS
Church offerings
Charity
Gifts
Total:


 Total Income:

Time for the results

Take your calculator and add up the total expenses to arrive at the GRAND total of expenses. Now subtract that figure from your net income. Hopefully you came out in the positive, but many of you came out with a negative figure. 

Try not to beat yourself up over the negative figure. You are now very aware that you have some income/spending inequities. With some adjusting to your habits and changes to your life style, your financial life will get healthier, you will be less stressed and you will find the money you need to start building some savings! 

You have turned down the road that leads to a better life. Congratulations for having the courage to do this!

Article #3 in the Single women's retirement series:
Evaluate current spending and begin to create a budget

Single womens guide to retirement, a Series #1

This is article #1 in a series that I am writing on this subject.

How would you like to be this woman at age 65?

I am a single 40 something woman. I am no stock expert - I am probably just like you: muddling through my 40+ hour work week. Money is probably tight: we're women, we are raising kids, or helping our adult kids make ends meet, helping our aging parents etc.

Life is HARD, money is TIGHT!

We are all extremely busy with work and family obligations. On top of all of that we are trying to have social lives; attempting to dress well and maintain our appearance! This is expensive.

Who even thinks about that thing way Way WAY off on the far Far FAR distant time that is called retirement???

Though I can hardly believe that day may come for me, I think about how I will pay my bills once I am old A LOT! I watched my mother struggle to support herself on social security alone. No savings, no pension, no nothing. She was never a saver. If she had a nickel she spent a dime. She must have assumed, as many people do, that she retirement would somehow sort itself out once she got there.
And it did. She was stressed for cash and always broke. I helped her out financially when I was able. But it was never enough.

If fact, according to the Center for American Progress,

"Currently, 3.4 million seniors age 65 and older live below the poverty line. Millions more are barely making ends meet just above the poverty line. While 9.4 percent of seniors had incomes in 2006 below the poverty threshold of $9,669 for an individual, and $12,186 for a couple, nearly a quarter of older Americans (22.4 percent) had family incomes below 150 percent of the poverty line." 

This is what has turned me into a determined retirement saver. Due to raising children, I entered the workforce late in life, at 27. I didn't start my 401k until I was 30, and then I was only able to contribute 2%.

A couple years later, by about age 32, I was able to contribute 15% for the next 6 years. A good amount of money. But either because the markets did poorly, ( 2008 great recession ), or because I am a cautious investor, or because my LATE start, my retirement provider says that I am OFF track for retirement nest egg based on my age.

It didn't help that I stopped contributing to my 401k at all for about 2 years. To qualify for my house I had to bump my net income as much as possible. And after watching the markets crash I was just so discouraged about losing my hard earned money that I simply sat back and waited. As soon as I closed on the house I should have resumed my contributions.

Back to today. My goal is to become "on track". I resumed my 401k contributions 2 years after I bought my home. I am currently at 11%, and bumping it up to 15% this month. My 401k is invested in the moderate plan. I've seen too many bubbles in the market, followed by too many crashes to ever gamble my nest egg in an aggressive plan. Stupid? Maybe. But time will tell.

I wouldn't blame anyone for being too scared to be aggressive with their retirement nest egg.I think the truly stupid thing to do is to either make no attempt at acquiring retirement savings at all, or grossly underfunding your nest egg.

Again, according to the Center for American Progress,

"Most elderly poor are women. Very elderly women have even higher poverty rates. As in other age groups, poverty does not affect senior men and women equally. A lifetime of lower earnings due to wage discrimination, absence from the labor market due to childbirth, and jobs that are less likely to have employer-sponsored retirement plans takes its toll."


As women we know that we have more hurdles to overcome than men. Therefore we PLAN more effectively for our retirement. No one will do it for us, not our parents, our kids, or government. If you are 25 years old and have a good job, open that 401k and put 15% in it in a moderate plan. Experts say that that amount for someone your age compounded over time will be enough.

But for those of us who have waited? 15% will not be sufficient for us. Many articles I've read say that those of us in our 40's and older may need 25% - 30% contribution rates. My goal is to increase to 20% by 2016.

This is the lesson of this article:
Start your 401k today if you have not already.
Any amount that you contribute is better than zero.
If you already have a 401k increase your contributions 3% today!!

Next article in the Single womens guide to retirement series:
Where did our money go last month?

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How I sold an antique dresser on Craigslist - A Step By Step tutorial to listing an item on Craigslist

Craigslist is a wonderful place to sell items you don't need! I've sold dozens and dozens of large items on Craigslist: trampoline, skis, compost tumbler, bed frames.........you could say that I am an expert at selling. Even on eBay, but that is another post.

When my mom passed away, I found myself the recipient of this dresser below

This was my mothers dresser from her childhood. During my childhood, it was used by my sister. It has always been in my life.

But this dresser needs to be refinished, and I don't have the necessary skills. Even if I did, this dresser does not fit in with the danish modern/Ikea decor in the rest of my craftsman style modern condo. So it had to go.

There are 3 ways to sell a large piece such as this: garage sale, Facebook, and Craigslist. As I am not an accumulator, I've never had enough household items to sell at once to have a garage sale, and my 300 or so Facebook friends is just too small of a pool. Craigslist was the way to go.

Here's your step-by-step tutorial for Craigslist:

STEP #1

On the Craigslist home page, in the upper left hand corner click "post to classifieds".

STEP #2

Select the appropriate option. In my case it was for sale by owner.

STEP #3

There is a VERY long list of options, so many that I was able to get a screen shot of only about 3/4 of them. Read through them and select the option that pertains to you. For me, I selected "furniture - by owner". Click "continue" at the lower right hand side.

STEP #4

Choose your the location nearest you and then click "continue" at the bottom.

STEP #5

Here you simply fill out the form.

Contact information: I chose text, and I filled in my phone number in the blank provided for that purpose. In the past I've chosen email, specifically CL mail reply. CL mail reply enables buyers to email you without them knowing your email address. There is a box indicating that they can call you also.


Title. Title is very important. I put "antique dresser with mirror". I may have wanted to put in "antique dresser bureau with mirror". Buyers will find your ad one of two ways on Craigslist: through browsing randomly in the furniture category, or most likely by inserting "antique dresser with mirror", "old dresser", "dresser", "bureau" etc. So try to remember your synonyms and include them in your title.

Price. Before you list your item on Craigslist, do a Craigslist search and see what other items similar to yours are selling for. eBay is also another place that you can go to find items and what other sellers are pricing similar items for.

Specific location:
If you are in a rural area, just list the closest town. Small towns, just enter your city. If you are in a large city, enter the city and neighborhood.

Postal code: self explanatory

Posting body: Enter everything that you know about the item: Brand, Age, Materials, Measurements, item condition. Why you are selling the item, ( buyers always want to know! ) Don't forget to list any known flaws.

Show on maps: Do not click this. Once this box is clicked, the location of your residence will show up in your listing! I never click this. I do not want anyone to know where I live. I give out my address only to buyers who have convinced me that they are serious buyers.

DO NOT put your phone number, email address, or address in the listing. This is for your safety.

Cut off from the photo in the lower right hand corner you will find "continue". Press it to go to the next step.

STEP #6

It's time to add photos. Most items will not sell without photos. Most people will not even look at an ad that doesn't have a photo. You can add up to 24 pictures to your listing presently, ( previously you were limited to only 4 ). Upload the best picture first as it will be your thumbnail.

In my ad above, I only used 5 photos; but I encourage you to take advantage of all 24 photos allowed by Craigslist. Include all angles, front, back, sides, underneath, inside drawers, flaws up close and personal.

Take your photos and then crop out the extraneous background. Try to remove your household items that are not for sale from the picture frame. It is extra "noise" that competes with your item.

You will click "browse", and then click to your picture file. Double click on the picture you want in your listing. It will then upload. Repeat this process until all pictures that you wish to include in your listing are uploaded.

Now click "done with images" in the lower right hand corner.

STEP #7

You will now be able to see your listing as it will be presented to the public on Craigslist. If you find an error you may click on "edit text" or "edit images" located at the bottom left, or if all looks great you will then click "publish".

Communicating with buyers:

Closely monitor your email, text, or phone for buyers who are trying to contact you! In this age of smart phones, this should be easy. No more being forced to stay home when one has items for sale on Craigslist! Be extremely fast about returning texts, emails, voice mails. And if you've chosen to accept calls? Be sure to answer calls from unknown numbers!

Sell your items during times when your commitments are low. You need to be flexible about appointment and or rendezvous times with buyers!

Give your address out to only those buyers who have set a definite day & time to come to your home. Be selective, and if something doesn't feel right, then do not give out your address. See the section about personal safety below.

STEP #8

This page features a URL link where you can view your live listing, and a link where you can manage your listing. Your listing is good for 7 days. You may re-new any listing that is at least 48 hours old. This will put your listing at the top of the pile again. Let me explain, Craigslist listings sort themselves newest to oldest. So a 1 day old listing is on page one, and a 6 day old listing is on page 4 etc.

This is the manage postings page on Craigslist. These are a list of the items on this particular account that I've sold over the years. From this page I can re-post, edit, delete, and UN-delete.

You do not need to create a Craigslist account to sell on Craigslist. I've sold a few things that are not on the list above because I didn't log-in to my account when I created the ads. If you think that you may sell quite a few things, I recommend that you create a Craigslist account ( easy! ).

When your item sells, do yourself and buyers a big favor and delete the listing! It's very annoying for Craigslist to get crowded with items that are nolonger available!

Words of Caution:

Avoiding scams

Accept CASH only from a person that you meet face to face.

To read more information about avoiding scams on Craigslist please click here:
http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams

Personal Safety

If buyer is coming to your home, make appointment time when you will have other friends/family to receive the buyer when they arrive.

If you are selling high priced merchandise such as jewelry or electronics, do not meet the buyer at your home. Instead choose a local coffee shop such as Starbucks. This is for your personal safety.

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My search for the perfect bedroom reading lamp

I am a book worm, totally and completely and not at all like the earthworm above.

 According to Mirriam-Webster, a book worm is
1. : a person who likes to read books and who spends a lot of time reading and studying
2. :  a person unusually devoted to reading and study 

I'm not the biggest and most prolific reader ever, but I still probably knock out 3 - 4 books a month.
I read, a lot, and most everywhere. The type of woman who carries a book, ( or a book on the kindle app on my smart phone ), everywhere I go. My nose is buried during my breaks at work, in waiting rooms at the doctors office, hair dressers, accountant, any spare moment really.

I read at home also. Mostly in the living room perched on the comfy couch next to the nice lamp below.

But to read in the sanctuary of my bedroom would be heaven. Why oh why on Earth would I not read in my warm confines on my bed? Because the lighting was very very insufficient.

Above you can see my bed. My room is small at approximately 9'5"x10'5". But it suits me and my full-sized bed just fine. On the left side of the bed, the door to the room swings in, and on the other side of the bed there is about 26" to the wall. You can't see this, but there is actually drawers under this bed ( great storage! ). The down side of the drawers is that it eliminates the possibility of having a night stand the could've held a table lamp.


Okay, well easy solution?
Wall mount lamp!

Across the room I have this nice floor lamp:

:

I bought this lamp at Kmart in 2011. It has a polished brass finish and a swing arm top. Originally this floor lamp lived on the right side of my bed. I moved it across the room as it provides the perfect TV watching light. The shade is Alvine Parla ( 15" ) from Ikea. The shade is also available in an 11" diameter also. I really like this shade. It looks like embroidery and goes well with my flowered duvet cover. A bonus is that the shade only costs $14.99.

Being a believer that everything should match, I had to have a wall mount lamp with a polished brass finish and a swing arm. Now that I knew what I wanted, it was time to shop. My budget was $40 - $70.

What's a busy book worm on a budget to do? Consult google!
I put in "wall mount swing arm lamp" into the search and then clicked "shopping".
I found many wall mount swing arm lamps that I liked. But they were all the WRONG finish and more than I want to spend.

Right now the hot finishes are:
Satin nickel, oil rubbed bronze, bronze, even chrome.
No polished brass? What too 80's?

I think not! My room is done in tans and pale pinks, and the metal finish I chose for this room was polished brass. I refused to change my mind and give up. Time to dig deeper.

First I checked out Kmart and Target. They didn't even carry wall mount swing arm lamps.

Next I checked Walmart. Side note: I'm not a fan of America's largest retailer. I think that they treat their employees terribly, so I generally avoid them.Walmart had a better selection of lamps. In fact I found the Kenroy Home Element Wall Swing Arm Lamp in Polished Brass on their website. The lamp was available for purchase on-line only from unbeatablesales.com for $90 with free shipping.

That lamp fit the bill, but $90 was a little steep. So I kept looking.

Next stop? Walmart's biggest on-line competitor Amazon. I started by putting the exact name of the above lamp into the Amazon search. Unfortunately, the best price for the lamp was $91.90 with free shipping. Still too much!
Next step was to insert "swing arm wall lamp polished brass" into the Amazon search. Two lamps came up in search, the Kenroy pictured above and this Kenroy pictured below.

This was a pretty nice lamp also, a Kenroy Home 30130PB Nathaniel Wall Swing Arm Lamp in polished brass. At $66.60 with free shipping it was a lot closer to the price I wanted to pay. This particular lamp I liked a little bit less than the other Kenroy though. I liked the plainer look of the other lamp. Though I was happy to find the Nathaniel Swing Arm lamp, it was definitely my 2nd choice.

My last resort for finding the lamp of my choice at the price I wanted to pay was eBay. I put the exact name, "kenroy home element wall swing lamp polished brass" into eBay search and then sorted my results low to high.

I came up with only 4 results. They were the Kenroy models pictured above, two of each by four different sellers. Details of search below.

1. 1st choice lamp $73.80 + $10.00 shipping for a total of $83.80 or best offer with $10.00 shipping
2. 1st choice lamp $90 with free shipping and best offer
3. 2nd choice lamp $117 with free shipping
4. 2nd choice lamp $147.59 with free shipping

I eliminated #3 and #4 off the bat because they were the 2nd choice lamp and also way way too expensive. I then went to #2 and made an offer of $75.00. Why did I skip #1? I didn't want to mess with postage costs.

Anyways, the seller counter offered with $79.00 free shipping and no sales tax. A smidge higher priced than I really hoped to pay, but I saved $11.00 over other retailers. So I'm happy with the deal. Moral of the story? If the listing offers 'best offer', don't be afraid to make an offer! The seller can always counter-offer as they did here. Get a discount if you can!

The icing on the cake will be the new Alvine Parla 11" lamp shade ( from Ikea ), that will go on this lamp. Will nicely coordinate with my floor lamp.

I am waiting for this lamp to be delivered, but I will post video of it's installation and pictures of the finished room once complete.

When looking for a bargain, utilize the web. It can yield tremendous cost savings in very little time.
I hope this article inspires you to hunt the web more effectively on your next shopping trip.

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How to clean your bathroom FAST and Thorough in 10 easy steps

How to clean your bathroom FAST and Thorough in 10 easy steps

I am a perfectionist OCD clean freak, but I don't have much time! I am work a full-time job while running a small business, so quick is very important to me. Being a clean freak, thoroughness is a MUST!

I will describe my 9 step process in detail in this lens. This process takes me approximately one half hour. Some people can clean a bathroom faster than me - but their bathroom won't be as clean and fresh as mine.

This process takes me about 30 minutes. So here we go!

 Gather up your cleaning supplies

Let's start with cleaners.
I like Windex, Scrub Free Lemon Scent Bathroom Cleaner, Clorox toilet bowl cleaner with bleach,
and Orange Glow Wood furniture 2-in-1 clean & polish.

Some people advocate home-made cleaners. They have good reasons, among them cost savings and chemical avoidance.
I've personally never had the time to make them.

 Choose your cleaning cloths: Paper towels or rags 

Although I do buy paper towels, I don't buy them very often. This is because I use paper towels for only the greasiest and most disgusting of messes. For most of my cleaning, I use rags. This preference for using RAGS to clean instead of PAPER TOWELS saves me hundreds of $$$ a year, and its BETTER for the environment! Always go for the win win!
My favorite rags are old tube socks. A friend passes them on to me after he gets that itty bitty whole from his big toe.

I grab a big big pile of them. I use each one until they are a bit dirty and then grab a clean one and continue. When the bathroom is clean I'll pop them all in the washing machine.

Step 1 

Grab the dirty towels, wash cloths and that trash 

 Let's get them out of the way.

Dirty towels, wash clothes into the wash machine. Check those rugs too. If it's been awhile, ( or you can't remember when ), grab them up. You'll wash them all alone in a cold water wash, air dry - don't put them in the dryer - that would harm the rubber backing.

Grab the trash and take it out now.
Time allotted: 1 minute

Step 2

Put away any make-up and toiletries sitting out on the bathroom counter

For me, it's putting my daily used make up items back in my caboodles case, and my special facial

soaps/lotions/potions and hair brush back in the drawer. Hey - the place looks better already!

Time allotted: 1 minute

Step 3

Get out the vacuum cleaner with the hose attachment 

By far the biggest cleaning obstacles in my bathroom are lint and hair. The most effective and fast way to fight these two adversaries if your vacuum cleaner!
I love my Dyson.

I vacuum every surface in my bathroom: the toilet ( top, bottom, around the seat and base ), the tub/shower stall, the floor, and the vanity top and sink. Unless your vacuum is a wet/dry vac, make sure that its been several hours since the sink or shower has been used.

You will suck up most of the lint and hair with your vacuum cleaner. This is so much faster and easier than trying to wipe it up.
Time allotted: 5 minutes

Step 4

Turn on the fan and spray the Scrub Free in the tub/shower stall and in the sink

I use my favorite commercial cleaners, and they are probably toxic. So the first thing I do is turn on the bathroom fan, and open the window in the Summer time before I spray a droplet. 

Scrub Free is formulated to cut through soap scum, hard water stains and dulling films. Let's let Scrub Free do the work so we don't have to.

Spray down the tub/shower stall and the sink. Let it sit for 5 - 10 minutes. Then come back and simply wipe it down with a clean rag.
If there is a stubborn spot or area, spray it again, and let it sit for another 5 - 10 minutes and then come back to it.

Time allotted: 10 minutes total - 5 minutes to soak, 5 minutes to wipe clean.

Step 5

I hate cleaning the toilet, so I clean it first 

While we are waiting for the Scrub Free soak out the soap scum of tub/shower and sink, we'll clean the toilet.
I first clean the bowl using a regular toilet brush and the Clorox toilet bowl cleaner with bleach.

Then I grab my Windex and spray all the surfaces of the toilet: base, seat, lid and back. Quickly wipe with your rag.
This is very very quick as I mostly cleaned lint and hair from my toilet base - and I vacuumed 99% of this up already.

However, if you share your toilet with a male(s), you will likely be cleaning dried urine and will need to take greater care. I am a lucky woman who has her own bathroom.

Time allotted: 5 minutes.

After you are done with the toilet, return to step 3 and wipe out the tub/shower stall and sink.

Step 6

Time to wipe down the floor and the outside of the tub, and trash can

I use Windex for this task. This step is very quick for me as I do not share my bathroom with the male of our species, and I do not use hair spray.

So for me, I am cleaning stray hairs and lint that the vacuum may have missed. If you share your bathroom with males, take extra special care to clean the floor around the toilet. If you use hair spray, you will probably need to focus on the floor in front of the mirror.

This is a great time to examine your trash - spray it down with the Windex and wipe it inside and out, then put a fresh liner in. I like to recycle plastic grocery bags in place of garbage bags.

Time allotted: 3 minutes

Step 7

Vanity top, faucet and mirror 

You've already cleaned the sink back in step 3, so the dirtiest area of the vanity is already done!

Spray Windex on the mirror and faucet and wipe them down. Now for the vanity top. Move all the items that live there to one side so that you can completely clean underneath and behind everything, return your stuff to it's home and repeat for the other side.

Time allotted: 2 minutes
Note: if this step is taking you much more time than this, perhaps you are storing too many things on your vanity top. Only your most regularly used items should be using such valuable real estate.

Step 8

Wipe down the accessories that live on your vanity top 

A bathroom is not clean if your soap dispenser has a coat of dust on it! Don't forget about the accessories.
Here are my essential items that are on my vanity top:
- soap dispenser
- soap dish ( I use it as a storage for my Sonicare head which drips. The dish contains any mess )
- tooth paste holder
By the way, all 3 of the above items match and are from a bath set made by Better homes and gardens.

The other items are:
- Sonicare base and charger
- Set of 4 plastic kitchen canisters. They hold cotton balls, Q-tips, maxi pads and tampons.

Keep in mind that anything living on your vanity will be a dust and lint catcher! If you want to keep your cleaning down, you won't keep anything but your essentials out.

Step 9

 You will need to do this step only occasionally with exception noted below 

If your vanity is made of wood, you should clean it occasionally. I use Orange Glo Wood Furniture 2-in-1 polish.
Cleaning the bathroom primarily used only by me, ( a woman ), I am mostly cleaning dust and the occasional make-up drip.
I clean my vanity maybe once every 2 months, and when I do, I make sure to remember to wipe the wooden window sill in the bathroom too. It's especially nice to clean this wood work before a party as it leaves your bathroom smelling of oranges!

If you share your bathroom with males, especially male children, you will be cleaning urine splashes. So pay particular attention to the side of the vanity adjacent to the toilet. If your males are messy, ( and your nose will let you know ), you may want to clean that side of the vanity weekly.

Time allotted: 3 minutes every other month
or for bathrooms used by males, 3 minutes weekly

Step 10 - Last one!

Hang your clean towels, wash clothes and put those clean rugs in place!

Once your clean items are back in their rightful places you are now finally finished!

Your bathroom should be looking and smelling like a million bucks!

The towels and rugs are a focal point in your bathroom. If yours are on their last leg, replacing them
will make a big difference to the way this room looks and feels.

My little trick to keep my shower cleaner longer & easier to clean on cleaning day 

 It's called a soap dish.

 

The biggest thing that many of us are really cleaning from our shower is soap scum! Where does most of the soap scum accumulate? Where we store the bar of soap. This little white dish blends nicely with my white tub. It doesn't make a visual nuisance of itself. The dish does a great job of trapping the BIG accumulation of scum to one small area.

I can remove the dish, put it in my dish washer, or spray it and wipe it out quickly when I am comfortably standing upright as I wipe out the bathroom sink.

Any cleaning that I'm not doing on my hands and knees is just more pleasant!

This little $3 soap dish really improves my quality of life.

Where do you store your make-up? 

 Remember Caboodles? 

I bought mine many years ago, but they can are still available for purchase around the web. Caboodles is made of plastic and similar to a man's tackle box.
I stow it under the sink when I'm not using it. It's also great when I'm having a sleep over or traveling.
I love my Caboodles.

What about the rest of your bathroom junk? 

Here's the run down:
Toilet paper - under the sink
Bathroom cleaners - in the laundry closet
Extra shampoo/conditioner - under the sink
Lotions, soaps and the rest - in one of 3 drawers located in the vanity
Extra towels and wash clothes - over the toilet on a shelf
Medicine - In an upper kitchen cabinet.
Tampons, pads, cotton balls, Q-tips ( ie my most used items ) - on the vanity top in clear containers.

I am a minimalist at heart and I try to only store the things that I know I need and that I will use. This helps keep my storage needs lower.

It's important to go through your bathroom drawers, closets, and shelving at least yearly to assess whether you still need the items that are stored there. Does our stuff still serve us? If it does not, then pass it along to someone who can use it or throw it out.

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