As one of my tasks for our academic/creative/organizing time, I have been going through the bathroom closet. One thing I wish I’d taken before/after pictures of is my hair-accessories caddy, which is a six-pocket thing that hangs on the wall of the closet. (It is similar to this, if you want a visual, but it hangs from a nail instead of from a shower curtain rod.) All six pockets were full of stuff, and also there were hair-clips clipped up and down the sides.
I threw out about 90% of what I had. Some of it was “I might need this for a hairstyle someday”—but for hairstyles I haven’t worn in, say, fifteen years; and some of it was “I bought this and it didn’t work out, but I’m hanging on to it because it’s brand-new and it seems dumb to get rid of it.” I did dust off and keep my favorite brown pinwale corduroy scrunchie, in case scrunchies come back into style for real; it is hard to imagine, but on the other hand we have skinny jeans back in our midst, and Ghostbusters. I also kept two headbands, because otherwise I keep buying headbands. And I kept a few pairs of hairsticks (like chopsticks) in case I go back to wearing my hair that way, because it’s still a possibility—but I got rid of a dozen or more other pairs. I got rid of a pearl-bead scrunchie so fancy it would only work for a bride who needed a scrunchie, which is a combination I’ve having trouble imagining, but perhaps something like this; some pairs of small barrettes, and some larger barrettes that hold the wrong amount of hair; some of those things that are a bent piece of material (leather, plastic, etc.) with a hole on each end, and you put it on your hair and then put a stick through the two holes to secure it; a bunch of hair elastics that no longer stretched; and miscellaneous updo supplies that I never figured out how to use.
Now everything I’m keeping is in a Target bag, and the caddy is hanging clean and empty, waiting for me to decide what to do next. There are not enough accessories to fill the caddy, so I have to decide: am I keeping the caddy for hair accessories and also using it to store something else? or am I ditching the caddy and finding a new container for the hair accessories? I need to think.
One thing I found while going through the shelves of the closet was more than a dozen packs of the little hair clips I like, the ones that are sold only in assortment packs, but I only want the tortoiseshell ones. I decrease the waste by waiting until they’re on a buy-two-get-one-free sale, but I kept buying them whenever they were on sale and tossing them onto the shelf, and there was quite a little avalanche of them as I removed other things from the shelf. As I use up the tortoiseshell ones, I gradually combine the other two colors into full packs to donate to Goodwill—but there were a few cards with a stripe of black clips and a stripe of clear clips, just sitting there waiting for me to do that. So today during academic/creative/organizing time I turned that heap into this heap:
I have three full and one partial pack of tortoiseshell clips, and I’ll keep that one partially-filled card of black clips to add others to it later, and I can donate the rest.
This is the kind of stuff that nobody hands out rewards for doing, and yet these are things that STILL MUST BE DONE. And it’s a long list. Well done, Swistle! Also, I will always show up for Swistle Does a Thing Posts.
Now, I would also like to know who many people had to look up “brown pinwale corduroy?”
I knew what brown pinwale corduroy was, but that’s because I am a huge fan of brown wide wale corduroy (pants), and keep getting disappointed when all I can find is pinwale.
I am totally impressed by your Christmas in July stash of tortoise-shell clips!
I also had to look it up.
It’s always about the 1/2 through mark where I realize that I should have taken a before picture so that I could appreciate my work. I would also share that sort of thing with my sister, who also appreciates a good closet organization picture.
I still wear scrunchies. I am not waiting for them to come back into style. I dislike the word though, so I usually call them cloth ponytail holders.
I work at a university and one of my milennial students was wearing one! So a widespread revival is definitely a possibility!
Good job Swistle! I’m also a fan of “Swistle does a thing” posts lol.
Hurrah for a good clear out – but just a big, fat ‘no’ to all scrunchies until the end of time!
All the clips of one color together! This is how it should be. Someone is going to be very excited to see their favorite color waiting for them at Goodwill.
Good job on the organization. That is a gold star for sure!
Address* to your Goodwill? I go through packs of those clips at an insane rate. Probably because I clip them in ill-advised places and break off the prong that must do all the work. Also, kids with crazy hair.
*just kidding, that feels stalkerish
These types of projects are so onerous but the satisfaction of the job being done is so worth it!
I keep a few of my blown-out hair elastics to tie bags of stuff that don’t have a zip closure – tater tots, rice…just in case you need a reason to keep any of them. :)
My 15 year old daughter and her friends wear scrunchies, so it seems they are back in my corner of the world (Wisconsin). Weird!
I keep our stash of extra hair elastics in my car, on my shift. Because that’s obviously the most logical place for them… And I know when to buy more, because the stash is getting low. During school time, we go through a ton of hair elastics- the girls grab a couple each day it seems.
I know it’s not for everyone, but I keep my hair really short and reading posts like this remind me of one of the reasons I find it so freeing! I love having short hair!
Scrunchies are back in style! My extremely cool teenage nieces started wearing them at the end of last year!