These bathroom jobs take around ten minutes. They can be done whilst waiting for supper to cook in the oven, something/someone to arrive, holding or chatting on the telephone, listening to a song or the news, etc.

Some will have relevance and resonance for you, some won’t. It’s a menu, not a prescription to inspire similar jobs specific to your home. Let me know how you get on.   Lots of love, Caroline x

ten-minute bathroom jobs

1. Enter your bathroom as if you were a guest in your own home and look at it. Pick up anything that doesn’t belong there and put it away where it does. If you have one, put the shower curtain in a low temperature wash.
2. Make-up: take everything out and sort it into categories on a surface or a tray. If there’s loads, only choose one category for now (for example, just do eye make-up or lipsticks today). Decide what you will keep, clean it and put it back neatly and accessibly. Dispose of unwanted make-up accordingly (see below).
3. Frequent travellers: collect together a full set of toiletries and put them into a canvas bag or wash-bag. Put it away so you can grab it easily next time you’re packing.
4. If you have drawers or shelves, are there boxes, bags or other containers you could use to act as dividers? Having decluttered first, you could have one each for nail care, sun screen, lotions, foot care, etc.
5. What does your toilet roll stash look like? Is there something you already have that could be used to contain the current open pack? People use baskets, shelves, plant stands, hat boxes…
6. Remove everything from the medicine cabinet. Collect other medicines lying around the home. Sort them into categories. Find everything out of date and put it in a bag (see below) Clean the cabinet. Put everything back you want and need to keep in categories.
7. Linen cupboard: whether or not linens are in the bathroom, put all of one category (towels, pillow cases, sheets) onto a surface or bed. Decide which ones you definitely need to keep. Clean the shelf/drawer they came from and return the keepers folded neatly. It’s worth a quick google to find some hilarious – but useful – demos of ways to fold a fitted sheet.
8. Clean the loo – inside and out. Top and bottom of seat. And the floor surrounding it.
9. Have a look at what’s surrounding the shower/bath. Is there a box or bag you could use for bath toys? Set up a system so that only toiletries in use are in the shower/bath with top-up supplies put away elsewhere. Remember that ‘3 for 2’ is only a bargain if you will use them and you have the storage space.
10. If you need a motivator for doing exercise first thing, is there a place in the bathroom you could store your kit so you can put it on as soon as you’ve been to the loo in the morning?

• The local pharmacy will take old medicines.
• Vets and the PDSA like unwanted towels, sheets etc. for sick pets
• Good condition make-up & lotions can go to Give and Makeup – a women’s refuge charity
• Recycling toiletry containers can be tricky – try posting to Freepost LUSH GREENHUB
• The Toy Project in Islington will collect unwanted, used toys