Our new place has two bathrooms. Our guest bathroom came with an upgraded shower head, but for some reason the master bath came with a dingy one. It also barely reached the top of my head, which was a problem.

I picked up a shower head from Bed Bath & Beyond and planned on a quick 5 minute replacement. Easy, right? Wrong. I had so many issues… I tried until my hands were swollen and my wrench was worn, but the old one would not budge. Then I tried this beautiful tool…

For some reason, this worked effortlessly. I don’t know how a wrench failed to budge the thing and this unrelated tool had no problem. These are the crazy things you discover the more you attempt DIY…

I installed the new shower head and soaked myself a few times as I tried to figure out how to use tape around the bolts. Around the fifth try the new shower head worked perfectly.

So I solved the eyesore and the new installation gives us much more height. Success! By the way, the organizer I use is this one here by SimpleHuman. It never rusts and is completely adjustable!

Before

After

I’m finally done with the cabinets! It took me about three different setups to find something I like. I switched to blue towels, as I hated the brown and they were shredded anyhow. White baskets hold small towels and laundry supplies. Extra bed on top. My vanity on the bottom. Here’s a close-up:

I apologize again for the bad lighting in my bathroom. There’s no natural light…

Regardless, I’m finally completely pleased with my vanity shelf! Here’s what I did:

• I trashed my clear organizer idea. It still looked too cluttered. I bought white drawers from Target and stored my makeup in there.
• I added picture frames to personalize the space. I think they were $2 from IKEA. I printed two illustrations: owls and a blue dress. I’ll likely change this often just to change the space up.
• I decided to put my nail polish on display, because it had more uniformity compared to my make up collection. The spice rack was $5 at Bed Bath and Beyond.
• My brushes are still in a coffee cup with rice to hold them upwards. I just tossed my old brushes and purchased a new collection from ELF. (Review coming soon!) I bought a blue make up sponge from Sonia Kashuk for $10 and keep that in a tea light glass.
• I moved my skin care to the another shelf.
• I made sure I had enough of a U-shape to pull things out, set up my mirror, and create a masterpiece on my face. (Sarcasm) When I’m done, things go back in their spot.
• Something I’d still like: lights. I may invest in a battery powered vanity mirror for better lighting when I put my make up on. But then…where will it go? Hmm, still to decide.

Before

After

Again, out with the brown towels and in with the blue. I also got rid of the brown (also broken) rugs and added blue and beige toned rugs. I’m not crazy about them… But they’ll do. I was pushing for white but the weird dude I live with said they’d get dirty too quickly. So that idea was thrown out. You may notice the huge contraption on the counter. I like to keep things simple and clear but I had no choice with this thing. It’s a towel warmer, and my mother-in-law-to-be gave it to me for Christmas. It’s been the best part of  the cold weather around here… I love it, even though it’s large and obnoxious!

Before

After

This is the bottom of the cabinet where I put skin care and miscellaneous things. Much better! You don’t even want to see that bottom shelf in the before picture…

It’s not perfect and I may change a few things here and there, but for the most part…Bathroom Project: Complete!

To take a look back in time, there’s also Part 1 and Part 2 for your amusement.

It’s hard to take a progress shot. I kept waiting until I fixed one more thing, until it got to the point where I realized I had to suck it up and just take the progress pictures! Here’s what I’ve managed to get done in this space so far.

Before

After

What I Did

• Bought that matching soap dispenser.
• Bought a tray to put all the items on. (Except that aromatherapy candle.)
• Printed a light blue “Keep Calm and Carry On” poster and framed it above the toilet. I love it!
• Towels were moved from the shower rod and put on a behind-the-door hanger out of sight. Much cleaner and now guests have somewhere to put their towel as well.
• Installed a little drying rack we had above the towel rack for when I do laundry.
• Removed the ancient electric toothbrush taking up so much space and went with a manual brush.
• Completely reorganized the drawers and they look epic. Sorry, no pictures at the moment!

Still Need To Do

• Use the empty space on the right to put a hand towel holder. Still hunting for the right one.
• New towels, as the current are threading apart. Still can’t decide a color. Light blue?
• New rug. This one is gross and blends into the wood floor. I’m set on a big fluffy white one!

Before

After

The bathroom closet is still a far way from finished. I added bins and removed about three trash bags worth of junk to donate. Still trying to figure out the vanity shelf. I’d like to add some sort of decoration to it and I need more clear containers. The laundry shelf is okay, but I’d like another one of those white baskets to put the laundry supplies in. The top shelf had junk on it and now it has everything for a visitor — air mattress, extra sheets, and the machine to blow up the mattress. I’d like to replace those huge, clear containers with white baskets.

The medicine shelf is not pictured, but I’ve managed to put everything out of sight. Maybe I’ll add a picture of that in the next progress post!

As promised, I’m going to log my quest of organizing my apartment! I’m going by area, so you all really will get a glimpse of my apartment from every nook and cranny… Here are some obstacles I have to overcome:

• My budget. I don’t have a lot of money to buy things to organize. I’m hoping to score most of my stuff at thrift stores or on eBay. For everything else, I always have coupons.
• I rent. This means I can’t tear things down or heavily modify without wanting to kill myself whenever we move out and have to put it back the way it was. On the plus side, my style would be portable.
• Studio space. I live in a studio apartment with my fiancé Josh and our animals. It’s a small space that’s well shared, so that will play a huge role in organization.
• I live with a Boy. I live with Josh, so I can’t go around putting flowers everywhere and hanging pearl necklaces or else I’ll never hear the end of it. Luckily, pushing my girly instincts aside, we tend to share some androgynous sense of style and I try to stick with that.