The challenges of living in a small space are never-ending, but I find they can actually be fun puzzles to solve. Every time I discover some clever solution, like a leggings organizer or mini rice cooker, I feel like a genius who successfully cracked a secret code for living.
My small bathroom, however, was a challenge I was putting off. It has only a tiny amount of storage space and very little countertop surface, which means I’ve been keeping some of my essential makeup and personal care items in a small travel dopp kit that I have to stash on the toilet tank when I’m not using it (people with pedestal sinks know this pain), with the rest of my makeup shoved into a second bag in my hall closet. It was extremely tiresome digging around in that bag, and the back-and-forth to the closet got old fast.
Then a friend came to visit. She’d packed a very attractive cosmetics case, and I was reminded that I didn’t actually have to live in tiny-bag frustration. I didn’t really want to pay for it, so I set out to find a makeup case that would work for me: big enough to hold all my makeup in one place, with enough built-in organization that I wouldn’t have to root around to find things but not so much that I couldn’t arrange things the way I want to; soft-sided to fold away if necessary, but well-built enough to stand on its own; and compact enough that I can still leave it out when I don’t have company. (As such, it was also extremely important that it zip closed to protect my brushes and products from germs.)
I found one at Amazon that not only met my overly specific requirements, but was just $13.99 and comes in over a dozen colors (and a smaller size, too).
