The MONSTER under your sink. By Suzy Ince

After working for an estate sale company for a few months, I knew I needed to change a few things about my life. I am not a de-clutter you life guru, or an organization aficionado, but I don't want anyone to delving under my sink either.

NOT my sink. This looks much better than mine.

It's an unspoken horror that we all live with. If it doesn't go on the counter, or into a drawer, it disappears under the sink, never to be seen again. I know you can't believe this, but I, myself, was guilty of this horrible act. Then, I had the honor of getting several bathrooms ready for an estate sale, two weeks in a row. Not only did I feel the need to rush home and shower with scalding hot water, I also thought I should probably make an appointment for a tetanus booster. 

So lets talk about,

The monster under the sink

It's scary and sometimes it's hairy, but it's not insurmountable. We all have one and acknowledging it is the first step to taming it. Possibly I'm not the only one with this problem so I'm baring my soul and letting you in on my dirty little secret and letting you know what I found in the darkness below.

My big monster under my sink, was the dreaded used Toothbrushes.

I was saving them for...I don't know, but I had seven of them. Why, Suzy, why? I guess I thought I'd use them to clean stuff. You know get the nitty gritty out of those oh, so hard places to reach. When I purchased a new one the old one went into a Solo cup under the sink, where they sat long enough for several layers of dust to encase them before I found them again. I put on my disposable gloves,(because honestly people, those gloves you keep and reuse are disgusting, git rid of them,) and threw them out.

For some reason I had a lot of loose cotton balls stuck to bottles of hair spray, contact lens solution bottles and of course the toothbrushes.

I've never even seen cotton balls like these, but they are pretty cool.

I can't even tell you how many of these there were or why they were even there. Probably from the bottles of aspirin that had piled up under there. Seems like just as you throw one cotton ball away two more pop up to take its place. It's a mystery that even the universe doesn't understand. They were gross and I threw them away.

Sorry I had to address this problem

We all have gross sponges  stacked somewhere in our house. There's no excuse. Clorox has disposable wipes that you use once and throw away. They are cheap and smell nice, every time you use them. Go, buy, enjoy!

Halloween make up

Okay, the drink was not under the sink, but it would have made the experience much more enjoyable and I won't say I didn't have a few after I'd finished. Let's face it I needed one or three afterwards. Beyond the sponges I found a ton of old Halloween make up. 

We are big into Halloween, (I'm on the left, hubby on the right.) so, I pitched the crusty stuff and kept the stuff that hadn't expired. But Suzy, you said to get rid of those monsters. I know, but I couldn't. Next Halloween I'll be glad I didn't. I did consolidate it all into one large freezer zip lock bag.

Yes, the dreaded Permanent rods

I had several boxes of Perm rods stacked up in the back of the cabinet, and my hair is pretty curly. Go figure. If you've ever had a perm you know them for what they truly are, torture implements. Why we can't just be happy with what we have, I'll never know. They like the Toothbrushes had become encrusted with dust. I donated these to the poor straight haired people of the world. May they forgive me.

I took my bags of trash to the dumpster and transported the small bag of donations the the Disabled American Vets, DAV, for short. And after a quick shopping trip I returned to deal with what remained.

No matter what state your monster is under that sink there is hope. Not all your stuff needs to be disposed of, and there are many different ways to cage the monster that remains. Here a few suggestions for the things you really need to keep. These are of varying price ranges and I'm sure you can find something that you can live with.

 Quick note. If you have an electrician on hand a neat trick is to wire some lights that will come on when you open the doors. If you don't have an electrician on hand there are lights that you press to activate, most have double stick tape on the back for easy mounting. Giving yourself some light will stop you from throwing that plastic bag or old make up under there.

But I digress. Here are some examples of a tamed monster.

A final thought.

People please, for God's sake, take a weekend, a week or a month and tame your monsters. There's no reason anything needs to stay there in the moist darkness under the sink. For all you know your junk spawned little monsters of its own and one day they will grow up to wonder what's out there past that little square door beyond the water trap. They may sneak out and set up residence in your closet and start a new colony. Stamp it out now before they take over the world. I promise you'll feel better and God forbid, if something happens to you, someone else won't have to visit the doctor for their booster shots.

Happy cleaning.