Taming the Hair Ties

We have two little girls. Two delightful (most of the time), wonderful, ginger-haired little girls. And all of the stuff that comes with two little girls. The hubs refuses to learn to do the girls hair (he finally caved and attempted a ponytail about a month ago, when I had to go into work one morning before the girls were awake!!). So, the task of everyday hair brushing, braiding, ponytailing and accessorizing comes to Mama.

We keep the hair supplies in our downstairs powder room, and I normally do the girls` hair in the morning just after breakfast. What happens after that becomes the problem. I use ouchless elastics for ponytail creation and just toss them each day when they come out. But at bath and bedtime, any other clips, barrettes, bows or accessories get discarded randomly around the house.

Tonight Aidyn and I travelled from room to room collecting all of the clips, bows and barrettes we could find. And we found a LOT. I also found a bunch of clips at the bottom of the everyday hair bin that I forgot we had!

We took all of the accessories and sorted like with like pieces. All of the alligator barrettes together, all of the little teeny clippies together, all the elastics, bobby pins, and combs with each other.

Then it was time to prettify and containerize. If I have learned anything from my organizing gurus (OrgJunkie and IHeartOrganizing) is it to contain your items in a way that is accessible, affordable, and whenever possible, pretty.

We previously stored the unorganized hair ties in a clear, lidded storage container. The container itself was the perfect size and shape and stackable with another container we use for nail polish storage in the same bathroom. Let’s be honest though, it was not cute. So Aidyn chose some pretty scrapbook paper to line the plastic bin. We cut the paper to size and just taped it into the container.

In order to avoid the issue of having all types of random hair accessories jumbled together, I tried to find a way to containerize the container. I had some takeout containers with lids (from the Dollars Store, a 3pack for $1). I used two containers and one lid. I cut the lid into a shape in order provide a divider between the container. Two take out containers, each with two compartments fit within the one plastic storage container.

Aidyn filled the compartments with the different types of accessories. As a final touch, we added some blue letters from my massive collection of scrapbooking letter stickers to the front of the container to mark the container with its contents. 

Quick, easy, and most importantly, pretty.

Finally, we took an old coffee tin, and wrapped it in the same paper we lined the plastic container. This container holds all of the really big bows and flowers not in our everyday rotation. 

We popped the hairbands into the top, and voila! Another pretty container for hair accessories!

I bet it wouldn't take long to find a quick and easy organizing project in your house!