Re-Organizing Makeup :: In Progress

My room is arranged so that I can watch my huge-ass TV in my bed like a queen.  Since my bed is pretty high and watching TV on my back is a wee-bit different than sitting on a couch, I had to place my TV on a 2x4 and 2x2 IKEA Expedit (which worked out perfectly!).

I was starring at my expedite last night thinking 'Oh my god, look at all the space wasted on this'.

It's really messy - but the red highlighted areas are the 'empty spaces' I thought were being wasted.  

The cubbies are nice and large, but most of the stuff I had in them barely took up half of the real estate given.  I was noticing that a lot of the upper half of the cubes weren't being utilized.  I started looking up Expedite solutions and found out that IKEA had insert drawers that seemed perfect to store my beauty products!

Ever since I moved to LA, I've had a huge struggle with my products because they weren't streamlined to fit my routine and everything was scattered all over the place! For example, I wake up in the morning and put on face products (sunscreen, foundation, concealer, blush) while I am curling or straightening my hair. I really need all of the products in my bathroom, but most of my face products are in my bedroom sitting around in one of the Expedit cubbies. I have a huge drawer in my bathroom filled with nail polishes, which I don't really need in the morning.  It's already jam packed and I don't have room to expand my collection. I would always think that it'll be super nice to move all of the polishes out and use that drawer to store my face products so I don't have to go back and forth so much in the morning.

 The current bathroom situation. Drawer is filled with nail polish (and some with nowhere to go), and no place for face products..

I thought this will be a perfect opportunity to clean up and re-organize my products.  So today I headed to IKEA and brought home 2 inserts for my expedit.  They are priced 20 dollars per pack (which I think is a rip off considering that the Expedit itself is 69 dollars!).

Here's how it looks like when it is assembled and inserted.
Nice and flush!!

...And this is how it looks with the new tenants moving in. I have 7 China Glaze and 1 OPI bottle lined up.

As you can see the fit is perfect for these sized bottles. I have more than enough breathing room with the height of the drawer too.



First drawer is filled with China Glaze, OPI, Essie, Chanel, Mac, American Apparel, Butter London and Illamasqua (holds about 80 polishes in one shelf).



The second drawer has Zoya, Orly, NYX, Revlon, Sinful Colors, Sally Hansen, Missha and random other brands.


The second set will go two cubes left.


Here's how the top shelf looks like with my lipsticks filled in. I love how it holds over 100+ lipsticks with no struggle at all.

And last but not least, this is how it looks like all closed.

I'm still in the process of organizing/rearranging my products, but I wanted to hurry and share with you guys this great storage solution :p I know it's not the reinvention of the wheel, but I love the size and compactness of the insert shelves.  Expedit is a wildly popular IKEA product that sits in so many people's places, and if you're a junkie like me, the inserts could be a great solution to tuck everything away in an organized manner.

Now I can save some time with my morning routine. :)
It's great for me anyway because I usually paint my nails at night while watching the TV or sitting on my bed and doing the computer.


Here's a peek of my bathroom where some of my foundations are taking refuge.

I've also started to move in some face products to where the polishes were once residing.

I will have an updated post when everything is settled, cleaned up and presentable.. :p
I just wanted to share my new inserts and couldn't wait to finish up before posting.

Yay for IKEA and their brilliant small space solutions!