Organising 101: Making sense of chaos

See that long white table there?  That used to be my dressing table.  It used to be clutter-free but obviously, that has changed.

It now looks like this – housing some of my prized possessions, along with a couple of prints and knick-knacks on the dresser.

The latest addition to my dresser is of course the glass pedestal and dome stand which was a recent purchase from Pottery Barn.  They finally ship to Singapore now!  Yippee!  Aside from using as a display for sweets, this stand also comes in handy to display my arm candy.  I featured the glass jar previously.  Don’t trash those pretty ribbons that you may have received when you purchase the item.  It just may come handy.  In my case, I threw a couple into the glass jars to create more colour into the mix.

And over on the other corner, we have my beauty corner where all my perfumes and cosmetics are displayed or cleverly disguised in a quirky box.

So how does your dresser look?  Neat or as chaotic as mine? ;p

Updates will be a little slower for the next week or so.  Work has taken over my life for now, but I’m really excited about one new project for the blog.  So, stick around won’t you?

a little touch

Adding a new print and a gifted Jo Malone candle in my fave scent by the Man on my seemingly ‘chaotic’ dresser.  Who cares?  I’m just loving my space!

Organising 101: Trash & Treasure (make-up)

I’ve got tons of lipsticks stashed around the beauty box, many of which are gifted from friends. As with many of my other make-up products, I tend to do an annual spring-cleaning and throw up some of the products which have gone past their shelf life.  So out with the old and in with the new.

How do you know when it’s time to throw out your make-up?  Here’s a general rule of thumb that I keep to:

Eye products such as mascara and eyeliner should not be kept longer than six months.  I tend to throw them out between three to six months.  Given that Singapore is naturally humid, it can become a breeding ground for infection and you wouldn’t want anything funky on your eyes, right?

Lipstick – the period after opening for lipstick is a little longer than that of mascara, so I usually keep it and use it for up to two years before trashing them.  But there are some lippies that I simply can’t bear to throw out either mostly because of its ultra-cute packaging.  So here’s an idea that I came up with for displaying them after purchasing one of these storage jars from The Salad Shop at Haji Lane (Thanks E from missusC’s reverie for the tip).

Loving the little collection of knick- knacks that’s on my dresser now.  It’s slowly growing. 

organising 101: trinkets

My dressing table – it used to be long and wide.  It also used to be relatively clear for I would hide most of my cosmetics and perfumes inside the cupboard. The only thing I probably left on the table was a jewellery tray to place my watches and rings. But after returning from Geneva, I guess I got a little carried away with displaying of my stuff on the dressing table instead.

Here’s how it looks like now:

Vintage silver tray used to display my fave scents.  A crystal jewellery box purchased in the US to store my prized jewellery items.  And most recently, a gifted cake stand from my cousins used to place my watches and bracelets.  

Don’t you just love pretty kitchen ware that can also end up being useful on your dressing table as a display piece?  I know I do. 

organising 101: my polishes

If you’ve been following my recent posts, you’ll know that I’ve been obsessed about rearranging, reorganizing and repacking just about everything in my wardrobe.  I guess about time, since I didn’t get much spring-cleaning done in the beginning of the year.

This time round, I decided to organise my make-up and beauty area.  After a couple of hours of going through all the make-up and beauty stuff that I have and rearranging my stuff, I’m pretty pleased with what I’ve done with the make-up counter.  Thought I’ll ‘show’ them off and share a couple of tips that perhaps might come in handy for you as well.

Let’s start with nail polishes!  I’ve a crazy collection of nail polishes.  I love buying them for fear that my favourite colour will go out in production or for fear that the nail salon that I go to don’t stock my favourite colour.  I also stand by Audrey Hepburn’s famous quote of ‘I believe in manicures.’  So from time to time, I enjoy giving my nails a fresh coat of paint at home when the one from the manicure gets chipped, which is why having a variety of colours that I love on hand definitely comes in handy (oops, pun totally intended).

Here’s how I organised my very own ‘nail tray’!

I got this tray from Daiso for about SG$2 (CHF 1.40 or US$1.50) sometime last year.  I used it as a display tray to store my knick-knacks on the shelf and while it still looked pretty on the shelf, I decided to turn it to something more functional.  I picked out a couple of my current fave polishes plus the other nail essentials like nail-clipper, nail polish remover, base/top coats, toe-separator and hand lotions.  Arranged them neatly on the tray and viola!  A dainty French-inspired nail polish holder that I think looks beautiful to be displayed and to bring out for those girly parties.

How do you organise your polishes?  I would love to know!

Stay tuned for more tips as I continue my mammoth task of reorganising our space.

Prints Charming

20 March officially marks the first day of Spring and I celebrated the new season with tons of Spring cleaning back at our home in Singapore.  Our 17 boxes have finally arrived!   Clothes, toiletries and knick knacks of all sorts were strewn all over the room.  I spent the entire day clearing it and boy was I tired by 5pm but felt a sense of achievement having organised part of my accessories compartment.

Here are some tips that I’d like to share:

Instead of trashing the boxes, I sometimes like to keep them for you’ll never know when they may end up being useful.  These boxes most certainly came in handy in this case to help organise the belts in my drawer.

I also like displaying my accessories for it’s easy to forget my inventory if they are stored in the dust-bag.  Displaying the pieces helps me to see what I have at a glance and play around with mixing and matching them for my outfit for the day.

When we were living in Geneva, I ended up buying loads of vintage plates and small cake stands to aid me in my food styling.  Instead of chucking them aside in some corner of my kitchen and end up forgetting that they even exist, I decided to turn them into jewellery holders instead.  What do you think?  I think it’s pretty neat and helps keep my little items all organised.  Plus if I ever need to use them to display food again, it will always be within reach.

Lastly, in honour of Spring, I decided to don on this ‘In-your-face’ floral printed pants that I recently purchased from H&M.  Fashion catwalks around the world are clearly fixated on this trend and at CHF 24.90 (I found out its retailing for SG 24.90), it couldn’t hurt the pocket that much to jump on the floral printed bandwagon.  At first, I was a kinda worried that it might be a little too glaring for daily wear but when paired with a simple black studded chiffon top from Zara, the entire outfit worked for an afternoon about town to catch up with pals.

What do you think?  Yay or Nay to this trend?