Facetime

Welcome to my mush-wrangling station. It’s changed a bit since I last blogged about it. For one thing I’m now not confined to the top of a shared chest of drawers; I have my own custom-built unit. So fancy. Well custom in that I picked out all the bits from IKEA, and then built it.

I do love a good Expedit – they’re so freakin’ versatile with all their baskets and bells and whistles. The unit was £20 and the glass door cupboard inserts were £14 each; the baskets are the real kicker at £15 each, but the whole thing comes in at £78 for a deceptively spacious vanity. Perfect for a low maintenance girl like me.

The little glass jars came from a pound shop and originally contained some rather sickly £1 scented candles. But I scooped those out, gave the jars a hot wash and now they are perfect for storing tubes and cotton pads within easy reach. And while I’m not much of a make-up girl, I keep my three most regularly used bits – Soap and Glory Solar Powder, Kick Ass Concealer and Lid Stuff neutral quad palette – within easy reach in case I have a sallow morning. The rather beautiful glass container was from a charity shop, one of my favourite places to find unusual and unique home wares.

Inside the glass cupboards one houses a stash of moisturising products and a modest collection of nail polishes, which sadly I’m not using at the moment because my nails are so badly chomped; the other has my various jewellery bits and bobs, housed in the small antique chest of drawers that my Granny gave me for my 18th birthday.

The baskets underneath have un-opened products on one side, and washbags and my hairdryer on the other. The hairdryer arrangement is something I am particularly proud of: there is a plug socket behind the cabinet, so the dryer is always plugged in. I can just pull it out of its basket in the morning, give my hair a blast and then tidy it away again. Because the secret to true tidyness is making sure that no one can see your clutter.

So there you have it, a lightening tour of my modest vanity set up. I realise that many people would want a lot more space than this to store all their different bits and bobs, but this works so well for me, and finally giving me a little woman-corner in our shared bedroom that I am really happy with.

How do you store yours? Are you a minimal Ms like myself, or do you need something more substantial?