Take Control: Organizing Hair Accessories

The morning scenario is always the same–with only a few minutes until the school bus/camp van/mom-doing-carpool-duty, both of your daughters are having major hair meltdowns thanks to the mess of accessories that’s virtually impossible to sift through.

Threats of never leaving the house have been made. Tears have been shed. Who knew a missing headband and a few mismatched barrettes could turn your family’s a.m. routine into a combat zone?

Luckily, that menagerie of brushes, hairbands and barrettes that has their bathroom looking like a post-apocalyptic Claire’s can be tamed with a few simple tricks.

The Pre-Organize Purge

There’s no point in organizing items that are broken, age inappropriate (translation: too babyish), or out of style.

Sit with your girls and go through the entire kit-and-kaboodle. Donate items in good condition that they’ve personally deemed “uncool,” and trash anything that’s stretched out, missing a match or otherwise damaged.

Don’t forget to include styling tools in your purge — there’s no point in holding on to that flat iron if it doesn’t actually straighten hair.

Finding the Right Home

Thus far, your daughter’s hair accessories live in several different places spanning their bedrooms and the bathroom. Give them one home.

Considering their bedrooms tend to be a black hole of shoes, clothing and homework, your best bet is to stick to the bathroom. Designate a shelf, drawer, or under-the-sink spot for each girl’s accessories and then another space for shared items like the hair dryer or curling iron.

Get Creative

There’s no one-size fits-all-solution for organizing hair accessories. The tools you choose totally depend on the type/size of your storage space.

Know also, that while organizers for other accessories (jewelry, purses, scarves) are prevalent, there aren’t many specifically geared toward hair ties, headbands and the like. No worries, we’ll help you get creative.

What do these things have in common? You can use all of them to organize hair accessories.

• Divided trays and drawer organizers keep clips, ponytail holders and elastic headbands from getting entangled.
• For under-the-sink storage, re-purpose a desk organizer (the top slot is a great space for headbands), medicine cabinet organizer or keep items out of sight with a storage box that has drawers.
• Those struggling with having enough storage space should consider an over-the-door organizer. One warning: this type of organizer is hard for smaller girls to reach, making it a better choice for ‘tween and teen bathrooms.
• Use a little ingenuity. Ring holders are a pretty way to keep hair bands and scrunchies from getting tangled. While clipping barrettes to a piece of ribbon is neat way to keep pairs in place.
• Bigger items like styling tools can be organized and stored in bins. Or if you want to get really fancy, snag an actual hair tool organizer.

With each hair accessory in its proper place, peace can once again reign over your morning routine. Now, if you could only get them to keep their rooms clean…

Have an organizing tip you’d love to share with us? Let us know in the space below.