Tame your hair accessories!

How many ponytail holders do you own?  A common answer from most long-haired women is "Tons, but I can only find two." 

Have long-haired daughters?  You probably have hair accessories all over the place, right?  But can you find the one you want when you want it?  Or do you just end up buying more and losing more? 

Realistically, you will continue to have pony tail holders stashed all over the place, even after reading this.  You need to keep them handy, for heaven's sake!  (Gym bag, bottom of your purse, office desk, cupholder in the car...) But, hopefully you will tame the majority - saving you time and your sanity in the bathroom. 

Imagine this scene:  It's 7:30 am and you are scrambling to pull together either your hair or your daughters.  You have the perfect hair accessory - somewhere.  So, while holding the hair back with one hand, you begin digging in the drawer with the other.  You systematically pull out all the brushes and combs,  a handfull of mismatched barrettes and a clip.  You finally snag a rubberband, but its too small.  Ugh! Forget it.  Drop the pony and go for a headband.   Now where did you leave that?? 

I'm sure there is a fancy closet system out there you can buy that will give you tens of perfect little cubbies for all your bathroom things.  I don't have that - probably not going to get that.  If you don't have that either, than I have some simple, inexpensive ideas for you. 

Two different approaches-
If you have a bathroom (aka "Linen") closet:
Target has these fantasatic little Sterolite cubbies with three drawers.  I use these in bathrooms all the time (more ideas for these later).  They come in three sizes - small, medium and large.  You can choose what size you need based on your space available and your quantity of hair accessories.  The drawer fronts are somewhat translucent, allowing you to see what is inside - though I highly recommend labeling them as well, if you can.  I use one of these for my daughter.  In one drawer we have just barrettes and clips.  In another drawer we have only ponytail holders.  The third drawer is currently holding elastic headbands.  Tailor it to fit your needs.  The drawers completely and easily pull out so that we can grab the whole selection of barrettes and take it over to the countertop while we work.  

Because she also has a large selection of headbands, and they will not fit into a drawer, we also have a small crock.  It sits on the shelf next to the drawer cubbie for easy headband selection.  The head bands fit just perfectly around it and since they are stacking, we haven't filled it up yet! We can toss other random hair accessories (feathers, etc.) into it. 

If you have bathroom drawers:
In my bathroom, it's easiest for me to use drawers for my hair accessories.  The closet is too far away from the action.  My drawer isn't very big and needs to hold a fair amount.  I went uber simple here - I have a small box that I drop clips into and I line the edges with the opened barrettes.  I use one giant clip (that I am never going to use in my hair again anyway - remember the 90's?) to hold all my elastic headbands and one regular-sized carabiner to hold all of my ponytail holders.  That one is actually my favorite.  I stumbled upon it by accident and it works SO great.  It holds a bunch and you just flip them around until the one you want is at the opening of the clip.  You can see them all and even get them off with one hand.  Packing?  Just toss it in your bag.  EASY.