bathroom – Minimally Montessori

How it started vs how it’s going

I set up a bathroom station for H a month ago. I had dreams of H calmly rinsing her hands off in a perfectly arranged station, assembled with care. Birds sang, sunshine came in the window, everything was perfect. I knew I was being a little idealistic, but hey, it’s 2020, we’re in the middle of a pandemic, I’ve been stuck at home since March, let me have my dreams.

The real reason why I decided to bite the bullet and set up a bathroom station was because H was becoming a nightmare to clean after meals. It took two people, a lot of water, and a lot of post cleanup. Screaming was involved, and not entirely by H. “OH MY GOD SHE’S TRYING TO JUMP OFF THE COUNTER”, or “OH NO SHE FLUNG WATER ALL OVER THE FLOOR” came from the bathroom as my husband and I attempted to clean her. We sat her on the counter as we tried to pour water over her hands and into the sink. It worked for a while, and then it didn’t. H remained dirtier and dirtier afterwards as time went on, as our attempts fell flat. It was time for a change.

Enter the bathroom station. I found an IKEA nightstand for free on NextDoor, and figured “why not”? I used a glass bowl as a test run, then moved on to a skid proof dog food bowl. It worked beautiful…for a while. I put a mirror up above the sink. H loved playing peekaboo with herself. I had a basket of wash clothes for wiping her face, and a hand towel for drying. She loved the routine.

Now that she’s become used to the routine, H is starting to get bored of our system. The mirror doesn’t keep her attention, the bowl has landed on the floor a few times, and we’re back to it being a two person job. We still try with the station, but it’s no longer the easy task it used to be.

So once again, we are stuck trying to figure out a better system that makes keeping our child clean an easier task. I feel like that’s going to be a reoccurring theme over the next 18 years.

The Beginnings of a Bathroom Station

I was browsing Pinterest one day, when I saw it: a tiny bathroom sink set up in someone’s bathroom. Everything in me lost it when I saw the tiny cups with tiny baby soap, a tiny baby toothbrush, and tiny baby wash cloth. I knew I had to do this. Yes, part of it was just because I wanted to see something so tiny and adorable in my house, but most of my longing for this set up was for my kiddo. I’m short, and struggle with bathroom counters; I can only imagine how difficult it would be for her.

The search started with the perfect base. I had seen an example with an IKEA Rast nightstand. When my husband and I moved out of our apartment, we donated our two. I was kicking myself. However, the power of thrifting came through, the spirits of secondhand shopping prevailed, and I scored a used Rast table from NextDoor. With some vision and a Magic Eraser, I was able to revive the dirty garage nightstand. I began to see my concept come to life.

It was dirty, it was used, but it was mine

I originally intended on setting the bathroom station up much later, closer to when H was 14-16 months. She, however, had other plans. Up until now, our post-meal hand cleaning routine involved setting her on the bathroom counter, pouring water on her hands with a cup, and dry them off with a washcloth. Recently, she decided that hand washing time was torture, and would screech and flail nonstop until we were done. Then she would run off, babbling happily. I ended up covered in all the food it had removed from her. It was then that I knew we had to move to the next level of hand washing routine. She had forced my hand.

As of today, we are three days into the bathroom station setup. I grabbed a bowl from the kitchen to use as a basin, and stuck a spare IKEA mirror in a frame, and hung it above the station. I still need to buy the necessary parts for finishing. Our trials have been (mostly) a success. The biggest issue currently is the extremely attractive temptation of dumping the bowl of water over, so we’ll have to address that. H has dumped it once, so far. I also have to figure out how store her belongings in a sanitary manner. At some point, I also want to hang up a shelf below the mirror.