Bathrooms are the smallest rooms in any home, and they’re also usually the messiest. Even though you’re not a hoarder, it’s easy to let all the products that keep you clean and presentable stockpile under your sink or inside your cabinets.
Next thing you know, your bathroom is drowning in toiletries. And you’re googling “is it safe to take expired NyQuil?”
It doesn’t have to be that way, though. Organizing everything is easier than you think.
Learn more: Make the Most Out of Your Tiny Bathroom with These 5 Hacks
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5 Reasons for Keeping Your Bathroom Neat and Clean
- Increases Day-to-Day Efficiency: In the mornings, when everybody is rather busy, keeping things in their place means that important things can be located without wasting time.
- Encourages Calmness: Order eliminates distractions because unnecessary objects are absent. Thus, the individual is more relaxed because the bathroom becomes a personal space.
- Enhances Cleanliness: When clutter is reduced, there are fewer nooks and crannies for dust, dirt, or grime to creep into, thus making the surroundings cleaner and healthier.
- Improves the Overall Look: A clean, organized bathroom is more attractive, making all the residents or visitors welcome.
- Facilitates Mental Ordering: Having an uncluttered area contributes to the uncluttered area of your brain, helping to reduce stress.
Learn more: 3 Simple Ways to Eliminate Plastic in Your Bathroom
Key Areas Where Clutter Tends to Gather
Countertops: Often, well-used items collect on the countertops and create a mess.
Cabinet Interiors: Cabinets can be overwhelming, holding a combination of essentials and rarely used items, which makes them mismatched.
Shower Space: Bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and body wash can quickly clutter the shower space.
Drawers: They can hold small items, making it particularly difficult to find what you need to see urgently.
Medicine Cabinet: The medicine cabinet is a repository of expired or rarely used medications and products, contributing to the mess.
Learn more: 18 Ways To Organize A Bathroom Without Drawers And Cabinets
21 effortless ways to declutter your bathroom:
1. Declutter your medicine cabinet.
Is there expired NyQuil or stretched-out scrunchies in your medicine cabinet?
That’s stuff you shouldn’t use, and it’s taking up valuable real estate. Chuck those items pronto.
2. Only keep products you use daily in your bathroom.
First-aid supplies are important, but you’re not sterilizing cuts and icing bruises every day.
Separate out the stuff you do use each day (shampoo, toothbrush, toothpaste, etc.) from the stuff you don’t (Neosporin) and find a new home in your closet to store the second group.
3. Store hair dryers and straighteners in a file organizer.
Hair care appliances can easily claim half the space under your sink if you’re not careful. Attach a file organizer or magazine rack to the side of your bathroom sink, or to the inside of a cabinet door, and store your dryer and hair straightener inside.
You can also pick up a bathroom organizer from a place like The Container Store and then mount it on the wall or attach it to a towel rack.
What’s that, “Super Mario” is more your style?
Take some cues from Pinterest and upcycle old plant holders or PVC pipes.
4. Attach a magnetic strip to the inside of your medicine cabinet’s door.
Where do you currently store your tweezers, bobby pins, nail clippers, and nail filer?
Inside jars on your sink? On your medicine cabinet’s shelves? Or in a drawer?
Not anymore.
Free up that space by attaching magnetic strips to the inside of your medicine cabinet’s door. Then, place the metal grooming supplies on the strips for easy, clutter-free access.
Alternatively, if you’re into the magnet idea but want something more aesthetically pleasing, go Martha Stewart by sticking a sheet of precut galvanized steel to the back of your medicine cabinet and then attaching magnetic hooks to it.
5. Store makeup brushes and toothbrushes in Mason jars.
Mason jars seem like the answer to every one of your small item-storage problems. Including the predicament of not having enough space on your bathroom sink or shelf to rest your toothbrush and multiple makeup brushes.
Craving more creative makeup storage ideas?
Learn more: 11 Beautifully Easy Ways To Organize And Store Your Makeup
6. Install a shelf above your bathroom door.
You probably already thought to put some hooks over your bathroom door to store towels. (If you haven’t, get on that.)
But did you know that you can also turn the top of your door into an extra mini storage unit?
This is another brilliant bathroom decluttering tip from Martha, which means that it works and you should try it.
Secure a pair of wooden shelf brackets on either side of your bathroom’s doorframe using wooden screws, attach a shelf to the brackets, and then store extra toilet paper rolls, soaps, shampoos, and any other grooming supplies on the shelf.
The top of your door’s molding will help support the weight. So you don’t have to worry about your collection of bath salts avalanching on top of you every time you close the door.
Learn more: 42 Best Small Bathroom Storage Ideas to Maximize Space
7. Declutter your bathroom drawers with a tray organizer.
Drawers are often the biggest disaster zones in a bathroom. Just think about how much time you’ve spent rummaging around for that one red tube of lipstick.
Add some dividers, or a plastic utensil tray like Cosmopolitan recommends, to your drawer to cure that headache.
8. Lean a ladder against your bathroom wall.
You can find all sorts of wooden cabinets or metal shelving units in stores or online, but of course there are plenty of DIY storage solutions as well. Including this rustic bathroom storage solution that’s made from pieces of spare wood found at a lumber yard.
9. Hang cleaning products on a tension rod underneath your sink.
Tension rods are great for more than just hanging your shower curtain. Place a tension rod underneath your sink and hang your Windex, tile scrubbers, and other bathroom cleaning products on it.
The result: extra storage space in your cabinet and extra space on your floor. All for only a few bucks.
10. Attach a spice rack to your bathroom wall.
Attach an IKEA BEKVÄM spice rack to the wall that’s next to your bathroom mirror and stash your assorted gels, creams, sprays, solutions, and scrubs inside. Because if it’s good enough to store your oregano, it’s good enough to store your moisturizer.
The best part: It’ll only cost you $4.
11. DIY a shower shelf.
Is the top of your tub the only storage space you have in your shower?
Not anymore.
This hack from The Family Handyman will give you some much-needed shower storage. It requires a flat-back corner shelf unit (available at tile stores for roughly $20), double-face foam tape, and silicone caulk.
You’ll need to clean off the shelf and test-fit it before you seal it with the tape and caulk, but once you complete the prep, you’ll have a new home for your loofah, shower gel, shampoo, and shaving cream.
12. DIY a TP holder/shelf.
This tiny shelf is a Pinterest favorite. And while you could use it to store your TP, tiny plant, iPhone, and air freshener, most people seem to see it as a haven for bathroom literature.
Want more easy DIY ideas for decluttering your bathroom?
Check out our huge list of 42 bathroom storage hacks that will upgrade your life. And don’t forget to clean these 10 things in your bathroom that are a breeding ground for bacteria, germs, dirt, dust, and more.
Want to declutter your home in the fastest and easiest way possible?
Schedule a MakeSpace pickup and pack the stuff you don’t need. That’s it. We’ll pick up everything and store it in our secure and temperature-regulated storage facility.
The best part:
When you need something back, it’s only a few few clicks at Clutter.com, or a few taps on the Clutter app, away.
13. Clear Everything Out
Begin by clearing out everything from your bathroom, yes everything! This sounds like an enormous task, but it is a necessary first step. Taking out all the items in drawers, cabinets, and shelves allows you to see everything again with new eyes. Set everything out where you are able to see it clearly. This will make everything much easier to work with for the next steps.
14. Group Items by Type
Once everything is out, start sorting items based on their category. For instance, all skincare products should be together, hair care products should be together, and so on. Categorizing helps you understand if you have any duplicate products or similar items that are taking up a lot of space.
15. Keep Only What You Use Regularly
Now that it’s all sorted, get real with yourself. Do you really need three bottles of half-used shampoo or that face mask you tried once and despised? Keep only the things you use and love. Discard, donate, or store anything else somewhere else if that is something you want to keep but don’t use too often.
16. Utilize Baskets and Containers
You have noted your essentials, now it’s time to give them a proper home. Baskets, trays, and containers keep things that are alike together, everything having a place. This not only makes your bathroom more organized but it also makes finding what you need easier.
17. Put Vertical Space into Account
Just because your cabinets and drawers are in good shape doesn’t mean you can’t think outside of the box-space-wise. That is vertical space. Consider putting in shelves above your toilet or on a free wall to house extra towels, toiletries, or whatever else may help you give more room around your counters and cabinets.
18. Enforce a Rotate-In, Rotate-Out System
Institute a rotation system in which you only keep your current products in the bathroom. Place the extras elsewhere and you can “shop” from your own stock when you finish a product. This keeps things tidy and helps ensure nothing goes to waste.
19. Regularly Check Expiry Dates
As you are organizing, check the dates of all your products. Expired products take up good space and can be less effective or even harmful. Get into the practice of going through your bathroom every few months to make sure everything in it is fresh and usable.
20. Limit What You Keep on the Counter
Keep your counters as basic as possible to instill a sense of calm and neatness. Display only what you need: perhaps your soap dispenser, a toothbrush holder, and a small dish for rings or other small items. Suddenly, your bathroom seems more spacious and relaxed.
21. Keep the Floor Clear
Finally, keep clutter off your bathroom floor. Sometimes it is tempting to leave out things like a laundry basket or extra toilet paper rolls, but finding a home for them can make your space feel much bigger and more put together. Consider storing these items in a closet or under the sink to get them out of view.
Learn more: How to Declutter Your Bathroom
5 Barriers to Keeping the Bathroom Organized
- Inadequate Space Planning: In most cases, bathrooms’ storage needs regularly go unfilled, making it very difficult to keep items in an orderly fashion.
- Market Overload: Many people have got into the habit of accumulating all kinds of bath products in their living rooms, and over time this leads to an excessive build-up.
- Shared Bathroom: In case of a hectic bathroom, especially with a busy, orderly, it gets messed up by different people’s usage several times over.
- Over-attached to Things: Sometimes, people store too many old products that they hardly use for various persistent reasons, and this tends to cause disorder.
- Time Constraints: Overly occupied days sometimes provide very few opportunities for cleaning activities free from work, allowing a renewable resource, clutter, to persist over time.
Steps to Maintaining a Clutter-Free Bathroom
Step 1: Pare Down Your Stuff
It’s a lot easier to organize your bathroom—and keep it that way—when you have less stuff to begin with. Start by decluttering. Set aside an hour or so to empty all cabinets and drawers, or declutter one drawer or shelf at a time over a few days.
Using the floor as your sorting place, group like items such as soaps, shampoos, dental supplies, nail care, and makeup. Trash the trash as you go. That means toss sunscreen, lotions, other toiletries that are past their expiration date, sticky nail polishes, and anything that doesn’t look or smell like it did when it was new, including makeup.
Separate expired and unused prescriptions as well as over-the-counter medicines for proper disposal. If your local pharmacy has a medication take-back program, bring your unwanted medications to them.
If there’s no take-back program in your area, mix your unwanted medications with liquids, cat litter, coffee grounds, or dirt. Then pour the mixture into a sealable bag or a tin that you can seal with a lid.
That way, no one will take the medications out of the trash and ingest them. Do the same with medicines in pill or capsule form, add water to dissolve them, and dispose of the bag in your household trash.
Chances are good that you have duplicates of certain things in your home. Decide how many of those items you want to keep. Then distribute excess toiletries to other bathrooms for example, and discard or give away everything you no longer use, like, want, or need.
You can also pare down your collection of towels. If you’re doing laundry regularly, two weeks’ worth of towels should be enough.
Step 2: Assign Everything a Home
Source: Donna Smallin Kuper
As you decide what to store and where, consider accessibility. Think about how and where you use items and how often you use them.
Store frequently used items where they will be most convenient. Store things you access occasionally or rarely in less prime locations, such as the back of a cabinet or upper shelf of a closet. This might include extra bars of soap, rolls of toilet paper, and boxes of tissues.
It may be tempting to leave frequently used things on the sink counter, but what if all you left on it was hand soap?
If that’s a bit too minimalist for you, try storing everyday items on a decorative tray or in a basket for a cleaner look. Keep in mind that the less stuff you leave out, the easier it is to clean your countertop.
In your medicine cabinet, organize prescriptions and over-the-counter items by family member name, roommate name, or category, such as “cough,” “cold,” and “pain relievers.”You can also label your shelves, or store the items inside labeled plastic containers like these ones:
You can also label your shelves, or store the items inside labeled plastic containers like these ones:
Assign drawers or shelves for each family member or roommate who shares the bathroom, as well as an “ours” drawer for shared items. Alternatively, you can organize drawers by categories, such as “makeup” or “hair care.”
Use drawer organizers to keep drawers organized. Or repurpose empty checkbook boxes or baby wipe dispensers into dividers. And be sure to keep cabinets organized with labels and clear, stackable bins.
Pro Tip: Labeling shelves and bins provides a visual cue that will increase the likelihood that everyone puts things back where they belong.
Another option for storing personal toiletries is a bath caddy or tote for each family member or roommate. What’s nice about this bathroom storage hack is that it’s as easy to put away as it is to retrieve.
Plus, if storage space is limited, you can always store the tote in a linen closet or bedroom.
By the same token, keeping makeup in a bag or bin on a shelf is one of many smart ways to store makeup for easy access. Bonus: When you travel, you don’t have to think about what to bring because your makeup kit is ready to go.
Step 3: Maximize Storage Space in Your Bathroom Cabinets and Linen Closet
Cabinet space is often underutilized. You may be able to maximize the space in your linen closet and bathroom cabinets by adjusting their shelves to better accommodate items of different sizes.
For example, position shelves so that you can store three rolls of toilet paper and a foot-high stack of bath towels on one shelf, and shorter stacks of hand towels and washcloths on the shelf above it.
If you can’t adjust your shelving, add a hanging shelf or two to maximize the vertical space in your cabinets or closet. A turntable or lazy Susan is the perfect solution for deep or hard-to-reach shelves.
Wire mesh sliding baskets also make good use of deep cabinets while providing easy access for frequently used items. Most products that are made to organize spices are perfect for storing prescriptions, vitamins, and over-the-counter medicine bottles in a bathroom cabinet.
Hampton Bay 2-Door Over the Toilet Storage Cabinet
Some things are best hidden behind closed doors. If you need more closed storage space, move bulk purchases of paper products to a linen closet or maybe even under a bed.
Consider adding a freestanding, ready-made cabinet/shelving unit for extra storage space. Or roll towels and washcloths, and store them in a decorative basket near the bathtub or shower.
Step 4: Hang Stuff Behind Doors
Think you don’t have anywhere to hang anything? Make use of the space behind doors.
Invest in an over-the-door rack with multiple hooks for hanging wet towels, bathrobes, and other articles of clothing. Or hang a shoe bag organizer on the back of a door, and use it to store toiletries and other bathroom items like rolled-up magazines.
Another quick, no-tools-required storage solution is to hang a few hooks that adhere to any surface and remove easily without marring. They come in finishes to match any décor, and in a variety of sizes to hang everything from bath towels and laundry bags to hair dryers and flat irons.
You can even hang your trash bin inside a cabinet door to keep the floor clear:
YouCopia Plastic Bag Trash Bin
Everybody knows that a shower or tub caddy helps to keep the bathing area clutter-free. But one caddy rarely offers enough storage space to accommodate the product needs of multiple family members or roommates.
The solution is simple: Organize bath and shower toiletries by family member or roommate name in buckets, and then hang the buckets on your shower curtain rod. The buckets are also great for storing bath toys when they’re not in use.
Great Useful Stuff Hanging Bucket Bins
Step 5: Make Your Bathroom Easy to Keep Clean
Here are four more bathroom organizing strategies that will help you clutter-proof your bathroom like a boss:
- If you discover any unopened and expired items, buy less of those items next time.
- Use up toiletries before buying more. One bottle of shampoo to replace the one that’s in use is plenty.
- When you get new prescriptions, dispose of the outdated ones. Also, mark expiration dates on bottles with a Sharpie so you can easily see when it’s time to dispose of them.
- Keep cleaning supplies handy to make quick clean-ups easier.
Follow the advice in these steps, and your bathroom will likely look and stay clean.
Learn more: New Yorkers Resort To Sleeping Their Babies In Bathrooms And Closets
Store Smart, Live Clutter-Free—Reserve Your Storage Unit Now!
Conclusion
Achieving and maintaining a neat and orderly bathroom requires a bit of effort, but the benefits are well worth it. A well-organized space enhances your daily routine and contributes to a more serene and hygienic environment. By addressing common problem areas and implementing simple, practical strategies, you can transform your bathroom into a clutter-free haven that supports function and relaxation.
FAQs for How to Declutter Your Bathroom:
Q: Where should I begin if decluttering my bathroom feels overwhelming?
A: Start by focusing on a tiny area at a time, such as a single drawer or shelf. Break the process into manageable steps, and gradually work through the space. Setting aside a specific amount of time each day, like 15 minutes, can make the task less daunting and help you build momentum.
Q: How should I handle products that are past their expiration date?
A: Expired products should be disposed of appropriately to avoid potential health risks. For most items, this means tossing them in the trash, but check if any need particular disposal, such as certain medications or chemicals. It’s also a good idea to rinse out and recycle any empty containers, where possible, to minimize waste.
Q: Are there sustainable methods for reducing bathroom clutter?
A: Absolutely! You can start by donating unopened products you no longer need to local shelters or community groups. For partially used items, consider repurposing them for other uses, like turning old towels into cleaning rags. Additionally, opt for refillable or recyclable containers to reduce environmental impact when you need to discard something.
Q: What daily habits can help keep my bathroom organized and tidy?
A: To maintain a clutter-free bathroom, establish a routine for quickly tidying up each day. This might include wiping down surfaces, putting away items after use, and quickly checking to ensure everything is in its designated place. Making this a daily habit can prevent clutter from building up over time.
Q: How do I make decisions on what to keep and what to get rid of in my bathroom?
A: When deciding what to keep, focus on items that you use regularly and genuinely enjoy. If something is expired, unused for a long time, or doesn’t serve a purpose, it’s likely time to let it go. For sentimental items, consider whether they add value to your daily routine or could be stored elsewhere.
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Clutter is more than just storage.
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