Metal corner caddies for bathrooms have never been my style. You know, those tiny shelves that hang off the side of your wall and are supposed to hold your shampoo bottles without dumping their entire contents all over your feet while you are washing your hair? I was tired of wrestling with wobbly plastic bins and soap getting dumped in my eye.
Instead, I ripped that whole thing out and installed new shelves. New shelves are great – after all, every Pinterest board is packed with beautiful photos of symmetrically placed glass jars and rolled towels. But an open bathroom shelving setup can quickly devolve into clutter if you don’t have a designated place for everything.
I learned this the hard way when I first installed some floating shelves above my toilet and used them as a place to hide all the random crap I didn’t know what to do with: old medication containers, half-used hairspray I forgot I had. What I wish someone would have told me is that having well-designed bathroom shelving is more than about finding a place to store your stuff.
Successful bathroom shelves are about designing a system that lets you categorize certain things as “items you want to display” and “items that shouldn’t be seen, but should be easily accessed.” The key to designing your bathroom shelf system is understanding what types of items autumn into each category.
Let’s begin with what I keep on my open shelves, because this took some trial and error. Glass containers with cotton balls and Q-Tips rolled inside look much nicer than the plastic ones that came in them, and glass doesn’t leave funky watermarks like plastic does. I transferred my bath salts to a mason jar since the plastic container they came in looked cheap.
I keep rolled up hand towels in neutral colours on display as well, and make sure I roll them all the same way so they look uniform (Ha! I can hear you roll your eyes too). If your bathroom has enough light coming in, keep a small potted plant on your shelves to bring in some green and soften the medical look bathrooms can sometimes take on.
I have a snake plant in my bathroom that thrives there. You could even keep a small succulent, but I killed three before realising that my bathroom window is primarily north-facing and I should probably invest in faux plants. Just kidding… sort of.
Candles are great, but choose wisely. I have two plain white candles that sit inside simple glass candlesticks – they feel intentional instead of like I threw them up there. Pick up some lavender candles from Target; you don’t need to spend $20 on something that’s eventually going to melt.
Now onto what I hide. It’s important to hide things, because no one needs to see your extra toothbrushes or expired prescription ointment hiding behind your boldly patterned soap dispenser. I keep mine in woven baskets with handles.
They’re easily pulled out of the way when you need to get to the contents inside, and look intentional, not messy. Inside my baskets, I keep: Extra TP (d’uh) Backup bottles of shampoo First aid supplies Emergency floss Anything I don’t want to display because the packaging is ugly The key is these baskets act as another design element in your shelving display. I chose baskets that were made of natural looking rattan that matched the colours in my bathroom.
The baskets aren’t hiding clutter, they’re styling it. Ok, so hiding certain things helps, but how do you keep this system working day-to-day? Height matters.
I put the products I use every day on the shelf that I can reach without having to overstretch or bend down. Toward the top I keep stuff I know I’ll use, but not necessarily daily (think: spare towels, that fancy face mask I only use on Sunday). The bottom shelf is reserved for the heavy items and anything I’d let my kids reach without me lifting things for them.
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I also learned not to crowd your shelves. On my first go-round I tried to fill every inch of the shelves with something, making the space feel cluttered and making it hard to wipe down the shelves. Now I follow something I call the “1/3 rule.” Fill only about 2/3 of each shelf with items, allowing space between them.
This way things look more curated instead of stuffed onto the shelves. Another thing I do is make sure I clean the dang shelves. Dust, steam, and some magical sticky residue love to accumulate on open shelving.
I wipe mine down with a damp cloth once a week, and because I don’t crowd the shelves with tons of stuff, cleaning them isn’t a nightmare. Pro tip that no one talks about in glossy bathroom photos: Rotate Seasonally. Just because you have room on your shelves doesn’t mean you should force winter items to be displayed when you’re swimming in your own personal Hawaii every day.
I swap out the lighter weight towels for thicker ones during the winter, and move my hydrating peppermint foot cream to an easily accessible spot in the bottom basket. During summer I bring out lighter lotions and swap my diffuser’s attachment to a cool mist setting. Swapping things out keeps your shelves from getting boring, and helps you avoid storing things you don’t use all the time.
Lastly, coordinating colours helps a ton. Don’t go overboard though. I stuck to white/silver items, neutral textures, and one colour for an accent (mine was sage green to match my subway tile).
I didn’t need to ensure every single item was matchy-matchy. If everything matched, it would look too sterile. Finding some things with similar colour tones helps the shelves look more thought-out instead of a pharmacy explosion.
The mistake I see people make time and time again when designing their bathroom shelves is turning their shelves into a pantry. You don’t need three bottles of every liquid housed on your shelf for display. Keep one pretty version of the toiletries you use every day out, and store the rest in the hidden bins or a linen closet if you’re lucky enough to have one.
The biggest trick for me was starting with a small tray to corral all of your daily use items.
Mine houses a small succulent, hand soap, and a sample-sized face serum I’m currently obsessed with. Keeping a tray helps you create a designated spot for everything, so when it’s time to wash your hair you can grab the whole tray at once to keep track of everything.
It also prevents little items from getting spread out across the shelves like breadcrumbs. Two years in and I have to say, I LOVE having open shelves in my bathroom. I used to feel rushed every morning digging through my messy shelving to find what I needed, or felt guilty knowing my shelves always looked cluttered.
But not anymore! I feel calm when I walk into my bathroom now. My shelves are put together, but not overly fancy.
Minimal, but functional. Every once in awhile someone will come over to my house and compliment my set up. They ooh and ahh over my bathroom “display” and ask where I bought certain holders, how I keep my soap from drying out, etc.
When they do I know I’ve truly found the balance between functional and fabulous.
