Do you remember when you opened your bathroom cabinet last week and three bottles of shampoo fell on top of you? That was me towel clad and wondering why all of my fancy bottles rolled off of the wet counter top. Those bottles tumbling out of my cabinet was symbolic for how I was storing everything else in my bathroom – throw it in wherever it fits and hope gravity is feeling generous today.
Truthfully, the mess in my bathroom had been going on for months. I kept thinking I would “get around to it soon.” But something about watching your fav moisturizer slip underneath the radiator has a way of forcing you to acknowledge someday is today. And so began my journey decluttering and completely rethinking how I would store things in my bathroom.
Let me tell you…it totally changed my whole routine. Medicine Cabinet: The first place I started was with my medicine cabinet.
The medicine cabinet is one of those fancy recessed ones that were already installed in the flat.
It’ isn’t anything special. Just simple white metal and two shelves. But like I mentioned before, I was treating mine like a junk drawer.
Partial prescription bottles, old vitamins, random cotton buds and why is there a tube of mascara in here?! I know. So I took everything out of the cabinet and measured the dang thing.
I know, seems ridiculous. But trust me, you will be surprised at how many people skip this step and just guess at sizes. The inside of my cabinet was 24 inches wide by roughly 30 inches tall and about 4 inches deep.
Not very big, but workable if I got strategic about what I put where. Enter my new best friend: Small, clear storage containers. I purchased some stackable acrylic bins from the home goods store.
Nothing crazy expensive, I just picked up basic clear boxes in varying sizes. Notice I said varying sizes? That was key.
I found narrow ones to store my daily meds, wider ones for cotton balls and small tubes. Suddenly I could see everything at once and nothing was getting pushed to the back to be forgotten. However, the game changing hack was when I mounted a magnetic strip to the inside of my cabinet door.
Originally I saw this online and was just like ew who does that? But let me tell you something…it’s fantastic. Tweezers, nail clippers, and those little annoyances that you have no idea where to store?
They can live on your magnetic strip! Mine cost me about £8 and it freed up so much drawer space. But really, just because I got the medicine cabinet sorted, didn’t mean the rest of my bathroom was going to magically autumn into place.
Most of my storage dilemmas were taking place underneath in my vanity. Let me introduce you to my vanity. I would describe it as “cozy.” It’ literally about 60 cm across and has two drawers.
At least, it has TWO DRAWERS. And you know what they say about beauty products and extra storage? Lets just say those drawers liked to hoard beauty products.
The bottom drawer was the worst. It’s deep and although that sounds nice, that meant I was burying things. I would buy a new foundation because I couldn’t find my normal one, only to find three half-used bottles of it weeks later.
Need I say more? So I decided I was going to switch up how I approached this space completely. Zones.
That’s what I needed. I kept the left side for skincare and the right for makeup. And I picked up some drawer dividers to make sure everything stayed in its own zone.
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They weren’t anything fancy. Just adjustable bamboo ones from the kitchen store. But boy did they help this drawer function better.
The actual game changer was getting a pull out drawer tray to tuck into the very back of my deep drawer. Basically what happens is it slides everything forward when you pull on the tray. I spent about £15 on mine but boy has it been worth it.
I can see everything super easily now and don’t have to dig around like I’m archeologist to find my lip gloss. Another section of the bathroom that was driving me nuts? Linens.
Now I don’t have a linen closet, per say. I just have a tall skinny cabinet that is about as big around as a broom closet. For way too long, I had been stuffing towels and sheets in there like some episode of towel Jenga.
Lean a little too far to the left and everything would come crashing down. Two words: Shelf Dividers. GIRL!!
I’m literally begging you to go get yourself some shelf dividers. They’re like those wire racks that keep textbooks organised at libraries. But they work wonders for keeping your towers of towels from toppling over.
I also started folding my towels in thirds length wise instead of halves. They take up less space vertically and they just look nicer. Sheets IUtilized this tip I learned to roll all of my sheets and fit the entire set inside of one of the pillow cases.
Fold the flat sheet, the fitted sheet and one pillow case together. Then fold that bundle into the remaining pillow case. It sounds weird, but it looks so tidy and you will never waste money on buying a second set of sheets when you think you lost one!
Finally, the area above my toilet was pretty much just wasted space. Literally empty nothingness taunting me about how badly I sucked at storage. So I installed a small floating shelf above my toilet.
Not too deep because I didn’ want it to feel cramped. It’ the perfect spot to store extra toilet paper, candles and a small plant that hopefully doesn’ die from the humidity. Lesson learned: not all storage needs to be hidden away.
For years I thought that good bathroom storage required stuffing everything into cabinets. But some things actually look nicer displayed – nice pump bottles of hand soap, cute glass jars of cotton balls and q-tips, and that fancy face oil you love to brag about to all your friends. An exposed shelf, whether you build a small one or simply use the ledge of your vanity, is a gorgeous place to display these products.
Lastly, my bathroom had very little custom potential when I moved in. But there was one space near my shower that was driving me crazy. It was super narrow and wasn’t helpful for storing anything…or so I thought.
I had a recessed shelf installed that matches the tile in my shower. It now holds my shampoo, conditioner and shower gel without cluttering up any extra space in my shower AND I don’ have to hang up those stupid plastic showerproduct holders that never stay put.
If there was one thing that shocked me the most from this whirlwind bathroom overhaul it wasn’t the individual storage tips.
I mean don’t get me wrong, some of those were game changing. But what I didn’ expect was how much better my mornings went when everything had a “home.” I didn’t’ wake up late looking for my moisturizer. Or waste money on buying a second bottle of something when I already had one hiding in my drawer.
Now my mornings are calm, collected and I actually know where everything is located. What a concept! Oh and the cost of this entire project?
Right around £80, spread out over a couple weeks. Not too shabby. And definitely way less than I was spending on doubling up on bathroom products I already owned.
Sometimes the best home improvements aren’ about spending more money. Sometimes they’re about spending it wisely.
