I recently spent some time with my friend Eliza in Manhattan. Eliza lives in a classic NYC studio flat with (you guessed it!) zero closet space. But what shocked me more than her non-existent closet was her bathroom.
It was smaller than most people’s walk-in closets. Roughly 5×7 feet if you stretch the numbers a bit. There was a toilet, pedestal sink, and shower stall crammed into this teeny space.
You could probably use all three at the same time if you were coordinated enough to brush your teeth in the shower…which could be amazing? Or just weird.
As I was eyeballing every inch of her bathroom I asked, “Where do you store stuff?” Because there was literally no place to store stuff.
She laughed and opened her minuscule medicine cabinet that was basically a shallow shadow box, perhaps deep enough to hold a toothpaste tube squeezed vertically. “Welcome to New York,” she said, then explained she keeps bathroom supplies in three other rooms, as well as an IKEA cart in her bedroom that houses the majority of her toiletries. Visiting Eliza was a real wake-up call for me. How often do we take bathroom storage for granted?
When your sinks emptied out onto countertops, the hallway, or in Eliza’s case, another room it makes simple daily tasks feel more hectic than they need to be. Running from room to room to grab toilet paper, towels, or hair supplies isn’t fun. Once you start living with inadequate bathroom storage it becomes the frustration around every morning and evening.
The good news is, now that I’ve helped hundreds of people conquer their bathroom storage problems (including making a second trip to help Eliza), I know that there’s a solution to every bathroom storage problem. Sure, some may require creative thinking, but there is a solution. Don’t settle for the ideas everyone else is trying to sell you.
Every bathroom has a huge storage wasted above the toilet. Seriously. Think of how many bathrooms you’ve been in that have a perfect rectangle of unused wall space above the toilet?
Chances are you either ignored that space or stuck one of those horrible metal shelf units there. You know the ones I’m talking about, they wobble. The glass shelves collect dust and moisture causing them to look cheap regardless of what’s on them.
When my sister Rachel was renovating her kids’ bathroom we attacked that wasted space. We cut into the wall between the studs and built a recessed cabinet. I repeat, we hacked the existing wall.
It wasn’t rocket science. Some basic framing work and a cabinet door. Cost us about $200 in materials but gave her 6 cubic feet of concealed storage that didn’t poke out into the room any further than the toilet.
Kid accessible storage for towels plus it looks like it was always meant to be there. If cutting into walls isn’t your thing (come on, I didn’t raise Ducks…I know lots of you are renting.) Floating shelves are a great option. Just make sure you’re building them with your storage needs in mind.
Deep shelves for towels and bulkier items. Super skinny shelves that only hold bottles or toiletries. In our powder room I built three different depths of shelves.
They add some sculptural interest to the wall plus work with our storage needs. Counter space/vanity wall is another huge area wasted in most bathrooms. Let’s look at the wall with your vanity mirror for example.
The mirror is usually centred above the sink leaving dead space on either side of the mirror. Seriously…use that wall. I had a client whose bathroom was pretty textbook suburban.
Not tons of wall space, but also not crazy small. It was about a 5×8 footprint with a tiny recessed shower. Basically vanities-gone-wild with about three hidden coats of off-white paint.
But tons of wasted space around the vanity. We installed super skinny cabinets on each side of her mirror, just 6” deep but extending from counter to ceiling. Suddenly she had homes for all her skincare, makeup, meds, hair tools…the stuff that was previously cluttering her countertops.
We used mirrored cabinet doors to essentially make them disappear plus make her bathroom feel more spacious. Medicine cabinets have come a long way since the cheap metal versions my parents had growing up. There are some great options that are 30+ inches wide that mount recessed between two studs creating actual storage.
We used a Robern medicine cabinet in one of our old house renovations that was only 20 inches wide by 4 inches deep and it tripled her storage without taking up any additional footprint in her bathroom. If your bathroom is really that small you may not be able to fit anything on the sides of the vanity. Well, how about the door to your bathroom?
Do you look at that and see wasted storage or giant whiteboard waiting to happen? For renters like my client Jessica that can’t cause permanent changes to walls over-the-door storage is lifesaver. We picked this elfa system from The Container Store that hangs over the door and has ZERO screws.
Completely adjustable and when she moves out, comes with her. OK, time to talk about the elephant in the room. Pedestal sinks.
We all love how they look. But we also hate that they offer zero bathroom storage. No drawers, no cabinets, nada.
It’s like the industry gave up trying to hide storage under sinks years ago and we just accepted that as fact. Remember Eliza and her teeny bathroom? We fashioned a sink skirt out of outdoor fabric (highly moisture resistant) on a tension rod clipped between the sink and wall.
Behind that curtain we stacked plastic drawers for cleaning supplies, extra toilet paper, etc. You want function? It doesn’t get much fancier than some plastic drawers hidden behind fabric.
Not into the hidden sink skirt idea? Look into replacing your sink with a wall-mounted vanity. My brother Dave has a condo bathroom that has a 24” floating vanity.
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Gives him storage while maintaining that open feeling underneath the sink. Helps his small bathroom feel less claustrophobic than a traditional vanity would be. But what if you have a regular old vanity?
Chances are it’s a waste of space inside. Most stock cabinet vanities are like enormous chests of drawers with zero organisation. Pretty on the outside, cavernous hole inside.
My client Tony had a perfectly nice-looking vanity in his master bathroom. But was this inspirational/useful when you opened the doors: Needless to say it was a disaster inside. We installed pull out drawers and organizers and instantly doubled his functional storage.
Same footprint, twice the usefulness. Simple tension rods to hang spray bottles, hooks for hairdryers/tools, stacking bins to group like items. Spend $50 or less and totally change how your use your vanity space.
Showers are tough. Most of the storage options out there are just ugly. Seriously, who wants that tension pole shower caddy that ALWAYS falls over right when you’re lathering up?
Those adheasive ones? Good luck those sticking around three months. What we did in our bathroom renovation was take advantage of the fact that we were already doing all new tile work.
We built a recessed shower niche between two studs. No depth in the shower, but a nice spot to stash shampoo bottles/soap. If you can’t remodel there are some corner shelves out there that actually screw into the studs instead of the flimsy adhesive ones.
Much. More. Effective.
Speaking of drawers/tubs for towels, let’s talk towel storage. I’ve been converted to towel hooks vs. towel bars. I know, they look WAY nicer when you fold your towels and put them perfectly on a bar.
But really…when is the last time your towels looked like that sitting in your bathroom? Hooks work with how people actually hang towels plus you can fit more hooks in the same space. We have five hooks on one wall of our guest bathroom that work better than the towel bar we replaced.
And when you have that wall space, think outside the bathroom furniture box. An antique stool can double as towel storage and looks like decor. My client Sarah lucked out and found this narrow console table that was only 10” deep to tuck along one wall.
Two small drawers and an open shelf to stash stuff but also give her a surface to put actual decorative objects on making her bathroom feel a little less clinical. Lastly, use that outlet cover to your advantage. Yep, you heard me.
Companies make outlet covers with built-in shelves made specifically for bathrooms. Now you have a home for your electric toothbrush or shaver that needs to be plugged in plus a shallow shelf to store it on. My friend Marcus lives in this awesome 1920s flat in Boston.
Problem was, his bathroom was basically a closet with plumbing added. His aha moment came when he looked up. His ceilings were almost 10 feet tall!
He installed a shelf all the way around the perimeter of his bathroom, about 18 inches down from the ceiling. Now he has a shelf for items he doesn’t need every day without sacrificing any functional space below. But here’s the secret to absolutely EVERY storage challenge.
Declutter like your life depends on it. Every single time I help someone tackle storage we start with a purge. Seven half-used bottles of shampoo?
Pick your favourite and either consolidate or toss the rest. Collection of hotel toiletries “just in case you need them” gather? Keep an overflow bottle of each then donate the rest.
Stuff that expired five years ago? Toss it. You’d be surprised how many bathroom storage problems can be solved BEFORE we spend a single dime.
Here’s my rule of thumb. If you haven’t used it in the last six months and it’s not expired medicine/supplies you’ll need “just in case”, it doesn’t need to be in your bathroom. Consider keeping overflow supplies (extra toilet paper, towel packs, first aid kit, etc.) in a linen closet if you have one.
Otherwise a bedroom drawer or even kitchen cabinets can hold extra supplies. I keep labelled bins in our linen closet for first aid, extra toiletries, medications.
Only things we need regular access to live in our bathroom.
Truthfully, the best bathroom storage is a combination of multiple ideas. Eliza added the sink skirt plus storage, upgraded medicine cabinet, two wall shelves, and that over-the-door storage. We probably added 15 cubic feet of storage to a bathroom that’s only about 35 square feet.
And it doesn’t feel cluttered. It works because we used every.single.nook and cranny available to us. Don’t limit your options because some furniture company thinks a sink basket or lazy Susan cabinet roll is the answer to your storage prayers.
The answers are usually much simpler than we realise. Sometimes you have to look up when everyone else is looking down, think vertical when everyone else is going horizontal, or use a space designed for something else altogether. And sometimes it works because we threw a tension rod in a bathroom and covered it with fabric to hide plastic drawers behind a pedestal sink.
Hey, if it works it works. Real people live in real homes, they don’t need “magazine-worthy” storage spaces just to feel like their bathroom has enough room.
