Step by Step Plan for an Organized Home: Week 3 | Bathrooms

DIYDesign
Written By Emily Schmidt

     The next space up on our organized home challenge is bathrooms!  If you live in an older home like me, you are very familiar with the challenges of limited closet space and storage in bathrooms.  I've always lived in older houses, so I feel like I've mastered making the most of every inch of space for storage and am always on the lookout for creative storage solutions.  This post focuses on three different areas to focus on when organizing your bathroom: open shelving, bathroom cabinets, and the top of your vanity.  Let's start with open shelving!

     Adding open shelving is a great option for adding storage no matter the layout or size of your space.  You may not have closet or cabinet space but almost everyone has some empty walls in their bathroom that can be utilized.  Above + below, you can see how we added shelves to this little wasted nook in our master bathroom.  You can also find my step by step guide to styling your bathroom shelves too here.  

I've added a few more great open shelving inspirations below for you to check out.  Using the space above the toilet is another popular option or the space to the side of the sink/ above the vanity.  

Simple white shelves above feel super clean and streamlined in this bathroom.   You'll definitely want plenty of baskets and jars to contain all your different supplies and keep it organized.  Take everything you can out of packages and save your most attractive items for the open shelving in your bathroom.

Above is an example of more of a built-in look but I love all the matching wire baskets and the dark contrasting paint on the back of the shelves.  This is such a perfect combination of accessories and supplies too!

Adding a shelf above a doorway is another great idea for utilizing waste space.  This can be a perfect spot for extra toilet paper or towels if you don't have a linen closet nearby.

If open shelving isn't your thing, a wall mounted cabinet is another option for extra storage.  This one is perfectly styled with a mix of jars and glass containers.

This little mason jar rack is a great idea for extra storage above a vanity too!  This would be perfect for holding toiletries, makeup, or toothbrushes so that you could free up cabinet space!

      Whether you have a lot of bathroom cabinet space or just a little bit (like me!), making the most of your closed storage is so important.  I try to hide as much as I can inside closed storage, especially the less attractive items that you can store in pretty jars or baskets.  Getting the proper clear caddies, dividers, and baskets to fit your cabinets is so important.  Be sure to measure your spaces before you go shopping so that you can purchase the proper organizers that fit just right.  Also make a list and take a look at what items you need the organizers for, so that you can pick the right shape and type of organizer.  Below you can see my bathroom vanity drawers and how I reorganized them using baskets and clear caddies.  

I was able to find just the right size of organizers at Homegoods for these deep drawers in our master bath vanity.  Having everything contained and organized by type of item really helps declutter the small space.  

I love the above example because everything is so clearly labelled and perfectly divided and contained.  I love the combination of clear bottles, jars, and organizers!  Try Homegoods, TJMaxx, or Marshall's for the best deals on these items as well as great deals on baskets of all shapes and sizes!

Above is a great combination of all different kinds of organizers, dividers, and containers.  Nothing is sitting in the cabinet without being contained in some kind of organizer and there's still plenty of extra space.  

Don't forget to utilize your cabinet doors too!  This is often wasted space and there are so many options for adding extra racks and storage here.  I prefer the mounted racks and caddies for the back of cabinets instead of those "over-the-door" options which look ugly and mess up the opening and closing of your cabinets too.  Above is one example of how to use these on your vanity cabinets.

One more way to use the back of your cabinets is to keep hair dryers and other tools neatly hung and close at hand.  These simple mounted command hooks keep the cords neatly wrapped and everything looking so organized!

Clear caddies and dividers are a must for bathroom vanity drawers and cabinets.  So much of our bathroom stuff is small and randomly sized and these help keep everything contained and organized looking.  You can also use stacking shelves or racks to add extra square footage to vanity cabinets.

These pull out racks are a great option for maximizing space below your vanity while keeping everything super organized!  You can find these on Amazon in lots of different styles and sizes.

 For the top of your vanity, you'll want just the right combination of decor and attractive storage.  Above you can see my vanity in our master bathroom and how I style it with a mix of jars, organizers, and decor.  I keep some of the items we use most on the top of the vanity so they are always close at hand.

 For the top of your vanity, you'll want just the right combination of decor and attractive storage.  I love using trays to contain jars and decor on vanity tops like above.  This combination of glass jars and pretty decor looks so elegant and pulled together.

If you have a lot of items you want to keep close at hand on the top of your vanity, a tiered basket like above is a great option.  It adds some height to your vanity top while also containing everything you need daily in one spot!

One of my favorite tricks is to pour my mouthwash into a glass carafe so that I can set it out on my vanity.  Above you can see one example of this with the addition of a little tray and stacked cups.  Consider what other items you can remove from original packages and transfer to glass jars or containers for a more streamlined look (one more example of that with these mason jars below!).

   Once you tackle these three key areas your bathrooms will be perfectly organized and it will be so easy to keep them that way!  I ended up throwing away a full garbage bag of stuff while cleaning out our bathroom cabinets (most of it expired or empty bottles/products).  I'm going to make myself clean out my cabinets more often throughout the year so that they don't get cluttered and unorganized as we add more items.  Finding the exact right size of organizers for my drawers and shelves was key and now I think it will be super easy to keep them neat.  Like all organizing projects, a little bit of maintenance goes a long way, so I am going to create a routine of restocking, purging, and touching up these areas every couple of weeks!  Let me know if you try any of these ideas and how they work for you!

xoxo

Emily

Emily Schmidt
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