Spring Into Organization! How to Clean-Up Your Bathroom Clutter

Take moment to assess your bathroom. Are your counter tops covered with toothpaste tubes, bottles of hair products, and various containers? Is your linen closet door ajar, because it is stuffed to overflowing with linens and bath towels? Would this song parody describe your tub area: “Eighteen bottles of shampoo on the tub, eighteen bottles of shampoo… You take one down they all fall down….”

My bathroom, having limited space, used to look like that, but I sorted through those eighteen bottles of shampoo, the hair products, mouth rinses on the counter, the cleaning products crammed in the cabinet, and the towels falling out of the linen closet. I got rid of what I didn’t need and discovered some solutions for organizing the necessities. Although spring is already here and I stared with the smallest room in my house, at least my spring cleaning and home organization has officially begun and I finally conquered the bathroom clutter. You can too!

Tub Storage Solutions

Shower Curtains with Pockets - Shower curtains with pockets are a great solution for storing my kids’ tub toys. While mesh bags are a storage option, I didn’t really like them, because I was the only one that would put the toys back in them! So I tried a plastic bin. The tub toys were piled in a bin that sat on the bottom of the tub in everyone’s way. While they were contained, I didn’t find this to be an ideal storage solution. The boys and I had a meeting in which we determined which toys would stay, and which would go. I took the toys that were keepers and put them in the lower pockets of the shower curtain where my youngest could reach them easily. The routine of putting the toys back in their pockets is a way of getting organized that he is happy to help with! No more looking at or stepping on tub toy clutter. The toys aren’t visible, because this curtain acts as the liner and it is hidden by a decorative outer curtain. The pockets can be used to store anything like shampoos, razors, and soaps, not just tub toys!

 Shower Caddies - Using the right shower caddy can make a big difference in the appearance of your bathtub. In the past, I tried those cheap caddies with the suction cups, but they never stayed in place. This can be maddening! Fortunately, the shower caddy engineers came up with a great solution: the shower caddy floor to ceiling unit. The tension rod shower caddy organizes our entire family's bath and shower products neatly in the corner of the tub. The adjustable tension rod fits floor to ceiling or tub rim to ceiling. The four baskets with convenient drain holes hold a lot of necessities, but not water. While we certainly don’t need eighteen bottles of shampoo, we do have different needs: tear free shampoo for the kids, the overpriced salon shampoo for Mom, and the dandruff shampoo for Dad (ha). These are all neatly organized in the shower caddy, which in our bath extends from tub rim to ceiling. The unit is very sturdy easily staying in place even when storing those heavy value size shampoos and conditioners. It is now easier to clean the bathtub without all those bottles of shampoo lining the sides!

Extra Linen Storage Solution

Storage Benches - When the kids were younger, and needed constant supervision while in the tub, we put a chair in the bathroom to sit and watch them. Now that the kids are older, they are capable of independent bath-time, and the chair, seldom used, was simply taking up space. The storage bench was the perfect solution for us because we have the room for it, it still doubles as a seat, and it allows for extra storage. We have several of our bath towels neatly stacked inside. I covered the top with a terry cloth fabric, for a nice post-bath seat. Now, my four-year-old can grab his own towel, and the linen cabinet door now closes the way it should! Now that's home organization in an snap!

Cabinet and Drawer Storage Solutions

Drawer Dividers - I’ll admit that my vanity makeup drawer was a disheveled jumble of foundations, eye shadows, eyeliners and eyelash curlers. You name it, it was in there… somewhere. This was not ideal. If anyone visiting peeked in there, I would have been mortified! Thank goodness for drawer dividers. Drawer dividers are an inexpensive way to maintain order within your makeup drawer. You could even use a silverware tray to neaten things up, if it had enough dividers for your needs. Simply go through your makeup drawer and determine if you will ever use the product again. For example, if you haven’t applied that indigo eye shadow since the 90ies, do the right thing and just let it go with all the other nineties trends! Sort and organize the items that you use on a daily basis neatly in their designated locations. No more searching for your eyeliner. Think of the time you’ll save in the morning!

Spice Racks – Spice racks are not just for spices. The right sized spice rack can be placed in your drawer and be a great storage solution for items like nail polish and makeup as well.

Magnetic strip placed inside of a Drawer –To store my small metal items, I installed a magnetic strip to the inside of my drawer. Your small metal items like nail clippers, files, and tweezers will always be there when you look for them. Make sure the kids know that the nail clippers are located here, they may be more inclined to put them away in this “cool storage place” when they are finished using them.

Specialty Pull Out Drawer Units - Before my organizational efforts began, if you asked me what was under my bathroom sink, only four or five items would come to mind. The rest of the stuff was several years old and utterly forgettable. I learned this is a good guideline for what you should pitch: those items that are so old you didn’t even realize that you had them. After sorting and pitching, I determined I have two categories of items that made sense to store here: cleaning products and hair products. Pull out drawer units are manufactured in various widths and heights, so finding one to fit your cabinet is easy. I used a two-tier unit on the left and a single pull out for the wastebasket on the right. For the two-tier unit, I stored hair products (that I do actually use) on the top shelf and cleaning products below. This system has worked wonderfully. In the process, I moved many of those hair products that were on the counters into their new spot, eliminating the counter clutter.

Counter Storage Solution

Acrylic Vanity Organizers – The various sized acrylic organizers are perfect for organizing those items that I use daily, and that I really need to have handy on the countertop. While my stuff is visible, it is organized in its pretty container! No clutter here! If it could speak, my organizer would say something like, “It’s about time!”

There are many great options available for storing your bathroom necessities, and these are just a few ideas that have really helped me to tackle the bathroom clutter. Now onto the next room!