If you’re anything like me, your bathroom tends to be the forgotten place for organization. Every time I went in there I would think that I needed to organize it, but it’s like that train of thought left the moment I left the bathroom.
During one of my rampage organization spree’s I realised just how much ‘stuff’ we had been hoarding in the bathroom, and how it was actually surprisingly easy to declutter and organize.
All up this process took me around an hour, but I already had most of the supplies (like storage containers) on hand and added little extra bits over the following week.
Here’s what I did and how you can quickly organize your bathroom and remove all the clutter:
1 – Remove Everything From Your Cupboards
You’ll be amazed at the sheer quantity of things you an fit in a little bathroom cupboard! The best way to organize it all is to first see it all – this means you need to get everything out of the cupboards and in front of you.
Be sure to check right at the back of cupboards and under drawers if you have ones where items can easily slip behind.
While you’re at it, be sure to clean your cupboards and drawers, give them a good scub. This alone makes a huge difference. The build-up of products (and in my case, hair) can make your bathroom feel grubby when it’s really not.
2 – Throw Away Anything Out Of Date
Did you know your makeup and your skincare products all have an expiration date? It’s actually called a ‘period after opening’ symbol (easy to find on Google) and it looks like a little jar with a number in it, often a 12 or a 24. This number represents the number of months of useful lifetime the product has after opening!
Usually make up products only last for 12 months, and some even less! Using your product after the ‘period after opening’ date can lead to an increased risk of skin irritation. Not to mention when you think about the mascara you’ve been loving for the last 5 years, the bacteria that can grow in that time, and then putting that so close to your eyes… yeah… time for a new one!
Products like sunscreen often have a specific expiration date and use after this date can lead to decrease effectiveness of the product.
Clear out all the products that are past their dates and make a list of things you need to replace.
While you’re at it, give all your makeup brushes a clean with some make up remover and let them air dry while you take care of the rest of the bathroom.
3 – Group By Categories And Plan
How you categorize your products may be a little different to the way I do mine, so it’s important for you to group in a way that makes sense to you.
For me, I group all of my hair care together, my skin care together, my makeup together, then I have groups for nails and toes (files, polish etc), and I have a separate group that includes all of my ‘daily’ products. I don’t often wear makeup so this usually includes my daily moisturiser, sunscreen, eyebrow brushes, lip gloss etc.
Grouping your products by categories now is going to help with the next step in organizing your bathroom.
4 – Organize With Small Sorting Containers
Most bathroom cupboards and cabinets are just large (or small) open spaces which makes it easy to just stack everything in front of one another and lose things at the back of the cupboard. It also means things get messy easily and mixed up.
To fix this problem, organize all of your products into their categories (previous step) and then store them in individual smaller storage containers.
These storage containers are like the ones I use and I love the different shapes and sizes to fit my things in. I also have longer ones that I can slide out and place on my bathroom bench when I need to find something stored towards the back. These are great for things like hair care products that are taller and tend to take up a bit more space.
With the longer containers, I put the things I use most often towards the front of the container and the products I use the least right at the back.
5 – Put Everything Back In It’s Place
Now is the exciting part!! You get to put everything back in it’s pace! (Everyone gets as excited about organization as I do, right?).
This might take a little finessing to find the way that works for you and that can fit your products in the space in the best way, but the great thing about storing your grouped items in containers is that they are easy to move around!
If you have drawers in your bathroom, you can still use these containers too! I have the smaller ones in my drawers and it forces me to keep my things organized because when I open the drawer I can easily see where my things are meant to go and pop them into their containers.
Remember with organizing there is no right or wrong way. You can make this work for you and create and organizing system that makes sense to what you want and need.
6 – Additional Items
While this takes care of your cupboards, there’s also other areas of your bathroom you can tackle.
If you have things like towels you want to display, rolling them is a pretty way to display them rather than folding, or you can use baskets to store them in.
We use a basket in our cupboard to store extra rolls of toilet paper without having to take up too much space. Other things we have include a small waste bin because it’s so much easier having something right there to throw things like used makeup pads and tissues into and we have a plastic bucket with handles for cleaning supplies that are used in the bathroom.
Because I also like to keep things in the bathroom looking all matchy matchy and nicely styled, I also purchased a set of these amber glass bottles with a pump and use them for my shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. We have a niche in our shower and they store nicely there and look all cute and matching and they give our bathroom a spa-like feel.
Organizing your bathroom doesn’t have to be a huge task and can literally be done in next to no time. You’ll feel so much better when it’s done and you’ll never want to go back to the old ways again!
