How to Organize Your Bathroom (even without much storage space!)

Today I’m sharing how to get your bathroom(s) organized even if you don’t have very much storage space.

Welcome to Week four of the 10 Week Organizing Challenge! This week we are tackling the bathrooms. 

When we moved into this house late in the fall of 2019 we didn’t unpack everything as we knew we were going to be starting renovations right after the holidays.  The bathrooms were the first major project that we tackled, and we turned a small and narrow main bathroom into a much more spacious room with a separate bath tub and good sized shower.  We also managed to steal enough space from removing a couple of closets to give ourselves a shower in our ensuite.  But as soon as the bathrooms were finished, we moved directly onto renovating the kitchen, so I just kind of plunked all our stuff in the vanities without a whole lot of organizing, purging, or thought.

Bathroom Organization

Here is how I tackled organizing our bathrooms (even without much storage space)!

As I began this bathroom organizing project, I realized that they were definitely due for some attention!  The thing is, even though we have two new lovely vanities, they don’t provide a ton of storage space.  We also don’t have any medicine cabinets as, design wise, I wanted to keep the upper walls open.  I decided to really focus on purging toiletries that we never use and was able to setup systems in each vanity that make them much more workable than they were.

I tackled the main bathroom/boy’s bathroom first.  That is also where we keep the medications as they are central to the kitchen (and our boys are old enough that ease of accessibility is not an issue).

1. To begin with, I took everything out of the vanity drawers and baskets that sit under the drawers.
2. I sorted through everything and purged all toiletries and other items that we didn’t need, weren’t using, or that were out of date (medications).
3. Then I grouped items together in groups that made sense (e.g. medications by type, toothbrush related items, hair-related items, cleaning supplies,  etc.).
4. I washed out the inside of the cabinets to prepare them for reloading.
5. Lastly, I placed everything back in the cabinets, organizing them into like groups by category.

Even though it looks like our vanity has a good amount of space, the bathroom drawers are quite shallow and there is a lot of space taken up by the cutout for the sink plumbing.  But, after going through all of these steps, we ended up with some lovely and organized drawers and bins!

I love how this space feels now that it’s as fresh and organized inside the cabinetry as it looks from the outside!

In the ensuite bathroom, things were also quite disorganized.  The bathroom vanity has two doors on either side with shelving inside, which I did not realize would be less than ideal for storage and access.

After purging, sorting, grouping, and organizing the items we needed I decided to put in some baskets and organizers that could be used to slide in and out of the shelving, providing almost drawer-like access within the cabinet. It is so much easier to access what we need and to keep things grouped and tidy now that we’ve added these!

Our toothbrush drawer was in terrible condition!  I added some handy plastic organizers from the dollar store that sit on the top of the drawer, so that it still opens and closes freely but they allow me to store less-used toiletries underneath them.

Before…

Now…

What a difference, right?!

I love having this space so much more organized with everything neat and accessible.  It also encourages me to keep it tidy on a daily basis, as it’s a very frequently used room in our home.

What are the biggest challenges you are facing with organizing your bathroom(s)?  Do you lack storage space?  I shared a post (see below) all about storage ideas for small bathrooms.

I also shared my bathroom organization tips the first time I tackled the 10 Week Organizing Challenge in our previous house…

 Ingenious Ideas & DIYs for Bathroom Storage & Organization

How to Completely  Organize Your Bathroom

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Check out my other posts in the 10 Week Organizing Challenge Series 2.0!

Ready to get your home organized?  It’s free and easy to follow along!

You can sign-up for my email list and will be sent an update with instructions each week for the next ten weeks about tackling the 10 Week Organizing Challenge in your own home.

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By reader request, I’ve also made this 10 Week Organizing Challenge into an e-book! 

Follow along with the Ten Week Organizing Challenge through this e-book using your tablet.  It includes bonus free printable checklists for each week of the challenge…

Learn all about the Ten Week Organizing Challenge E-book here.