Five Tips For Clearing the Clutter From Your Bathroom

Nobody likes a cluttered bathroom. They’re depressing to look at and sometimes unsafe. Fortunately, a little strategy and effort are usually enough to keep your bathroom clutter-free. Here are five tips for clearing the clutter from your bathroom from the bathroom experts at poshh.co.uk.

Install as much storage as you can

This may seem like stating the obvious. In actual fact, the principle is obvious. Applying it in practice can take a bit more thought. Start with your doorway. See if there’s any space at the side of the swing area. Even if it’s far too narrow for a proper shelf, think about whether you could install hooks or a pegboard or picture ledges.

Now, look at the space above the door. Could you fit a shelf there? Could you fit at least one shelf at the same height on a bathroom wall? Do you already have some kind of storage behind your door? If not, you’re missing out.

Have you used your cistern and the space above your toilet? What about the side of your toilet? Can you slide your toilet brush and bin here to save more valuable space elsewhere? Does your sink have a vanity? If not, have you put shelving or baskets beside the pedestal or under a wall-hung sink?

What have you done to create storage in the bath/shower? With baths, you need to be a bit careful as you can’t risk hitting your head. It is, however, often possible to install some picture ledges. You can also add hooks to hold waterproof baskets usually down at the end with the taps/over-bath shower. In shower cubicles, you can generally add a tension rod with S hooks.

Clean out your products

Once you’ve figured out how much storage you can have, you’ll be able to tell how much stuff you can keep in your bathroom. Just because you can, however, it doesn’t mean you should. If you have a really tiny bathroom then you may genuinely need to fill up every storage space you have. If so, you can avoid the feeling of clutter by organizing with great care.

Ideally, however, you should have free space in your storage, at least in your open storage. This gives the visual impression of there being room to breathe. It also usually indicates that you’ve done an effective job of organizing what you do have. The less stuff you have, the easier it is to organize so have a proper clear-out.

In particular, ditch anything which is out of date. Use by-dates on personal-care products and cosmetics need to be taken seriously. Use-by dates on anything medical need to be taken even more seriously. Some products have a date they can be kept unopened and a date by which they need to be used when opened. Respect both. Again, they are there for a reason.

See what items you can rehome

Generally, you should only keep extra supplies of key items in the bathroom. Even then, you should usually keep them to a minimum. For example, store a couple of spare toilet rolls in your bathroom but keep your main supplies in your hall cupboard. Similarly, only bring in backups of products when you see you’re running low.

If you’ve nowhere else in your house to store your backups then you have three main options. Option one is to change what you’re buying. In particular, change from buying liquid products to buying solid ones. These are much more compact. In fact, even in a tiny bathroom, it’s virtually impossible to run out of storage space if you stick to solid products as much as possible.

Option two is to change your buying habits so you’re buying less but more often. This might not have been very appealing with COVID19 was at its height. Now, however, it’s becoming a practical option again. If you’re really concerned about shopping frequently, you could look at home-delivery options.

Option three is just to accept the fact that you’re filling your storage fuller than it really should be. Try to compensate for this as much as possible with a super-high level of organization. For example, take the time to get rid of packaging (whenever it’s safe to do so). Then consolidate items in containers as space-efficiently as possible.

Macro-sort your remaining items

By this point, you should be left with the items you really need or really want to keep in your bathroom. Your next job is to get them organized both functionally and aesthetically. Usually, the key to success here is to start macro and work your way down to the micro. This stops you from getting caught up in details (analysis paralysis) and lets you make real progress.

Macro-sorting is basically about corralling similar items together. What this means in practice is down to you. If you need some inspiration to get started, you could try macro-sorting by bathroom zone (e.g. toilet, sink, and bath/shower) or product type. Those are, however, just ideas. Do whatever suits your space and lifestyle. You can always change and/or refine it later.

Refine and rehome

Step one of refining is to pick out any partly-used products you’ve decided to keep. Put them somewhere visible and easily accessible. Then commit to using them up before you open or buy new products.

After this, look for ways to store the rest of your products. Start with your daily essentials and give them the most accessible storage locations. Then move on to the products you use less often and put them in locations that reflect how often you use them.

As you put items away, ask yourself if you’ll actually reach for them in that location. If the answer is yes, then you’re fine. If it’s no, then you have three options. You can swap it with another item in a more accessible location. You can rehome it somewhere else and bring it to the bathroom when you need it or you can accept that you don’t really need or want it and get rid of it.

Article by Born Realist