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Tiny bathroom organization

899 views 14 replies 13 participants last post by  Purple*Lotus 
#1 ·
We are probably going to move soon to a place with truly tiny bathrooms. The three kids will share a bathroom and dh and I will share a bathroom. They have barely enough room for the door to clear! Each has a pedestal sink and a very small cabinet. Luckily there is a large linen closet for towels but what about the rest?

I assume I'll want a clear shower curtain so it will keep it looking as open as possible.

Other ideas?

here is a picture of one the tub is on the left behind the door.

and the second one the shower is to the left and really small

I plan to paint them. Probably buttercup yellow.
 
#2 ·
I guess it depends on what you want to have stored in there? We have a pretty small bathroom that only has a small cabinet for storage. I have a nice basket on a small shelf above the bath for face cloths and the cabinet stores extra toilet rolls and a few bits and pieces (travel bathroom bags, epsom salts for bath, dh's hair clippers etc). There is a tiny wall cabinet enough to put my make up and first aid type bottles in (essential oils, creams etc). I store my towels etc in the laundry linen cupboard.

Is there somewhere handy to put toothbrushes coz that's about all I have on display in our bathroom since we only have a window sill ledge to put things on.
 
#3 ·
Get everyone their own little plastic basket for bath things (shampoo, etc), other personal products, and toothbrushes. If there's room, store them in the little cabinets. Otherwise, they can store them in their own rooms and bring them in to use.

Towels to the linen closet. Try to keep one shelf available for extra soap and the like.

What else do you usually store in the bathroom?
 
#4 ·
i have a silly question for anyone who already lives with a pedestal sink. where do you keep the plunger? not that it's a frequently-used item, so it could be kept in another room, but . . . ?

my bathroom is pretty similar to the ones in the photos, but no shelving (intend to add some above the toilet) and i have a small (like 18" wide) sink with cabinet underneath. i have a small medicine cabinet, which holds dh's shaving stuff, q-tips, ponytails, my three pieces of makeup, tampons, a travel-size hairspray and probably someother miscellany that should be removed. under the sink, i have the afore-mentioned plunger, my hairbrush and hairdryer, and a spray bottle. on the sink, soap, toothbrushes and a cup. on the windowsill in the shower (yep, big window in the middle of the shower! it's weird!) is the shampoo and conditioner, razor sits half-way up the window so the boys can't reach it. the boys' shampoo/bodywash is on the ledge of the tub itself. we use the same bar of soap from the sink in the shower, lol. oh yeah, a trash can sits on the floor. it's too big for under the sink, even if there were nothing else under there and even though it's quite small - there's not a lot of space under there because of the plumbing.

extra toilet paper, and everything else (like manicure stuff, lotions, first aid, all kinds of things i don't use every day) gets stashed in a closet.
 
#6 ·
We actually built a cabinet out of cheap pine, painted it, cut a hole in the wall and put it between the studs. It lives behind the bathroom door, so you don't really see it. It works great. We measured the items that were most likely to go there and built the shelves accordingly. It's painted the same color as the wall. The shelves have a rail about 1/4 of the way up from the bottom of the shelf to keep things from tipping out.

It takes up no additional space and we just used leftover wood we already had.
 
#7 ·
so,m

Quote:

Originally Posted by Minerva View Post
Get everyone their own little plastic basket for bath things (shampoo, etc), other personal products, and toothbrushes. If there's room, store them in the little cabinets. Otherwise, they can store them in their own rooms and bring them in to use.
Will this work for a 3 and 6 yr old who share a room? Seems like such a hassle to carry things from one room to another.

Quote:
Towels to the linen closet. Try to keep one shelf available for extra soap and the like.

What else do you usually store in the bathroom?
A lot! Some things can obviously be stored elsewhere but the things I'd prefer to have on hand: hairdryer and straightener, body products like lotions, cleaners, etc, hair products, brushes and combs, hair styling things like products and bands, tooth brushes, pastes, mouthwashes, swabs, etc, etc.
 
#8 ·
uh . . . that doesn't seem like that much stuff. in one bathroom, you have a base cabinet. in the other, you have the shelves above the toilet (get a set of six cube-shaped baskets to keep it looking neat).

you have enough storage in these bathrooms that no one would be toting stuff back and forth from their bedrooms. i think that advice was meant for a bathroom with truly zero storage. there's no reason the soap/shampoo wouldn't stay in the shower, or why toothbrushes and paste wouldn't stay in the medicine cabinet.

i moved last year from a house with a huge closet in the bathroom and thought it was going to be hard, but it wasn't! you'll be okay. these bathrooms have storage. just not the kind you're used to.
 
#9 ·
Those bathrooms look like ours, and we only have one. We have one cabinet like this (only the doors aren't fancy) above the toilet and that is our storage space.

The trash can tucks sorta under the sink. The plunger/toilet bowl brush sit on the floor next to/behind the toilet.

In that cabinet we keep: q-tips, mouth wash, tooth brushes, tooth paste, floss, a couple of hair products, and my husband's shaving stuff.

We have one of these in the tub for all bath products.

Other than that we store other stuff out in the hall linen closet.
 
#10 ·
Our bathroom is 3' by 6' with only a toilet, sink with small cabinent under it, mirror medicine cabinent, and stand-up shower stall.

I keep towels and washcloths in a closet just outside the bathroom door, which is the laundry area of this house but it works. Just grab a washcloth on your way in, and we re-use our bath towels so the current ones hang behind the door. All of my bathroom-y stuff fits under the sink, but I have pretty minimal stuff (Q-tips, feminine pads, rubbing alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, extra toothbrushes, shave soap, epsom salts, makeup/hairtoy tote, that's really about it) Our plunger is in the tight spot between the sink and toilet. Mouthwash, hand lotion, deoderant, etc. goes in the medicine cabinent, and the sink has our toothbrush stand, toothpaste, handsoap, and a comb on it.
 
#11 ·
My advice is to make sure there is no clutter in there! I live in a house with two small bathrooms and what helps is making sure the dirty clothes go in a hamper (one is inside a bathroom, one is outside a bathroom) and anything else lying around gets picked up. Doing those two things help the rooms look as spacious as possible.
 
#12 ·
you mentioned there is a cabinet in the bathroom...not sure if its over the toilet or not. but if its not than they do make storage units that go over the toilet like this:
http://www.target.com/Dawson-Space-S...rank&rh=&page=

I have seen some much less expensive and different styles such as wicker or stainless steel.

I would suggest getting little baskets to hold all your odds and ends, typically same color coordinating baskets cut down the *look* of clutter from different colored mix matched baskets. And use them to store things in your cabinets

As for the under the sink issue, I too have pedastal sinks and HATE to see the plumbing pipes. I ended up having DH fashion a curtain rod of sorts for me (they were used in older home w/pedastal sinks) and ended up making a curtain to hide things underneath (plunger,toilet brush,extra TP) DH made it by attaching wood blocks to the wall on each side then he shaped a wire into a U shape and secured to each end of the block. I then made a curtain using plain old velcro at the top to make it easier to remove to launder/change decor. They also make commercial under the sink storage units, I believe I saw them at bed &bath type stores.
 
#13 ·
We have a little plastic things of drawers on wheels - like 12-16" deep and 8" or so wide. It fits nicely under a side of the sink, and gives you a few drawers and a tiny place to set something next to the sink.

Make sure you have enough towel space, somehow, and if you're handy (and own the place, or the landlord is ok with it) you can put a medicine cabinet into the wall - saves space and makes it less claustrophobic than something that sticks out into the room.

paint would be great. I like a little color.
 
#14 ·
We have an steel over the toilet shelving thingy... It has 3 shelves... i just bought some plastic baskets i think 5 in total and put one for hair supplies (creams, shampoos), another for bathing (body wash, lotion), another for first aid/accident supplies, another one for deodorant and perfume (mine) and i put a small 5 drawer organizer (i think its used for desks) to seperate clips, elastics etc...

Under my sink i have two plastic drawers, one has my hairdryer (used for my mom only) and the other one is feminine products. I have a box on the other side of it and it has my towels...

my bathroom is not big and i have been trying to organize it for a long time... we also house the kitty litter in there and yeah.. it can be a bit tight...
 
#15 ·
The clear shower curtain helps so much! We have a tiny bathroom and our clear curtain changes the whole feel of it.

I couldn't get a feel for your wall space, so forgive me if this doesn't apply. But in our bathroom I have three Mary Kay roll up bags (I used to sell them so I got them empty) hanging that I keep everything in. I am sure you could find a hanging organization system somewhere. I have one pocket for makeup, one for rollers, one for nail care, one for DH's beard trimmer, etc. It really helps to have that space to store things in.
 
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