Do you cringe every time you open your bathroom cabinet? Are you tired of rummaging through piles of old tubes and containers to find the products that you do use? Organising a bathroom cabinet may seem like an overwhelming task. How are you ever going to find time to go through everything and then keep up with the new system?
Tackle one section at a time as you can, making a concentrated effort to keep up with it once it is organised. It may seem like a lot of work at first, but before you know it, you won’t remember what your cluttered bathroom cabinet looked like.
The following details what you need to know about how to organise your bathroom cabinet so that you can find what you need when you need it.
Remove everything and go through it
Start by taking out all of the items that you store in your bathroom cabinet. Pile them up on the floor or on a table. Look through every item and decide whether or not you need to keep it. Throw away anything that has expired, including medications and beauty products. Expired bathroom products take up unnecessary space and can be hazardous to your health. If there are items that you no longer use but are still in good condition, donate them to the local op shop. Did you find stray items that don’t actually belong in the bathroom cabinet? If products or supplies should be stored somewhere else in the bathroom or in another room in the house, move them to the appropriate places.
Organise items into logical groups
You should be left with the items that you want to house in your bathroom cabinet. Figure out a way to put them into groups, such as medications, make-up, and first aid supplies.
Photo credit: Burlap and Crystal.
Purchase storage containers as needed
Once you’ve determined the grouping for your bathroom cabinet, think about investing in drawer and shelving storage to keep things tidy. Having a designated place to store each item is visually pleasing and cuts down on the time that you spend searching for products and supplies while you’re getting ready. Keep in mind that you don’t have to invest a lot of money for the containers to be effective. For example, plastic cups that you can buy at the $2 Shop may be just right for housing lip balms and other small beauty products.
As you pick up storage pieces, think about ways that you can use the available wall space as well. If there is free space on either side of the sink, you may be able to mount open shelving that you can use for the items that you want within arm’s reach while you’re getting ready, such as hairspray and perfume. Items don’t necessarily have to be marketed as bathroom items to work well as storage pieces. For example, you may be able to find a wooden spice rack that fits right into the bathroom sink space.
Arrange the shelves and cabinets
With the storage containers on hand, think about the best way to arrange them in the available space. The medicine cabinet is the ideal place to keep anything that has an expiration date. Place the products that you use on a daily basis on the lowest shelf, such as toothpaste and moisturiser. Then arrange the higher shelves in order of usage, placing the least frequently used items on the highest shelves.
Do you have drawers in your bathroom cabinet? You can house the remaining items in these drawers, using more storage containers as needed. If you don’t have drawers and need more storage space, consider buying a separate piece, such as plastic or wicker shelving. Look for furniture within your budget that also fits in your existing bathroom space and matches the current aesthetic.
Are there doors under the bathroom sink? The backside of a door is a great place to hang hooks or small containers for any final bathroom items. If you keep other items under the sink, the door can be the perfect place to store products and supplies that go with them. For example, if you house your hair dryer and straightening iron under the sink, you may want to put your hairbrush and hair bands in a small compartment that you attach to the door.
Keeping an organised bathroom is an ongoing process. Once you have the cabinet arranged in a way that makes sense for you, take a few minutes every week to straighten each section. This little bit of extra effort will keep it from ever getting too cluttered or disorganised.
Fiona Wilson helps people all over Australia to better organise their homes and lives. Working closely with Wardrobe World and GarageSmart, she is incredibly passionate about finding practical lifestyle solutions for her clients.