How to Organize Your Bathroom
Ideas and Organizing Tips

Here is how to organize your bathroom using the OMS S-P-A-C-E model.

See Organizing Your Home SPACE for an explanation of the SPACE model.

Ideas and organizing tips for cleaning, purging, sorting, and getting rid of clutter in your bathroom are offered so that you can achieve a more organized home even in this very small room.

S = STRIP

Strip the room down! That means everything out even the shower curtain.

Throw your shower curtain into the washing machine with some towels and the wet towels will scrub it clean during the wash cycle!

Don't put your vinyl shower curtain in the dryer! Just hang it back up right out of the washing machine and it will drip dry.

Clean every vertical and horizontal surface (even the shower curtain). Your bathroom is one place in your organzed home that that should be clean.

Moisture allows the growth of mould which can cause allergies.

See Priority health concerns related to clutter.

Did you know that getting rid of clutter decreases about 40% of housework? Once you know how to organize your bathroom and keep it that way it will be much easier to keep clean.

With your bathroom stripped down now is the time to pay attention to getting any repairs or painting done. You can also take this opportunity to line the drawers with drawer liner paper to prepare the cabinets and drawer spaces to receive their new contents.

P = PURGE

Items are out of place if they do not contribute to the functions that normally go on in that room.

See Bathroom Ideas for Organized Living

Make sure you return unused and expired medications to a pharmacy that participates in a safe medication disposal program.

Go through everything you took out of the bathroom.

Get rid of things you don't like, don't need or are out of place, worn out or unusable. That includes torn towels, half empty bottles, expired or unused makeup items, hardened or outdated nail polish, expired medications or medications with labels that are no longer readable. In short anything that is not useful and unsafe should be tossed.

S = SORT

In order to know how to organize your bathroom you have to be able to sort the items that are going back in there, then figure out storage solutions for each category.

Here are some suggestions for sorting.

cleaning supplies
hygiene supplies such as soaps and body cleansers
makeup
hair grooming and accessories
shaving supplies
toilet paper

More ideas for How To Organize Your Bathroom

How to Organize Your Bathroom

Organizing Tips

One of the best bathroom ideas for organized living is to get rid of bars of soap and switch to liquid soap.

A counter top soap dispenser is not only tidier but more hygienic and liquid soap is easier to store than loose bars of soap

While we normally think of soap as a germ free item it is not. Bacteria can live and thrive on wet bars of soap left in the soap dish.

If you add water to your liquid soap when you put it in the soap dispenser it will last longer. You should try for a ratio of 1 part water to 2 parts soap.

A = ASSESS

Now that you have everything sorted you can start to figure out where you are going to place it back into the bathroom.

You will want to make sure that items that are used frequently are readily accessible. Try counter tops storage or drawers for these items.

Items that are not accessed frequently can be stored under the sink or placed inside a cabinet.

How to Organize Your Bathroom

Organizing Tips

Here are some suggestions for storage areas for bathroom specific supplies.

under the sink - cleaning supplies, items that are not used often. Plastic storage boxes can hold extra supplies like toothpaste or soap
counter top - most often used - tooth brushes, hand soap, hand towels, skin lotion and moisturizers, after shave
drawers - most often used, flat items like hair brushes, toothpaste, nail files
over the toilet - decorative items - rolled or folded towels, storage baskets with small items that are not used regularly
back of the door - towels, clothing such as robes

C = CONTAINERIZE

Now is the time time figure out the storage solutions for each category of your sorted items.

Storage baskets are great for small items of similar size. You can get drawer dividers to keep your drawer contents tidy and separated in their own compartments.

Perhaps a toilet paper storage stand is in order to hold all the toilet paper right by the toilet where it is easily accessible.

You have to decide what containers are going to hold which items. Take into consideration how often the items get used and their size. This will help you to determine what type of containers are needed.

Plastic or acrylic bathroom organizers are good because they can withstand the high moisture content in this small room.

E = EVALUATE

If you follow these steps for how to organize your bathroom you should have a reasonable amount of success in keeping it organized but there are no guarantees. You create a place for everything but unless everything goes back in its place your bathroom will not remain the organized space you want it to be.

If you start to notice that things are being left on the floor or not returned to their rightful place it is usually because it is not a user friendly system.

If you decide that toothbrushes go in the cupboard but everyone leaves theirs on the counter then perhaps you should provide a place for the toothbrushes to be stored on the counter!

This information about how to organize your bathroom addresses the physical space and how to utilize it efficiently. However, it is not actually the bathroom that needs to be organized it is the people who use it.

See How to Create an Organized Home

Good personal organization skills and habits are essential to keep the space functional and user friendly for everyone.

Make sure that you have some good solutions to taming towel clutter or your organized bathroom can get messy again!

See Bathroom Towel Bars and Holders - How to Organize Your Towels

Organizing Your Bathroom

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