Keeping your bathroom counters organized can make your morning and evening routines so much smoother, while also keeping your space looking tidy. With clever solutions for corralling all your toiletries, cosmetics, skin care products, and more, you can transform the look and function of your bathroom counters. Read on for 20 brilliant ideas and tips for getting organized.
Utilize Bathroom Drawers
One of the best ways to keep clutter off your counters is to make full use of your bathroom drawers and cabinetry. Install drawer organizers to neatly separate and store all your smaller items. Clear acrylic trays, bamboo compartment boxes, and fabric drawer inserts can help you group similar items together while maximizing every inch of space.
Don’t let those small narrow drawers go to waste either. Use them for skinny items like makeup brushes, tweezers, cotton swabs, and more. Slide-out vertical drawer organizers are also great for creating separate compartments for small toiletries and tools.
Invest in Matching Containers
Uniformity can go a long way in making your counters look tidy and pulled-together. Invest in a matching set of bathroom storage containers in the same material and color scheme. Glass, ceramic, wood, marble, and metal can all work beautifully to store Q-tips, cotton balls, hair accessories, and other essentials.
Having everything concealed inside matching containers minimizes visual clutter. Stack and display them for easy access to your daily items. Just be sure to label the containers so you know exactly what’s inside.
Store Items in Baskets
Woven baskets are a quick and easy way to corral all your bathroom odds and ends. Use lidded baskets to store extra toilet paper rolls, soaps, lotions, razors, and more. Stylish woven baskets come in all different sizes, colors, and materials to suit your space.
Nest a few baskets together on a shelf or stand them upright on the floor for a pretty way to organize bathroom essentials. Baskets keep items hidden while still being easily accessible. Just avoid overstuffing them, which can add to the cluttered look you’re trying to avoid.
Get Things off the Counter
Sometimes the clutter on your counters accumulates simply because you’re running out of free surface space. One of the easiest organizing tricks is looking up—utilize the vertical wall space to get things up and off the counters.
Floating shelves give you plenty of room to neatly display toiletries and decorative items. Over the toilet shelves and storage caddies also provide a spot for extra TP, towels, candles, plants, and more. Install a wall-mounted makeup organizer or hanging shower caddy too for even more storage real estate.
Sort Through Your Products
Before attempting to organize everything, it helps to start with a purge. Sort through all your makeup, skin care products, hair styling tools, and medicines to remove anything expired, almost empty, or that you simply don’t use.
Once you pare down to just the products you actually need, you’ll have a better handle on how much storage you require. This will also prevent you from creating homes for things you should really just toss. Organizing is always easiest when you’re only dealing with the items you absolutely have to keep.
Use Under-Sink Organizers
Don’t forget about all the unused space underneath your bathroom sink! Installing slide-out drawers or an under-sink organizer is one of the smartest ways to maximize this often neglected area. It’s perfect for stashing extra toilet paper, cleaning products, hair tools, backup toiletries, and bathroom cleaning supplies.
An under-sink storage solution lets you neatly arrange items to fully use the vertical space too. Look for an organizer with adjustable or removable shelves to customize to your needs.
Store Daily Products Together
The items you use every single day should be the most accessible in your new organizational scheme. Keep things like toothpaste, face wash, moisturizer, contact solution, and perfume together on a main shelf or countertop caddy so they’re ready for your morning and evening routines.
Some people like to store their daily use products outside of the medicine cabinet so they’re always within reach. Just pick an area that works with your own habits and workflow.
Buy Coordinating Sets
One secret trick stylists use for making spaces look instantly pulled together is buying items in coordinating sets. For your bathroom, opt for matching sets of towels, soap dispensers, tumblers, tissue holders, and wastebaskets. The uniform look ties everything together, even if the colors and materials vary.
Don’t worry about finding perfect matches. As long as you stick to 2-3 colors in the same general scheme, the overall look will be cohesive. This is an easy upgrade that makes your bathroom feel designed and luxurious.
Add Hidden Storage
Short on counter space? Get creative and look for ways to add hidden bathroom storage. Turn an awkward empty space into a pull-out drawer for storing hair tools and styling products. Take advantage of the area under a wall-mounted sink with a DIY pull-out shelf.
Extra narrow spaces between the wall and vanity are the perfect size for slender sliding drawers. You can also have deeper drawers custom built to fully utilize all the space under your existing bathroom vanity. Just make sure to measure carefully first.
Use Lids to Conceal Clutter
For items you don’t necessarily want on full display, utilitarian plastic storage containers allow you to neatly stash things away while keeping them easily accessible. Look for clear plastic bins and canisters with lids to discreetly store Q-tips, feminine products, cotton balls, and any other odds and ends causing counter clutter.
Labeled square jars are perfect for cotton swabs, balls, pads, and other bathroom necessities. Bonus points if you find containers with divided compartments to further organize small items. Just keep the lids on to maintain a tidy look.
Store Medicines Properly
Don’t just toss prescription medicines and vitamins into a drawer or bin. These sensitive items require proper storage. Keep them organized on shelves inside the medicine cabinet, ideally in a mirrored cabinet away from direct light and heat.
Utilize medicine organizers to neatly separate and label your pills and supplements. This makes it easy to quickly find what you need each day. Just be sure to dispose of anything expired. Proper medicine storage also keeps potentially dangerous pills safely away from curious children and pets.
Use Tension Rods for More Shelving
Lack of adequate shelving space is a common bathroom organizing dilemma. An easy DIY solution is installing adjustable tension rods to create instant extra storage. Tension rod shelves easily fit in narrow spaces between studs and allow you to customize your storage configuration.
Mount them horizontally above the toilet, inside cabinets, or vertically on the wall to hold baskets for toilet paper, towels, and other essentials. They come in a variety of finishes like bronze, nickel, and white. Just measure the space first to find the right fit.
Display Items Vertically
Counter space comes at a premium in most bathrooms, so make the most of what you have. Displaying items vertically, rather than horizontally, leaves you much more room to work.
Stand perfumes, lotions, jars, and squeeze tubes upright inside trays and baskets. Mount dispensers for soap, lotion, and toothpaste on the wall. Invest in vertical storage options like over-the-door racks, floating shelves, and wall-mounted cabinets too.
Use Suction Organizers
Stick-on suction organizers provide removable storage for shower items without requiring any drilling or permanent installation. Strong suction cups securely adhere to smooth tile or glass while holding bottles of shampoo, soap, razors, loofahs, and more.
Suction shelves and caddies keep your shower necessities within arm’s reach while getting them off your bathroom ledge and counter. Easily reposition them anytime. Just be sure to occasionally wipe down the suction cups and shower surface to keep them grime-free for the best hold.
Label Everything
Pretty storage containers look gorgeous on the counter, but a jumbled mess inside defeats the purpose of getting organized. Make sure to clearly label every bin, basket, and jar with the contents, especially if they’ll be stashed inside a cabinet.
Uniform apothecary-style labels lend an upscale look and help everything blend together cohesively. Or get creative with chalkboard and metallic washi tape, printable stickers, bathroom-themed vinyl decals, and more. Keep things uniform for the cleanest look.
Store Daily Items Near the Sink
To create an efficient routine that actually sticks, keep your everyday bathroom essentials right within reach of the sink. Store toothbrushes, toothpaste, facial cleanser, and hand soap together near the sink for easy access morning and night.
A small countertop caddy or wall-mounted organizer beside the faucet keeps these key items handy but contained. Bonus if it has a razor hook, tweezer nook, and toothbrush holder. This saves rummaging under the sink every morning.
Invest in Glass Containers
Glass storage containers make a gorgeous statement on open bathroom shelves. The transparent design lets you see items inside while the glass material gives it an elevated look. Plus, glass won’t absorb odors from smelly products over time.
Use glass jars and canisters in a matching style to store Q-tips, cotton pads, feminine products, cotton swabs, bath salts, and more. Just keep lids on tightly since they’re breakable. The uniform look pulled together on a shelf or countertop creates a high-end spa aesthetic.
Store Cleaners Under the Sink
One of the handiest uses of under-sink storage is designating this area for all your bathroom cleaning supplies. Keep spray cleaners, scrub brushes, toilet bowl cleaner, extra sponges, and cleaning gloves together in slide-out trays or an organizer to access when needed.
This clears up main counter and drawer space for your daily essentials. Just be sure to keep cleaners safely out of reach of children in case of accidental ingestion. An under-sink bath cleaner caddy creates a handy home base when it’s time to tidy up the bathroom.
Opt for Pull-Out Drawer Organizers
Maximize every inch of your existing vanity drawers by installing pull-out organizers. They allow you to efficiently use all the vertical space, rather than just tossing everything in a jumbled pile. Adjustable divider sections keep your makeup, skin care, hair tools, and toiletries neatly separated.
Pull-outs are also great for creating smaller compartments for small loose items like cotton swabs, hair ties, lip balms, mini perfumes, and more. The divided storage helps prevent messy rummaging and makes it easy to grab what you need.
Use Standing Shelves Over the Toilet
Make use of the frequently wasted space above your toilet with handy freestanding storage. A tall narrow shelving unit provides a spot for extra TP, hand towels, candles, small plants, air freshener, decor, and other bathroom miscellany. Just be sure it’s securely attached to the wall with brackets.
For more customizable storage, opt for an over-the-toilet cabinet or étagère style shelf. Closed cabinets allow you to conceal messier items like extra cleaning supplies. The shelves keep everything right in the main bathroom area rather than crammed under the sink.
Add a Bathroom Command Center
Get uber-organized by creating a dedicated space to store calendars, notes, reminders, mail, and other paperwork. Turn an empty wall, back of the door, or inside cabinet door into a bathroom information station.
Use baskets, trays, and acrylic holders to neatly store pens, sticky notes, lists, magazines, and other items you want handy. Mount hooks to hang keys on and whiteboards for jotting down notes. Keep this command center stocked with any items that help keep your household organized.
Use Lazy Susans
Lazy Susan turntables are invaluable in corners and other tricky spots where cabinet access is limited. Spinning them makes items in the back easily reachable. Bathroom lazy Susans can hold small bottles, hair products, tools, toiletries, first aid supplies, and more.
Maximize the dead space in the back of your under-sink cabinet by installing a 2-tier lazy Susan. Or, mount one inside a corner cabinet to hold extra toiletries and supplies. Spinning shelves make the contents easy to see at a glance.
Add Extra Towel Storage
Between multiple household members, there never seems to be enough towel storage space. Creative extras like over-the-door towel racks, freestanding towel ladders, and wall-mounted rods allow you to expand your linen storage.
For the floor space under your sink, add a rolling towel cart. Or install shelf racks specifically designed to neatly store folded washcloths and hand towels. Having dedicated storage prevents towels from piling up chaotically on the counter.
Incorporate Bins and Baskets
An easy way to instantly rein in clutter is by storing items in matching bins and baskets. They create uniformity on the shelves while keeping the contents concealed. Just be sure to label each container so you can actually find things!
For the shower, suction caddies and corner shelves neatly hold all your bathing accessories. Incorporate lidded baskets on shelves to store extra toilet paper, cotton balls, soaps, lotions, and more. Keeping everything uniformly contained delivers an organized look.
Add Extra Drawers
Lack of sufficient drawer space is a common bathroom storage woe. An easy fix is repurposing neighboring kitchen or closet drawers to incorporate into your bathroom. Side-by-side double drawers give you ample room to neatly organize all those toiletries.
Alternatively, have deeper, custom-built drawers installed below the existing vanity drawers. eHow offers step-by-step instructions for DIY under-drawer storage. Just be sure to measure carefully before cutting. More drawers means more room to neatly organize everything off the counter.
Conclusion
With some strategic organization solutions and storage upgrades, you can keep those bathroom counters clutter-free and enjoy a serene, spa-like space. Use containers, bins, baskets, and drawers to neatly corral all your toiletries, cosmetics, and daily essentials. Install extra racks, shelves, and cabinets too for expanded storage real estate. The results will be a bathroom that looks and functions beautifully. What organization tips do you swear by in your bathroom? Let us know your best ideas below!