Having a clean bathroom where you can find things makes everyday life SO much easier. But bathrooms quickly become mess magnets. Thankfully, bathroom clutter is pretty easy to contain. Here are my favorite bathroom organization tips and ideas for a neat and tidy bathroom!  

Why Organize the Bathroom?

Honestly, it can seem pointless to clean up the bathroom sometimes. I mean the very definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results, right? So why bang your head against the wall tidying the bathroom over and over again?

Because our brains were created to crave order, not chaos. And that bathroom mess is adding stress to your life – for no good reason! You’re also potentially wasting time searching for things you can’t find, and money buying replacements for bathroom things you’ve lost. 

Even if you have a not so pretty – translate outdated and maybe even ugly – bathroom, you can still make it much more pleasant to use and to look at if you implement some simple organization that everyone can use. 

7 Easy Bathroom Organization Ideas

Declutter First

Always start any organizing project with a good decluttering session. There’s no point in organizing things you don’t need. Purge those things first. 

If you need help with decluttering and organizing, I’ve outlined all the steps and given tons of encouragement in my book, The Clutter Fix. 

The best way I’ve found to declutter it so dump everything out and begin to sort the pile. Toss anything that’s trash immediately. Then sort by type by just creating little piles. 

Separate Into Product Categories

Part of organizing is figuring out what to group with what. In that bathroom that’s best done by grouping your toiletries and other bathroom items by their purpose. Categories like:

• hair spray, gel, dry shampoo
• hair tools (curling iron, blow dryer, straightener)
• face creams, oils, cleansers, and lotions 
• toothpaste, toothbrushes, floss
• makeup
• feminine products
• deodorants and perfume
• toilet paper
• medicines

Decide What Goes Where

Once you’ve sorted what you want to keep, you need to get to finding homes for everything. Will you keep your makeup in a drawer and your hair products on the counter? Or will it all go behind closed doors?

Knowing your organizing personality (and that of any family members that will share your bathroom) will go a long way to making the best choices here. Don’t know what your organizing personality is? Check out our Organizing Personality Quiz here. 

Invest in Bathroom Storage

Add shelving where possible, for things like towels and extra soap. This is especially important if you don’t have a linen closet nearby. Choose containers, baskets, or wire baskets for your items. 

Use clear acrylic containers so you can easily see things inside. I LOVE these drawer organizers for the bathroom. 

Add a laundry bin

I’m preaching to the choir here. We’ve lived in this house for over six years and I have yet to put a laundry bin in my small space en suite bathroom (not pictured in this post). Instead, I STILL carry my dirty clothes to the closet laundry bin every single day. Silliness! I think I’ll order one right now! 

Hang towels from hooks instead of towel bars

Towel bars are great if you have a lot of space. They allow towels to dry quickly. But they also take up a lot of wall space.

Hooks, on the other hand, will still allow your towels to dry (much better than they would in a heap on the floor) but they take up little wall real estate. If you don’t want to make several holes in the wall, try using Command hooks for hanging towels and other things. 

Label, Label, Label

I find it’s less necessary in our master bathroom to label things than in the other bathrooms because only Dean and I use it. But in the bathrooms that the kids or guests also use, it’s very helpful to label containers, drawers, and even shelves so everyone knows where things belong. 

Now that the general steps for organizing bathrooms are clear, let’s talk about the specific bathroom zones that need organizing. 

Organizing Your Bathroom Countertops

Keeping clutter off of the bathroom counter is difficult for some of us (ahem), but it doesn’t have to be.

Trays are cute and serve a purpose: they double the storage space on your countertops. Choose trays that are easily wipeable for quick cleanup. 

Mason jars or other glass jars are excellent for refilling and organizing bathroom items, especially when your budget is tight. They’re also perfect for storing small items like q-tips, makeup sponges, cotton balls, band-aids, and more. Stock up at your local thrift store or dollar store!

If you have drawers, use drawer dividers (they look like the ones we use for utensils in the kitchen) or various sizes of clear or white plastic organizers inside the drawers to maximize the space you have as well.

If you don’t have drawers, tiered trays or hanging baskets can be your saving grace. 

Organizing Your Bathroom Sink Area

You know what they say, “a place for everything and everything in its place.” Well, this is especially true when it comes to your bathroom organization. If toothbrushes go on the counter or medicine cabinet then you need a designated space that has enough room between each item so they don’t touch one another.

The countertop is where all the clutter likes to end up – at least in my house! From toothbrushes to razors, bandages, and medicated ointment, something is always getting used right by the sink. To combat the sink and counter clutter, everything needs its own space. And I mean everything!

Whether your toothbrushes go in mason jars on the counter, or in the vanity drawers, having a designated space for each item in the bathroom is key.

Bathroom Cabinet Organization

Cabinets are perfect for hiding all sorts of not-so-pretty-to-look-at bathroom paraphernalia or anything that needs to be kept out of reach of children.

Grab a couple of inexpensive bins and keep things like bandages, hair ties, bobby pins, or other items stored neatly in them. I use plastic bins with lids under our master bathroom sink, just in case the plumbing should ever leak. 

You can also make create extra storage and maximize counter space by hanging specialty bathroom organizers inside of cabinet doors.  

Tub and Shower Organization

I adore my deep soaker tub, but not so much my teenie tiny shower stall. There are two TINY shelves and almost nowhere else to put shampoo bottles! 

A shower caddy makes a huge difference and provides a lot more room for shower stuff. I use one that hangs over the shower head due to space, but you can also get ones that are on vertical tension rods with even more shelving. 

Not in love with the idea of using a shower caddy? Another option is to hang your products on the shower curtain rings. I thought this idea was genius! Shampoo dispensers are gaining popularity, and you can even get one that dispenses shampoo, conditioner, and body wash. That saves quite a bit of space when you can get rid of three bottles and just use one mounted on the wall dispenser.

If you have children, mount a mesh toy bag right above the tub so the toys can stay organized in between uses. It’s important to use a mesh bag, for drainage purposes. Moldy, smelly toys are not quite as fun as clean ones. If your kiddos have lots of toys, you may want to rotate them.

Organizing the Toilet Area

Research shows that pooping in a messy bathroom is stressful. Actually, I just made that up, but there’s nothing worse than being on the toilet and realizing how much of a disaster the bathroom is. Dust on the baseboards, q-tips, toothbrushes, and toothpaste strewn across the counter, oh my!

Over-the-toilet organizers are a sanity saver. They’re affordable at big box stores like Target and Walmart, and easy to put together. I love this DIY mirror that doubles as a huge storage space.

The organizer you need will depend on the space you have available. Organizers with several wire racks built in easily triple the amount of space you now have available in your bathroom. You can buy one on Amazon or at Target, or you can make your own over-the-toilet storage ladder if you’re handy!