NAVIGATION
Bathroom Decluttering Tips
Declutter Bathroom Counter
Declutter Bathroom Cabinets
Decluttering Vanity Drawers
Declutter Inside Shower & Bath
Hi, I’m Ryan
As a minimalist who notices every detail in my home, it’s important to me to keep my bathroom clean and decluttered. As the bathroom is one of the first and last spaces I spend time in, this helps me to start each morning refreshed by my space and end each night feeling rejuvenated!
Declutter Your Bathroom Quickly And Easily With These Tips
Decluttering our bathrooms isn’t something any of us think about on a regular basis. But the bathroom is one of the biggest culprits of clutter, and it can pile up fast!
Before you even realize it, your bathroom drawers can become filled to the brim with expired medications and beauty and skincare products you rarely use.
If wading through this chaotic clutter feels daunting, I’ll walk you through simple, actionable tips and steps you can take to get the clutter out fast and reclaim a bathroom that’s clean and organized. It’s important to start and end your day in a space that makes you feel relaxed and serene, not stressed.
Start With The Obvious When Decluttering A Bathroom
Anything in your bathroom drawers, cabinets, or shower that stands out to you as an obvious item to discard should go first. Whenever I’m decluttering, especially if I’m decluttering a small space like the bathroom, I always feel better when I see the space begin to clear up quickly. By decluttering the obvious items first, morale increases and motivates you to keep going.
Make A List Of Bathroom Products You Use Daily
There is really no tool as helpful as a list. It can be all too easy to convince yourself to keep more than you should when simply eyeballing the items before you.
When tackling your bathroom clutter, I encourage you to make a physical list, either on old-school paper, or in your phone or laptop notes. For each item, whether it’s makeup, skincare or whatever, think through whether or not you actually get use out of it and write it down. After doing this, let go of all the things that didn’t make the list.
I like to use the 20/20 and the 90/90 decluttering rules when working out what products I use. It’s easier to keep myself in line this way and identify what I really need for my daily getting ready routine.
Be Strategic With Placement During A Bathroom Declutter
The entire bathroom decluttering process is about more than just getting stuff out of the way. While this is the main aim, you want to be intentional with where you place the products that you decide to keep.
The goal is to declutter your bathroom in such a way that your morning and nightly routines are supported, and you are set up for success each day and night. This might look like grouping the products you use daily so you can simply grab and go.
Set A Timer For The Bathroom Decluttering Process
Even simply devoting five or 10 minutes to decluttering spaces one at a time is much easier to digest than forcing yourself to tackle every single bathroom drawer and cabinet in one fell swoop. Those smaller increments will add up over time, and you’ll have your entire bathroom fully decluttered before you know it!
Declutter Your Bathroom Section By Section
Not only should you break up your bathroom decluttering process into smaller chunks of time, but you should also break it up into smaller segments of space. Most expert minimalists tackle the bathroom decluttering process in four sections.
Sections For Bathroom Decluttering
- Counters
- Cabinets
- Vanity drawers
- Inside of your shower
- Medicine cabinet
- Towels and facecloths
- Shampoo and soaps
- Outdated prescriptions or skincare items
How To Declutter Your Bathroom Counter
Your counter is likely the biggest culprit for clutter in your bathroom. When we don’t create designated spaces for our bathroom products and tools, it’s easy to let the larger surfaces in the room become a dumping ground for excess clutter. I’ve worked hard to prevent that in my own small bathroom!
Take All Products Off The Bathroom Counter
Start out by taking everything off your cluttered counters and laying it all out on the bathroom floor until your counters are entirely clean. I’m not only talking about beauty and hygiene products; remove your toothbrush holder, your curling wand, and your chargers – clear it all out.
Sort Bathroom Products, Then Declutter
Next, sort all of those products into smaller categories. The goal when decluttering items from a bathroom counter is to decide which items to keep and get rid of, but also which items you need to keep stored on your counters, and which bathroom products can be put away in storage elsewhere.
When Decluttering A Bathroom Counter, Ask Yourself
- Do I have a different item that serves the same purpose?
- Does this item need to be out in my bathroom specifically?
- Is this an item I need to be easily accessible each day?
- Can I store this item somewhere other than my bathroom countertop?
- Is this an item that I need to access quickly?
Use Wall Shelving And Vertical Storage
One tip I love for keeping my bathroom countertops from collecting too much clutter is to make use of vertical storage. This is a surefire way to keep the clutter from piling up on the flat surface of your bathroom counters. You can utilize vertical storage by storing bathroom products on wall shelves investing in a vertical countertop organizer or Lazy Susan, or even a corner organizer.
Put Products On Stands, In Jars Or On A Tray
One of the savviest and most aesthetically pleasing methods I see is using Mason jars or other kinds of jars. You can put items like Q-tips, cotton balls, makeup sponges, or even liquid products like lotion and hand soap in your jars.
I also like the idea of having a catch-all bathroom tray to organize things like makeup or skincare products. Using a tray as your primary countertop organization method may take up more surface space, but it keeps things categorized pretty well.
Decluttering Your Bathroom Cabinet
Clearing the clutter out of your bathroom cabinet might take a minute, but it’s certainly worth it in the end. I go through a bathroom decluttering regimen once every few months, so I have my system down when it comes to getting pesky clutter out of my cabinets.
Remove All Expired Items From Your Bathroom Cabinet
If you’re decluttering your bathroom cabinets underneath your sink, this might look like nixing expired makeup, old cleaning products, or any other items that haven’t been used in years. I start with getting rid of those standout, obvious items to keep myself motivated to continue the bathroom decluttering process.
Put The Bathroom Products You Use Daily Elsewhere
After decluttering expired and unused items, I move to the opposite end of the bathroom decluttering spectrum. My next order of business is to move the items I know I am not getting rid of to a separate location. This includes any kind of medication or skincare product that you use every single day. Put them in an easily accessible location.
Categorize Remaining Bathroom Products
All you should have left are the products you don’t use every single day, but which you aren’t sure you want to get rid of. Sort those remaining bathroom items into smaller categories based on their purpose.
This will help you to physically see which products you have too many of. Rummage through the categories that remain and decide how many products from each of these categories you need to keep.
When Decluttering A Bathroom Cabinet, Ask Yourself
- Do I use this product semi-often?
- Is this a product that would be necessary in an emergency?
- Do I use this product on special occasions?
- Should I keep multiple versions of this product?
- Is this product helpful when I am sick?
- Could this item be useful for someone else in my house?
- Is this a bathroom-specific cleaning product?
Use Smaller Containers To Sort Bathroom Products
After deciding which bathroom products you plan to keep and which ones you’ll toss, it’s time to organize your decluttered bathroom items in the cabinet. My favorite way to organize items inside an over-the-sink bathroom cabinet is to place them in smaller, thin bins by category. You want to make sure to use organizational bins that are small and thin so your bathroom cabinet can close all the way.
Organize Cleaning Products Under The Sink
When it comes to under-the-sink storage, plastic sliding drawers are the way to go. I’ve also seen people hang a tension rod directly under the sink and hang cleaning products and bottles from the rod. This is a clever way to keep things orderly underneath your bathroom sink.
Declutter Your Bathroom Vanity Drawers
Another section of the bathroom that can become a cluttered mess quickly is your drawers. I don’t know about you, but I have a pretty bad tendency to shove things in drawers when I don’t want to take the time to put them where they really belong.
Take All Makeup And Skincare Products Out Of Drawers
With your makeup and skincare products, go through the same process you’ve done with all the other sections: dump everything out of your bathroom drawers. Most drawers are fastened onto sliding hinges. When I am in major bathroom decluttering mode, I like to take the drawers out entirely and dump the contents to get the decluttering job done as quickly as possible and lay everything out there.
Sort And Declutter Items In Drawers
Now, put those items from your bathroom drawers into smaller categories that make sense for you. You can sort the items by purpose, size, or any other category that works for your organizational strategies.
Sort Bathroom Drawer Contents Into Categories Like
- Medication
- Daily toiletries
- Makeup and cosmetics
- Hair care tools
- Nail care tools
- Washcloths or small hand towels
Designate One Purpose For Each Vanity Drawer
Once you’ve sorted all of your items into their respective categories, simply assign one drawer to each. The last thing you want is to be fishing around in multiple drawers full of miscellaneous bathroom items whenever you need something. Assign one drawer to daily medications, one drawer to makeup and cosmetics, and so on.
Invest In Dividers For The Inside Of Bathroom Drawers
Using drawer dividers is one of the best ways to stay organized because they keep all your small bathroom knickknacks from becoming a jumbled mess. Bathroom drawer dividers are ideal for small items like hair clips, hair ties, and jewelry, as well as larger items like spray bottles or hairbrushes.
How To Declutter Inside Your Bathroom Shower
The last section of bathroom decluttering I want to go through is one people often forget: the inside of your shower. Don’t just let the soap and shampoo bottles line the walls. Keeping your shower decluttered will help you start or end your day (depending on when you shower) in the right headspace.
Declutter Empty Or Unused Shower Products
It’s easy to fall into the habit of keeping multiple shower products that serve a similar purpose. However, when decluttering the inside of your shower, ask yourself what you use daily. Four different exfoliating scrubs and three different shampoos.
Attach A Rack To The Inside Of Your Bathroom Shower
Once you’ve taken the time to declutter the products inside your shower, you’ll want to organize your decluttered items in a way that makes them easily accessible to you. One way I’ve seen for organizing the inside of a shower is to attach a small rack or shelf to the bathroom wall.
Depending on the type of wall material you have, attaching a rack or shelf can be varying degrees of difficulty, but it’s nothing a little grout and mounting plates can’t handle.
Invest A Shower Caddy
If you go the shower caddy route, my honest opinion is to get a caddy with multiple tiers so that you aren’t trying to shove all the products on a single shelf. It’s also smart to get a caddy that lays fully flat against the wall, so your products don’t slant and slide around.
Add Hooks Inside Your Shower Wall
Another organizational trick that I really like for the inside of the shower is putting hooks underneath the shower head to hang individual items. This is ideal for loofahs, shower scrubbers, heel exfoliating bars, water hairbrushes, or face scrubbers.
Your Turn!
- Which bathroom products are hardest for you to declutter?
- What creative bathroom storage systems can you think of?
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