Organize Your Home's Smallest and Hardest Working Space!

Let’s face it – we spend a lot of time in the bathroom.  So it makes sense to spend time this week improving that very hard working space!  A client recently asked for suggestions to improve her bathroom.  Her questions focused on towel storage / drying, clothes and general space allocation.  Here are my answers to her, and to you:

Towels:

Any place you can add more towel rods / racks would be a bonus.  And consider how to stack the rods on the wall:  for example, hanging them 3 and 5 feet from the floor – the bottom one for long towels and the top one for hand towels or wash clothes.  You can use one wall for more than one rod.

I have also seen over-the-shower-rod / shower-door racks for towels, if your tub / shower have either of those.  Also, if space permits, you could use a free-standing coat rack outside the bathroom door for your towels, too.  The air flow outside the bathroom may be better for drying anyway.

In addition, I did some research last summer when the towels in my hubby’s bathroom were getting decidedly musty.  The experts say we can re-use towels for a few days, instead of using them only once, but we should wash them every 3 or 4 uses, so twice a week, typically.

Clean-ish Clothes (worn, but can be worn again):

I would suggest an Ish-hook, maybe two.  An ”ish”-hook, you ask?  An “ish” hook is for clean-”ish” clothes that can be worn again.  We all have those items (for me, jeans and yoga pants), often tossed on a chair, bedpost or in a heap.

Consider a hook or two, again at varying heights if that would help, for pants and tops.  You can also designate a small amount of rod space and / or shelf space for your clean-ish clothes, and both would work.  I prefer the over-the-door hooks, but if that won’t work in your space, the rod and shelf should help.

Command Products make great hooks that are reasonably priced and require no tools for installation, so you can add a few here and there to see what will work for you.  You could even mount them directly on a door, if the over-the-door items don’t work.

Personal Hygiene Supplies:

Pare down your bathroom contents to your essentials.  The bathroom is typically the smallest room, after all.  Keep only current personal hygiene items in the bathroom.  More importantly, use up items completely and keep less in inventory!

Check expiration dates and purge old stuff.  Consider the seasons:  Winter time?  Store sunscreen and bug spray somewhere else.  Also, review items and determine if they’re expired to your current life.  For example – we had a bin of bath-toys under the sink, but as soon as my youngest started taking showers, the toys went away.  Another example is the drastic hair change I made last year: almost all my styling supplies left the bathroom- either into the trashcan, or into a bin on the top shelf of our linen closet.

Cleaning:

Pare down your cleaning supplies, keep only one or two multi-purpose items at hand and store the rest elsewhere.  If your linen closet is in your bathroom, remember the universal tips of storing large single items on high shelves and using clear over-the-door shoe racks for small items.

Spend a little time this week organizing your bathroom, and reap big rewards!