Bathroom Inspiration

After my kitchen inspiration post, Kathryn left this comment,

“My lotions, medicines, soaps and all the other things under the bathroom sink run away from me all the time. If you have ideas for those please share!”

Our master bath is actually third on my “to organize” list — after the master closet and the kitchen.  If you can’t already tell, my list is really long.  It feels like I’m on an endless loop of organizing and then re-organizing around here.   Is that just me?  Or is it like that for everyone?

We moved into our house 2 years ago and since I am obsessively, insanely, just-a-normal-amount tidy, I threw a bunch of Ikea boxes in our bathroom storage area two days after we moved in and called it a day.  I was feeling desperate to have everything put away (don’t move with a 1.5 year-old & a 3-year-old — like, ever) and the moving boxes cleared out.  It looks alright but the boxes aren’t organized all that well and things are starting to spill over and get messy and disheveled.

Here are the things I’m looking at for inspiration as I gear up to overhaul that space as well…

I like the large basket for corralling towels.  Baskets can be so expensive, though.  Does anyone have any leads for inexpensive baskets like this one?

Trays for the countertop to hold some of the things I use on a daily basis.

We don’t actually have room for or need of a rolling cart in our master bath but I still like the idea.  If a rolling cart would be a good fit in your bathroom, you might want to check out the Raskog from Ikea (comes in dark grey & turquoise) or this one from World Market.  Restoration Hardware also has a more pricey option.

If you are tight on space, a shelf over the door would be a good option for adding some storage.  Easy enough to install and there are plenty of low-cost options out there.

Our master bath has plenty of cabinet space but no wall space.  If your bathroom is the opposite of ours, utilize your wall space to add some more storage.   Shallow crates would work well but you could also use single spice racks or open-air shelving.

Underneath the sink can be an area of complete chaos at our house.  I like the idea of mounting something to the inside of the cabinet doors to help keep things organized.  And using boxes, baskets or trays to organize and group things into categories.  A clear case with drawers like this one might help, too.

I also like the idea of having a tray or box like this that could hold all of the items you use in every morning.  You could stow it underneath the sink to pull out each day.  Or maybe even keep it on the counter if it went well with your bathroom design, given you have the space.

I’ve found that for each space I organize, I have to spend a few minutes just thinking about the space first and figuring out what sort of system would work well.  I try to keep the things we use on a daily or weekly basis somewhere that is easily accessible and put the other items further out of sight, so long as they are well-labeled so that it’s easy to locate when we need it.

What’s your system or strategy when you set out to reorganize an area of your house?  Do you just jump right in?  Write out an elaborate game plan?  At some point I’m thinking that I will actually have to start these projects rather than just blogging about them.  But since I’m on this endless loop, I figure there’s no rush.  And it’s so fun to look at all the photos, don’t you think?

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