There are also mornings when I realize with horror, my entire family is elbow-to-elbow in the smallest room in our house. Even the hundred-pound dog wanders in to see if she can snack on the soap.
This is so not the spa retreat I deserve.
Everyone wants a bathroom with chandeliers and immaculate wall-to-wall cabinetry. No one wants to deal with the drip-drying mesh bag full of tub toys, lumpy wet facecloths, toothpaste-dotted countertops and upsidown bottles of conditioner. But real life requires solutions for these inevitable bits of everyday blah.
Bathrooms are arguably the busiest rooms in our homes (rivaling only our kitchens), and most often the smallest, so they have to work efficiently. There’s no reason this space in your home can’t also be beautiful and organized.
So here's the plan:
Sort out what you have tucked away and out in plain sight, making a separate piles of what each person uses every day. If you separate and contain each person’s items, that saves everyone time. Keep the items easily accessible. Anything that isn’t necessary every day (that three-pack of electric toothbrush heads, etc.) is cloistered in the linen closet.
If you have drawers in your vanity, assign one to each family member. Then all of their items go in there. (That way, there’s no fighting over what belongs to whom – good for avoiding kids’ bathroom scuffles, which are prime time-wasters.) Drawers are useless, though, without dividing the space. This is where tiny items go to die. Use drawer trays to separate the tweezers from the dental floss. Don’t forget to ditch expired medicine and makeup more than a year old.
In the shower, each person has his/her own suction shower basket for toiletries (www.stacksandstacks.com, $6.99), instead of cramming everything into one. It streamlines the space and allows for attaching at different heights. Think about unused storage space. Install a rack for your hair dryer inside the vanity cabinet door (www.target.com, $12.99).
Give everyone’s towel and robe its own home. Double towel bars or individual hooks can be artfully arranged to provide order and function. Use vertical space to maximize storage, and add some wall-mounted bath shelves.
If you don’t have adequate cabinetry, think about what you need to store and sort it into containers. Baskets and boxes that match your décor can be effective for keeping what you need at hand and at the same time unify your storage with style. For little girl items, such as hairbrushes and other accessories, I like pretty stackable hatboxes. www.landofnod.com has adorable versions that come in different sizes ($39.99) but there are plenty of others out on the market, too.
In the end, unless you’re prepared to blow out walls, your bathroom still may not be the room of your Calgon dreams – but at least when the family clears out for the day, it’ll be easier to put it all away again.
Sort out what you have tucked away and out in plain sight, making a separate piles of what each person uses every day. If you separate and contain each person’s items, that saves everyone time. Keep the items easily accessible. Anything that isn’t necessary every day (that three-pack of electric toothbrush heads, etc.) is cloistered in the linen closet.
If you have drawers in your vanity, assign one to each family member. Then all of their items go in there. (That way, there’s no fighting over what belongs to whom – good for avoiding kids’ bathroom scuffles, which are prime time-wasters.) Drawers are useless, though, without dividing the space. This is where tiny items go to die. Use drawer trays to separate the tweezers from the dental floss. Don’t forget to ditch expired medicine and makeup more than a year old.
In the shower, each person has his/her own suction shower basket for toiletries (www.stacksandstacks.com, $6.99), instead of cramming everything into one. It streamlines the space and allows for attaching at different heights. Think about unused storage space. Install a rack for your hair dryer inside the vanity cabinet door (www.target.com, $12.99).
Give everyone’s towel and robe its own home. Double towel bars or individual hooks can be artfully arranged to provide order and function. Use vertical space to maximize storage, and add some wall-mounted bath shelves.
If you don’t have adequate cabinetry, think about what you need to store and sort it into containers. Baskets and boxes that match your décor can be effective for keeping what you need at hand and at the same time unify your storage with style. For little girl items, such as hairbrushes and other accessories, I like pretty stackable hatboxes. www.landofnod.com has adorable versions that come in different sizes ($39.99) but there are plenty of others out on the market, too.In the end, unless you’re prepared to blow out walls, your bathroom still may not be the room of your Calgon dreams – but at least when the family clears out for the day, it’ll be easier to put it all away again.
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