17. Our Main Bathroom Is Embarrassing
If you have one main bathroom that is used by both your children and anyone who comes to your house, you probably struggle on a daily basis to keep it presentable.
Children leave toys around the tub, gobs of toothpaste on the counter, dirty towels anywhere but on the towel rack, and little boys often “miss” the toilet. (If you know what I mean!)
One of my clients had only one full bathroom in her house. It was used by her daughter as a place to play, which is fine, but I thought about how a visitor would feel taking a shower in a tub filled with toys. I’ve been in that situation, and before you step foot in the shower, you have to clean up other children’s toys. Not something you want to do while visiting another person’s home. When I looked at this client’s linen closet, which was right outside the bathroom door, there was plenty of room to store the bath toys. We just had to start by cleaning out the linen closet.
When considering how to organize your bathroom, you have to take into account what type of linen closet space you have. I suggest you store every bath item you can in your linen closet and only keep the bare essentials in the bathroom.
Take a look at some simple solutions to common bathroom problems by using my Room Organizing Worksheet (page 187).
How do you use your bathroom? While it may seem obvious, the function of your bathroom depends on the number of bathrooms in your house, the size of the bathroom, its location and its storage capabilities. Think about who uses this bathroom and what they use it for. If there is too much going on in your bathroom, maybe some functions like doing hair and makeup can be moved to the bedrooms.
What do you like and don’t like about your bathroom? If you have no closet in the bathroom, then you may want to add storage cabinets under the sink. If your medicine cabinet is too small, then consider purchasing a bigger one from a home store. If your bathroom looks too juvenile and you want to redecorate, think about a design that the whole family will be happy with. If your bathroom gets too steamy, you may need to install an exhaust fan. This is the time to get to the root cause of your bathroom disorganization. It may be that you have the organizing tools, but no one uses them. In that case, you need to establish a better clean-up routine for your whole family to adopt.
What’s in your bathroom now? Pull everything out of the cabinets. Take things out of the tub or shower area and begin to categorize them. Then do the same thing to your linen closet. Write down all the categories on your room organizing sheet to see if there is anything that should not be in the bathroom area. Combine categories that are in both the bathroom and the linen closet.
What do you want to keep in the bathroom? Some essential bathroom items you’ll want to keep are:
Look at the piles of categories you have created and decide what can be tossed. Here are some obvious ones: moldy bathroom toys, towels that are thread bare, medicines that have expired, old toothbrushes, and bath mats that are shedding. Don’t fret too much about getting rid of these items. Most of them are inexpensive and can easily be replaced.
Purge: If you find you have too much of one category, pare it down. Some categories that tend to accumulate in bathrooms and linen closets are: medicines, cosmetics, travel size lotions and shampoos, towels, bath toys, nail polishes, perfumed bath salts and beads that you receive as presents, and cleaning products. Consider what you really need and use. If some sundries are still good, but you don’t use them, try to find a shelter or nursing home to donate them to. Box up the donations and move them out of the bathroom along with the trash.
Absolute of Organizing: Subtract before you add.
Rearrange: Look at what you will be keeping in your bathroom and where it will go. If you have cabinet space under the sink or in a medicine cabinet, begin to put your essential items in them. If you have a plastic bin with holes in it or a mesh bag for bath toys, it’s okay to keep them in the bath because they are contained. If you’ve got too many bath toys to keep in one container, store some in another bin and keep it in the linen closet or under the sink. As you put everything back in, you will probably notice where you need containers or bins. If you are really tight for space in the linen closet, you could keep extra sheets in the bedroom closets or extra blankets in another area of the house. My grandmother taught me this trick for keeping a set of sheets together: Place the folded fitted and top sheets inside the pillowcase. Space bags, which allow you to store several comforters, blankets and sheets in a smaller container by vacuuming out the air, are also a great way to make room in a linen closet.
What needs to be added to this room? Jot down what types of organizers you need and then go shopping! Make sure you have the measurements of the cabinets or drawers to buy the right size. In the meantime you can store your bath items in boxes that are labeled with the category until you can transfer them into your new organizers. Whatever you want to change about the bathroom, write it down and price out what the changes will cost. Organize what you have before you take on any major remodeling. Like the kitchen, it’s easier to see what improvements you need when a bathroom is cleared out. It will also be much easier to put things back in the bathroom when they are categorized and contained.
Once you have reorganized your bathroom, give your family a tour. Show the children where bathroom toys will be kept, and make sure everyone knows which towel set and toothbrush are theirs. If you have several people using one bathroom, it’s a good idea to color code the towels. Demonstrate for your family how and where a wet towel is hung. Make it fun, but make sure everyone knows how to clean up after themselves. Let’s face it, you’re still going to pick up after the little ones in the bathroom but maybe they can help you put the bath toys away. Ask the older children to hang up their towels and wipe off the counters and sink after they brush their teeth.
Before guests visit, I always check our main bath to make sure the toilet is flushed, there’s toilet paper on the holder, towels are on the rack, the sink is toothpaste-free, and toys are in the bin. Then I light a candle and breathe a sigh of relief.