If you’ve kept up with any of my monthly goal posts, you’ve heard me talk about our upstairs bathroom renovation. To say that it’s been the project that would never end would be an understatement. We’re going on 4 years now and it’s complete, although I’m still not quite ready for the reveal. But, since I’m making you wait on that, I can share about bathroom closet organization! Fun fun! 🙂
Since our downstairs bathroom doesn’t have a closet in it (darn those 1940’s cape cod houses!), I was really excited to get my hands on this closet! We were dealing with a blank slate since the bathroom had been gutted. The Teacher worked with my Dad to install the ClosetMaid shelf track system and I worked on painting it. I was already pleased with how clean and fresh it looked.
But it was time to get it stocked so that it was functional! My budget was not large, so the goal was to spend as little money as possible and still achieve a cute and user friendly bathroom closet. I think we achieved both!
It took me some time to determine what sort of storage system I was comfortable with, but after scouring Pinterest and then visiting The Dollar Tree, Target, and other home stores numerous times, this is what I came up with and I LOVE it!
Starting from the top, I opted to leave the items loose and stack them neatly. I chose to store the items that we use less often way up at the top- beach towels, extra bed linens for the kid’s beds, and extra mattress pads. Since the closet is deep, I have plenty of space to put more in front of what I already have.
It was important to me that I keep the kid’s toiletries and medicines up high so that they could not reach them. These taller bins from Dollar Tree worked perfectly for the medicines and toiletries and I used an extra plastic box with a lid (also from Dollar Tree) that I had laying around for their oral hygeine items. I can always add more plastic boxes if needed.
I started out with the hand towels and wash clothes stacked loosely on the shelves and wasn’t happy with it. Since they are smaller towels, I was afraid they would fall over and get mixed up. I really wanted some sort of basket to keep them all separated nicely. After going back and forth, I decided on the white plastic baskets from Target. They are sturdy and more durable than some others I saw, which I really liked.
I keep all of my cleaning products downstairs under my sink, so I originally had no plans to keep any cleaning supplies upstairs. But after another nighttime accident in the midst of getting the closet organized, I moved my urine cleaner and some Febreze up to this bathroom closet after all. I took this small plastic tote from another area of the house and moved it to the bathroom. It’s the perfect size for just a couple of products and keeps them together.
I went back and forth on whether to keep the bath towels and our toilet paper loose as well. After they were stacked on the shelf for a couple of days, I still wasn’t excited about it. The large woven baskets are perfect alternative. The bath towels fit there nicely and I can keep the toilet paper all together as well. I also like how the woven baskets coordinate with but don’t exactly match the plastic baskets on the shelf above it.
I’ve had the plastic storage drawers since college and they are so handy for loose odds and ends. The drawers are labeled for hair accessories, nail supplies, and sunscreens. The drawer unit has taken a little bit of a beating over the years (don’t look too closely), so I decided to dress them up a bit by adding wrapping paper to the inside drawer fronts. It adds a little bit of color and also hides the items inside. Double sided tape did the trick perfectly. I used some smaller plastic baskets to separate some of the items within the drawers as needed.
I knew I wanted to have some sort of laundry hamper in the closet, since the kids have desperately needed one for some time now. The plastic hamper is small but works perfectly for the children’s clothes. Since I do one load of laundry each day, it usually doesn’t get to the point of overflowing (at least not yet!). The kids are still getting into the habit of putting them there rather than keeping them on the floor of their rooms. 🙂
For now, I just have 1 hook on the inside of the closet door to hang a towel. We have other areas of the bathroom to hang towels, so I didn’t think I needed anything else for now. I can always utilize the door with other storage options if needed in the future.
I’m really thrilled with the result! I’m hoping we can keep this closet looking neat and organized from now on. I kept the labels simple (although there are some cute ones out there). I used our label maker to print out a few to use on some of the baskets and drawers. The rest were pretty self explanatory.
I hope this might get your organization juices flowing in case your bathroom closet needs a little tidying!
Sources: Paint Color: Aquatint by Sherwin Williams; Shelving: Closet Maid from Home Depot; Plastic baskets: slotted storage basket from Dollar Tree, Room Essentials storage bin* from Target, storage box with lid from Dollar Tree; Woven baskets: Room Essentials woven storage basket* from Target; hamper: stacking laundry hamper from Dollar Tree; Bath towels: Threshold Botanic in monte carlo turquoise from Target, Threshold Performance in coral starfish* from Target; label maker: Dymo Letra Tag* available at Amazon
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What is the biggest organization challenge in your bathroom closet?
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