How To Organize Your Bathroom

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I find the 3 biggest culprits of mess are kitchens, closets and of course bathrooms! But honestly, how the F are you supposed to keep all that product at bay? I mean, for your eyes alone there are like 748320657031 products! Never fear, I’ve put together a guide to getting organized in there once and for all!

Why do you need to organize your bathroom in the first place?

Look, let’s be real. The bathroom is a sort of sacred place. Not only to do your business (which when you have kids can be like a mini vacation, amiright mamas?) but it’s also where we look in the mirror and prepare ourselves for our day. It’s not sexy to talk about, but even just brushing your teeth in the morning is a ritual in preparation. Sexier, perhaps, is applying skin care and make-up, or curling your hair. If you prep yourself if a disorganized and disjointed space, it would make sense that our mind would also be in a disorganized and disjointed space. Ditto all that for bedtime. You want to be able to have your mind clear to get the most restful sleep possible (I’m pretty sure everyone wants better sleep, right?). So let’s clear that all up and start fresh, shiny, and ready to tackle anything including a full night’s sleep!

OK… I’ve convinced you to get it together. Now what?

Step 1: GET RID OF EXPIRED ITEMS. Yep you heard that right, it’s not just the food in the back of your fridge that expire. TBH, I didn’t even know that make-up, skin care, hair care, etc. expires. Products loose their potency or effectiveness. But here’s the tricky thing! it’s not like food where it says exp 082022 or something. It’s typically labeled with something like 6M or 24M meaning that the item expires 6 months or 24 months after you open it. I will take a sharpie to the bottom of a product with the date I opened it to keep track- keep that sharpie in your bathroom to make it suuuper easy. If an item is unopened, the shelf life is longer: 2-3 years for moisturizer, sunscreen and make-up, about 1 year for treatments and serums. Additionally, there is nothing wrong with the sniff test. According to my close personal friend, Oprah, “If you’re unsure how old something is, the general rule is to toss anything that has significantly changed in color or odor, or separated, clumped, thickened or thinned.”

Step 2: CATEGORIZE, CATEGORIZE, CATEGORIZE! Determine how you like to organize. Do you like big broad categories like “make-up” or smaller like “eyeshadow” or even smaller if you’re a makeup artist like “gold eyeshadow”? Me? I’m a big category girl; partly due to my minimalistic (read lazy) skincare and make-up routine. My categories are: Hair Tools, Hair Accessories, Make-up, Sun, Hair, Skin, and Daily.

Step 3: DECLUTTER. Some might do this before categorizing but I find it helpful to see what you’ve got of each category before knowing what to get rid of. I can feel the professional organizers screaming at the screen right now but hear me out. While you may not like your hairspray 100%, does it work for now? When you find the one you like better, replace and declutter the old! If you decluttered first and then later realized you didn’t have any hairspray at all you might find yourself in a pickle. Of course, if you NEVER use hairspray then get rid of it. Remember the declutter questions: Is it useful/necessary? Does it make you happy? Bonus! When it comes to make-up: swatch that shit. Is it color that works for you? If not, it’s gotta go.

Step 4: Get an idea of your space to determine organizational product. Do you have drawers? You’ll most likely need drawer organizers. Do you have under cabinet space? Then baskets, turntables or stacking drawers might be your needs. Pedestal sink? Maybe you’ll need a furniture piece of some kind. Don’t forget to think about vertical space! Under the sink can be tricky but remembering that you can play with depth and height.

Step 4.5: Measure your space! Again, MEASURE YOUT SPACE! Do not miss this step! Now that you know what you have and what products you need. Don’t forget to measure, then measure again before you purchase any new product. Learn from my mistakes people! Did you get that you should measure? Oh! Don’t forget to measure.

Step 5: Recycle, reclaim or purchase product! The fun part! Remember, don’t go crazy. See if you already have something that works. Stick to your budget. Keep your receipts. And remember when it comes to those pretty clear containers you see on Instagram and Pinterest… a clear container only looks as organized as what’s inside of it.

Step 6: Off you go! Time to put your kept items away. Keep the items you use most closest to your hands (my deodorant is in the top right drawer…duh). Don’t forget! Organization is a fluid and ongoing process so if you try something and it doesn’t work, try try again!

Bonus Step 7: Labeling. You know I don’t believe you have to label EVERYTHING but like, you might want to consider labeling most things. You can use a label maker (this is the one I have!), purchase labels on amazon (I like these and these), print some on a Cricut, or if you’re brave enough freehand with a sharpie (Hard pass for me. I do not trust myself!).

Here’s what my bathroom looks like:

Ok ok ok, but do I practice what I preach? You better believe it. Here’s my 3/4 spaces in my bathroom- You’re not seeing the medicine cabinet because, honestly, it’s a mess. Maybe a future article in the works?

Here’s our vanity. Husband has the top left drawer and the left cabinet. I have the larger cabinet under the sink and the whole right side (sorry, not sorry Brandon).

P.S. You’re not going to see my husband’s stuff. I do not organize his stuff- he’s a grown ass man and if he wants his shit organized, he can do it himself.

Lol. Yes we have toothbrushes but I had just thrown away ours to replace them (p.s. you should be doing this once every 6 months)

Ok… Here we go. My categories are:

Left Top Drawer:

TOP DRAWER WORHTY (daily skincare, simple quick make-up, daily medications, quick hair stuff, 2 strips of contacts)
- Product: My favorite target bendy bins & a super old clear bin that I have no idea where it’s from (reuse yay!). Here’s similar ones.

Left Cabinet:

SKIN (facemarks, make-up remover, sheet masks, eye masks, jade roller)
- Product: Target bins, The Container Store label clips, labels cut on my Cricut!
HAIR ACCESSORIES (hair ties, clips, bobby pins, headbands, fancy hair things- like my wedding hair extensions)
- Product: The Container Store bin, The Container Store label clips, labels cut on my Cricut!

On the door: my *cough* knock off *cough* make-up erasers on a trusty command hook!

Large Cabinet:

DAILY (lotion, body spray, glasses cleaner)
HAIR (dry shampoo, hairbrush, hairspray, hair masks)
SUN (sunscreen, aloe, sunless tanner, my chub rub lotion– iykyk, just buy it if you chafe!)
- Product for all three: The dollar store baby! (Check my favs!), The Container Store label clips, labels cut on my Cricut!
HAIR TOOLS (straightener, curling iron, crimper, blow dryer)
MAKE-UP (the rest of my make-up that’s not a part of my daily look)
- Product: This organizer is suuuuper old. No clue but here’s something similar! The Container Store label clips, labels cut on my Cricut!

In the back…

EXTRAS (my back stock)
CONTACTS (uh…. my extra contacts)
- Product: Bins from The Dollar Tree, labels from my label maker!

On the doors: Travel checklist by Do It On A Dime (left), make-up/ face mask headband, handheld mirror to see the back of my head on a command hook of course (right).