How I simplified and organized our bathroom

This post shares how I completely organized and simplified a kids’ bathroom (that also serves as a guest bathroom and one where I get ready!) using only inexpensive materials from the Dollar Tree and Amazon.

I’m always slightly hesitant to share pictures of our bathroom because…well it’s a bathroom… and certainly not a Pinterest worthy one at that! We haven’t done anything to them decor wise- they are exactly how they were when we bought our house- which was nothing exciting, let me tell you haha. They also don’t have any windows or natural lighting, so please excuse the quality of the photos!

Despite all of this, I still want to share the progress I made on our upstairs bathroom. This bathroom is on the same hallway as all of our bedrooms, but is also right next to the kitchen and is frequently used by guests. I also use this bathroom to get ready because it is in a more central location and I can keep an eye on Henry better. Before I show you how I simplified it to make it work for all of these different circumstances, here is a peek at the “before”:

YIKES, right?! Nothing in this room had a specific home and it is pretty obvious. It was a chaotic mess- and believe it or not, we could never find what we needed in here 😉

The good news is, that it looks much better now and has been working well for us for several weeks. This post will share how I organized it as well as some tips for simplifying the space.

Bathroom Organization Tips

The very first thing I did was take everything off of the shelves. I then made a list of everything that I wanted to include in the bathroom. Anything that wasn’t on that list? Got tossed or moved to the correct location in the home.

Making this list helped me to be very intentional about what would be on those shelves and insured that everything had a home. Using this list as a guide, I simply placed like items in bins and then stored one or two bins on each shelf.

Here is what the two sets of shelves looked like when I was done:

Like I said, it is not a huge, beautiful, Pinterest worthy bathroom. But it is #reallife and most importantly functional and maintainable.

How I Simplified the Space

I also added some systems and “hacks” that have really helped simplify the space and make it as functional as possible.

Refillable Dish Sponge

This hack has been the biggest game changer for me! I filled this dish sponge with a mixture of white vinegar and Dawn dish soap and I keep it in the shower so that I can easily clean it when I am showering, bathing Henry, etc. This mixture is great for hard water stains on shower doors and I also love that it is safe if Henry wants to “help” too. Having it always available has helped SO much with regular cleaning.

Rotating Bath Toys

This has been another big game changer! Henry is one of the only toddlers I know that doesn’t love taking a bath. I decided to “rotate” his bath toys to keep them fresh and exciting.

I bought a three pack of laundry bags from the Dollar Tree and split up his bath toys among them. I also put two Command Hooks on the shower wall so that the bags can easily hang from them. The toys dry well when stored in the laundry bags…and to rotate them all I have to do is put that bag away and replace it with a new one!

Laundry Bag

Our cabinets came with a pull out metal drawer that is tricky to find a use for. I decided to line it with a large laundry bag for clothes and towels after the bath. This obviously isn’t a necessity, but it is nice to have some place to put them quickly out of the way and eliminates the infamous floor piles.

If you don’t have one of these drawers, you could hang a laundry bag inside a cabinet or on the back of the bathroom door!

Command Hook for Washcloths

I use the Erase Your Face washcloths to wash my face at night and due to the size I am able to use them several times before washing. I hang them on a Command Hook inside the cabinet door to keep it out of the way and off the counter! Because the cloths are microfiber, they don’t get damp enough to damage the wood.

I hope this post gave you some ideas to help simplify your bathroom! A more simplified space= less mess and easier/faster to clean!

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