You know what used to drive me absolutely mental? Opening our bathroom cabinet and watching my face cream tumble out because I’d somehow managed to stack everything like a really rubbish game of Jenga. Honestly, I spent the first year in our house basically playing archaeological dig every morning just to find my toothbrush.
Our bathroom cabinet situation was properly grim when we moved in. Standard builder’s special – white melamine box with one shelf plonked right in the middle, creating this weird dead space at the bottom where nothing useful would fit. Danny used to joke that things went into that cabinet and entered another dimension. He wasn’t wrong – I once found a bottle of expired cough syrup from 2018 lurking behind the toilet paper stash.
The thing is, I kept thinking we needed more storage. Maybe one of those over-toilet cabinets, or those corner units you see in B&Q. But after living through our whole house renovation on about fifty pence and a dream, I’d learned that the answer usually isn’t buying more stuff – it’s making what you’ve got actually work.
I had this lightbulb moment when I was reorganizing the kitchen cupboards for the third time. Why was I trying to store my daily moisturizer in the same place as backup shampoo bottles I might use once a month? They don’t need the same level of accessibility, do they? So I started thinking about bathroom storage like zones – daily stuff in the easy-reach spots, weekly things in the middle ground, and all the backup supplies banished to the awkward corners.
First job was getting rid of that ridiculous fixed shelf. I’ll admit, it felt a bit wrong at first – like I was vandalizing perfectly good furniture. But those shelves are positioned for some imaginary average person, not for my specific collection of skincare potions and Danny’s beard oils. Most cabinets have these adjustable shelf pins hiding under little plastic covers. Took me about ten minutes with a screwdriver to pop them out and reposition everything. Suddenly I had space that actually fit my tall bottles without this massive gap above them.
The narrow cabinet problem – and let’s be honest, most bathroom cabinets are annoyingly narrow – got solved with tiered shelf risers. Not the cheap plastic ones that crack if you look at them wrong, but proper metal ones from the kitchen supply shop. Cost about twelve quid and they’ve survived three house moves and Danny accidentally dropping a full bottle of aftershave on them. My serums live on the top level, cleansers underneath. Everything visible, nothing disappearing into the abyss.
I got a bit obsessed with drawer dividers after that. But here’s the thing – those preset compartment organizers never fit your actual stuff. It’s like they’re designed for some mythical person who owns exactly three identical tubes of mascara. I use the expandable ones with adjustable partitions instead. Tiny section for lip balms, medium for cotton pads, bigger space for all those random hair clips that multiply overnight. Just measure first – learned that lesson after spending twenty minutes with Danny’s hacksaw trying to make dividers fit that were definitely not the right size.
Pull-out drawers sounded brilliant in theory. Those plastic drawer systems you can just pop inside existing cabinets? Complete waste of money. They slide about every time you open them, and anything heavier than a tube of toothpaste makes them sag like a sad tent. Proper undermount drawer slides are more work – had to actually drill holes and measure twice, which I hate doing – but now I’ve got drawers that pull completely out so I can reach everything, even the stuff that used to live in witness protection at the very back.
Here’s something nobody tells you – lazy Susans aren’t just for your mum’s spice cupboard. Stuck a small rotating tray in the corner where I could never reach anything, and now all my hair products live there. Heat protectant, texturizing spray, that dry shampoo I swear by. Just spin it round, grab what I need, job done. No more playing sardines with bottles to reach the one thing that’s always hiding.
The inside of cabinet doors is prime real estate that most people ignore completely. I put narrow wire racks on ours for the little stuff I use constantly but don’t want cluttering up the main shelves – nail file, tweezers, that travel-sized hand cream from the last holiday. Just keep it light though. I got a bit carried away once and loaded up the door with so much stuff that the hinges started complaining. Had to replace the whole door in the end, which was not my finest DIY moment.
Those flat tubes that never stand up properly – face masks, I’m looking at you – drove me mental until I started using small clear boxes to corral them. Nothing fancy, just basic acrylic storage boxes from the office supply place. They stack when I need height, nest inside each other when empty, and most importantly, I can actually see what’s in them without having to excavate.
I made this mistake early on of trying to hide everything behind closed doors because I thought it would look tidier. But some stuff just works better in open storage, especially if you’re reaching for it twice a day. Put up a narrow floating shelf next to the sink for the absolute essentials – face wash, moisturizer, toothbrush holder. Keeps the counter clear but means I’m not opening cabinets every single morning like some demented jack-in-the-box.
The maintenance bit is crucial, even though it’s boring. Every few months I have a proper clear-out – chuck expired stuff, move things that have somehow migrated to completely wrong places, give the shelves a quick wipe. Takes maybe fifteen minutes but stops that gradual slide back into chaos that happens when you stop paying attention.
Thing is, bathroom storage is dead personal. What works for me and my ridiculous collection of face oils won’t necessarily work for someone else’s makeup arsenal or a family bathroom with three people’s worth of stuff. Start with what you actually do – what do you grab first thing in the morning? What gets used together? Build around your real habits, not what looks Instagram-perfect. Because the most beautifully organized cabinet in the world is useless if you still can’t find your toothbrush when you’re already running late for work.
