When we first moved into our home I would literally play archaeological dig every morning, to find my tooth brush, simply due to the way our bathroom cabinet was laid out. Our bathroom cabinet was an absolute disaster when we first moved in, standard builders special – white melamine box with one shelf in the middle, and therefore dead space at the bottom. We used to joke that items would go into the cabinet and enter another dimension (and I did find a bottle of cough syrup from 2018 in the dead space behind the toilet roll).
I think I believed we needed more storage. Perhaps an over to toilet cabinet, or corner unit. However after going through our whole house renovation on virtually no budget I knew that often the answer isn’t to buy more, it’s to actually get the best from what you’ve already got.
It was while reorganising our kitchen cupboards for the third time that I had an eureka moment. Why was I storing my daily moisturiser in the same place as my monthly emergency shampoo bottles? They clearly didn’t require the same level of access. Therefore I began to consider the different types of bathroom storage as ‘zones’. Daily essentials in the easily accessible areas, weekly type items in the mid-ground, and the rest of the items in the odd spaces.
The first thing to tackle was that disgusting fixed shelf. I will admit I initially felt a bit guilty. Like I was vandalising perfectly good furniture. But the shelf was positioned for some sort of imaginary average person, rather than my own unique collection of face creams and Danny’s beard oils. Most cabinets have these adjustable shelf pins hidden under their respective plastic covers. Spent about 10 minutes with a screwdriver and suddenly I had enough space to accommodate my large bottles of serum without that huge gap at the top.
I had a problem with the narrowness of my bathroom cabinet – and lets be honest most bathrooms have narrow cabinets. The solution to this came in the form of tiered shelf risers. Not the flimsy plastic ones that will crack if you look at them funny, but proper metal ones from the kitchen suppliers. Only cost £12 and they have survived 3 house moves and Danny dropping a full bottle of aftershave onto them. The serums sit on the top layer, cleansers on the second. All visible, none lost in the void.
After that I became fixated with drawer dividers. But here’s the thing. Those preset organisers are never suitable for your actual items. It’s as though they’re created for the mythical individual who has exactly three identical tubes of mascara. I have the adjustable ones with variable sections. A tiny area for lip balms, a medium one for cotton pads, a larger area for all the random hair clips that seem to appear out of thin air. Just measure before hand. Learned that the hard way after 20 minutes with Danny’s hacksaw trying to adjust dividers that were definitely too big.
In theory, pull out drawers sounded great. Those plastic drawer kits that you can just shove in an existing cabinet? A complete waste of money. They slide everywhere whenever you try and open them, and anything heavy than a tooth paste tube will cause them to sag like a sad tent. Proper undermount drawer slides take a bit more effort. Had to actually drill holes and measure twice which I loathe doing. Now I have drawers that pull fully out so I can see everything, including the stuff that used to live in witness protection at the back.
Something that nobody ever mentions – lazy susans are not just for your mother’s spice cupboard. I stuck a small rotating tray in the corner where I couldn’t possibly reach anything. Now all my hair products live on the tray. Heat protector, texturizing spray, that dry shampoo I swear by. Just twirl it round and grab whatever I need. No more playing sardines with bottles to get to the one thing that’s always hiding.
Inside cabinet doors are prime real estate that most people entirely ignore. I added a couple of narrow wire racks to mine for the bits I use all the time but wouldn’t want cluttering up the main shelves – nail file, tweezers, that travel-sized hand cream from the last holiday. Just don’t get too excited. I once got a bit carried away and filled the entire door with so many items that the hinges started whining. Had to replace the entire door after that, which was not my finest hour as a DIYer.
Those flat tubes that never stay upright – face masks, I’m looking at you – drove me mad until I started storing them in small transparent containers. Nothing fancy, just basic acrylic storage cases from the office supply shop. They stack when I want extra height, nest inside each other when empty, and most importantly, I can see what’s inside them without having to excavate.
One of my early mistakes was trying to hide all my belongings in the closed cabinets, as I thought it would look neater. But some items work better in open storage, especially if you’re grabbing for it twice a day. I installed a floating shelf beside the sink for the absolute essentials – face wash, moisturiser, toothbrush. Clears the counter but means I’m not opening cabinets every morning like some demented jack-in-the-box.
Maintenance is important – even though it’s dull. Every few months I have a thorough clear-out – chuck any expired items, move anything that has somehow wandered off to a completely wrong place, clean the shelves. About 15 minutes work, but prevents that slow slide back to chaos that occurs when you stop paying attention.
Bathroom storage is personal. What works for me and my ridiculous face oil collection may not suit someone else’s makeup arsenal or a family bathroom with three individuals’ worth of junk. Begin with what you actually do – what do you pick up first thing in the morning? What do you tend to grab together? Organise around your real routines, not how something looks perfect on Instagram. Because, regardless of how beautifully you’ve organised your cabinet, if you still can’t find your toothbrush when you’re already running late for work, it doesn’t matter.
