The unfortunate truth is that not all bathrooms are created equal. In the past a lot of building contractors and home architects simply prioritized bigger bedrooms and closets, sacrificing space that could have been used to make the bathroom bigger.
If you’re stuck with some sort of modern-day water closet of a bathroom, the frustration can be real. Especially if you have multiple people who need the bathroom to get ready at the same time every morning.
While you can’t exactly start knocking down walls and ripping out sinks to get more space, there are a lot of convenient bathroom makeover ideas that can help you make the most out of just about any small bathroom.
Give Everyone Their Own Space
While the bathroom mirror might be the front line for family combat every morning, the bathroom closet still remains in the trenches. When two or more family members have their personal bathroom items intermingle the tensions can run high, and tempers hotter than the water in your struggling hot water heater in the basement.
Creating a space in your bathroom closet for each person to keep their own things will go a long way toward reducing the kind of interpersonal conflicts that lead to morning bathroom wars. This might mean installing a shelf divider, installing adjustable shelves, or simply creating cubbies. Then go the extra mile and label each one, so there’s no confusion about who gets one space.
Add Waterproof Bathroom Totes
Does the inside of your shower look like 50 people live with you? Have you ever bumped your elbow into a bottle of shampoo or conditioners to create a shower domino effect? If you’ve ever been in a spot like this, then it’s time to delegate storage space.
Giving each person in the family their own waterproof tote or wire tote lets them keep their own body wash, shampoo, conditioner, and other personal hygiene items grouped together. They can keep them in their own spot in the bathroom closet, or perhaps even bring them back to their own room. This will give you a lot more elbow room in the shower, while also letting everyone feel like they have their own small slice of privacy.
Find A Better Place For Bulk Storage
These days one of the best ways for families to save a little money is by buying things in bulk. This includes toilet paper, toothpaste, and personal hygiene items. The default logic trap that a lot of families fall into, is thinking that since they are bathroom items they need to be stored in the bathroom.
The reality is that you don’t need a 48 mega roll of toilet paper in the bathroom at all moments. You probably only need one spare roll, that you can tuck discretely into a waterproof container that lives on the back of the toilet tank lid.
You can then move bulk toilet paper and other bathroom items to a nearby hall or linen closet. This will go a long way toward freeing up the bathroom cabinet and cupboard space.
Give Laziness A Spin
Lazy Susans first started showing up in kitchens like they were aerospace technology. People were stunned by how easy they made it to fetch pots and pans out of the deep recesses of kitchen cabinets and cupboards.
Ironically, a lot of small bathrooms also have deep closets. Particularly those that have standing wardrobe closets near the sink area. Placing a lazy Susan in these deeper recesses lets you have more functional storage space. It also makes it easier for everyone to quickly access things from the back by simply giving the base a little spin.
Clear The Counter Clutter
The next most likely place for the dominoes to fall is the bathroom counter. Hand soaps, lotion, toothbrushes, mouthwash, toothpaste, razors, and more can all start to clutter up the already limited counter space in your small bathroom. Making it worse, is that random, stray water drips can cling to these objects leaving you with a chronically damp counter at all hours of the day.
Once you’ve given everyone their own space in the bathroom closet and shower, you should have more storage space to get items up and off the bathroom counter. Here again, tote bins and personal cubbies save the day.
Keep Cleaning Supplies Close At Hand Yet Out Of Sight
The bathroom is one of those places that just invites a mess to happen. Especially if you have young kids with an almost supernatural ability for getting toothpaste specs on the mirror and bathroom faucets.
Making a dedicated storage space for bathroom cleaning supplies, such as under the sink or inside the back of a bathroom closet lets you keep up these annoying little messes before they dry into a more stubborn problem. If you have curious little ones in the house, you can put child-safe locks on the cabinet doors to prevent any mishaps.
Add A Shampoo & Conditioners Dispenser To The Shower
Let’s say you’re a master negotiator. Rather than using your skills of persuasion to bring peace to the Middle East, you managed to convince everyone in your family to use the same shampoo, conditioner and body wash.
This will prevent the domino effect of keeping everyone’s shower items in bottles lined on your bathtub shelves. They have little buttons like you find in a lot of well-stocked posh hotel bathrooms. You pump two or three times and you get all the shampoo or conditioner you want. It’s also great for families who like to buy in bulk, and you can simply refill the dispenser every day or two without keeping a massive jug in the shower itself.
Add Extra Hanging Rods
One of the biggest complaints a lot of larger families have is how one person’s damp towel can make the next person’s towel moist. Adding a few extra towel rods to your small bathroom in key locations lets you keep everyone’s towel separately. You can easily attach them to the wall up high for the adults or even down low for the kids.
A drying rack with a spring-loaded hinge can also come in handy for letting towels dry during the day. When you aren’t using it, the small ladder-like rack stays up against the wall. Then it bends down on a hinge when you need to retrieve your own personal towel.
