Cleaning & Organizing Tips For the Bathroom & Laundry Room

Start with decorating the smallest room

I always suggest starting with furnishing and decorating the smallest room when you move so you can complete one room and feel at home as soon as possible. Since the bathroom is typically the smallest, it's the best place to start.

My rule for bathroom towels is that they must be white or light in color. The main reason is that towels must be washed in hot water, so white or light colors are ideal, as bright or dark colors will fade when washed in hot water. Though our bathroom is tiny, we have space for two rugs or mats.

I chose a bamboo mat for the area in front of the shower.

As bamboo is naturally antibacterial, we can stand there and dry off, knowing we're standing on a clean surface. I use a fabric mat in front of the sink.

Use pops of color to brighten up a small space. With the neutral decor of the black and white curtain and rug and the natural materials of the bamboo mat and baskets, these accessories bring life to this tiny corner of our apartment.

Use baskets to organize

Not only are baskets lovely to decorate with, but they are also great to organize with. Using modular closet organizing systems can be the perfect solution for customizing storage in tight spaces.

You can usually find the size of shelving you need for your space and purchase as few or as many pieces as you need. I used baskets to organize items on the shelves, which fit perfectly.

Use collapsible or foldable items

When organizing needs in a tiny space, search for the word collapsible or foldable to find the most compact version of the item. An otherwise typically large item like an ironing board can be found in a compact and portable size.

Hair styling station organization

We contain our hair tools on the shelves in the top basket, including a hair dryer, curling wand, straightener, hair brushes, and a protective pad. We contain homemade product ingredients, containers, essential oil bottle funnels, and essential oil bottle openers. In the middle basket and at the bottom, we contain some products in tall bottles. 

Medicine cabinet organization

To organize medicine cabinets, I always use organizers on the top shelf; I use two containers from Dollar Tree to contain hair accessories, including hair ties, bobby pins, and hair styling clips. In the top container and the lower container, I contained some extra hair oils, floss, and deodorant samples.

The small acrylic bin to the left of the drawer organizers contains a topsy tail, a small hair clip, and the brush that came with my hair dryer.

We group items by size and category. The middle shelf contains tall toiletries in two layers. The front layer is composed of my daughter's facial cleansing products. The row behind contains our hairstyling products. I use another drawer organizer on the bottom shelf containing small products.

Narrow drawer organizers are typically the perfect step to fit within the medicine cabinet and are perfect for containing small toiletries and accessories. 

Vanity cabinet organizing tips

Tiered organizers are great for all kinds of organizing purposes. I have two sets of these, and I used the brackets from one set to create a three-tiered organizer on the right side of the cabinet.

This was necessary under this sink as the piping sticks out much more on the left side of the cabinet. There is no need to fill a space for the sake of filling a space, especially if you don't need the items you are using to fill the space.

Within the middle-tiered organizer drawer, I stack two Dollar Tree organizers on top of each other to contain many different small items. You can stack drawer organizers on top of each other to maximize space in deeper drawers.

Next to these stacked organizers, I contain additional feminine products. I contain toothpaste, toothbrushes, cotton, swabs, and a washcloth in the bottom drawer. 

Shower organizing tips

If you require a shower curtain as we do, double shower curtain hooks are necessary. Not only do they make it easy to hang your decorative curtain and your liner. They make it easy to take one curtain down at a time when you are laundering each.

Also, you can hang items on the outside of the curtain, like towels or skin brushes, and on the inside, you can hang loofas.

We use a freestanding caddy in our shower to contain all our products. Since our shower head is handheld, the tubing didn't make using the caddy you hang on the shower head convenient.

Organizing identical items

Since my daughter and I have multiple identical items, we created a rule. Her items are on the right, and mine are on the left. So a tip for organizing for two is to designate a side.

For example, our toothbrushes, towels, robes, and razors are identical, so her toothbrush, towel, et cetera, is on the right, and mine is on the left. Another

Another rule you can create, depending on your options for storage, is to designate whose item will be higher or lower. For example, we have identical shower mitts, so hers is hung higher on the shower caddy, and mine is lower.

We decided hers would be higher because she is taller. You can do the same if you have towel rods or hooks hung one above the other. You can label items by initial number, color, or letter for households with more than two.

Bathroom & laundry room organizing tips

With small spaces, keeping things organized is a must. What are your favorite bathroom organizing tips? Share in the comments below.