How to Declutter Your Bathroom: Simple Tips + a Free Checklist

The bathroom is a great place to start decluttering. Often times, the bathroom is an easier space to declutter relative to some other spaces in your home.

First, bathrooms are usually smaller spaces in comparison to other rooms in your home. This means it’s easier to work through your bathroom clearing the clutter, finishing the job and seeing the results of your efforts right away.

Secondly, most people don’t tend to keep their most prized or sentimental items in their bathrooms. So the decluttering decisions are often easier to make.

You can usually make more rational and less emotional decluttering decisions about the stuff in your bathroom.

Simply because decluttering your bathroom is usually more a matter of clearing out unused, unneeded, unwanted and/or out-of-date products and items. Rather than deciding what to do with sentimental items or things you’re more emotionally attached to.

If your home has more than one bathroom, start in the bathroom you use most. You’ll be able to see and enjoy the results and benefits of decluttering the bathroom you use most often right away.

And seeing and experiencing the benefits of your decluttering efforts is a great way to stay motivated to continue decluttering your home!

Simply repeat this process and use the free bathroom decluttering checklist to declutter each bathroom in your home.

Most of us start and end our days in the bathroom. Aim to make your bathroom a place you feel good in. Not a place that overwhelms you or stresses you out!

Get clear on your vision for how you want your bathroom to look, feel and function. Keep that vision at the forefront of your mind as you declutter.

Instead of getting hung up on every little decluttering decision as you declutter your bathroom, keep reminding yourself of your vision for the space. Use that vision to guide your decluttering decisions and keep you thinking of the “big picture” you want to achieve by decluttering and simplifying.

A great way to tackle decluttering your bathroom is by category.

Gather up all the items in your bathroom and sort them into categories, putting like items together. For example, gather all your nail polish, all your lotions, all your hair tools, etc. Putting like items together in piles.

Decluttering by category makes it easier to see how much stuff you have in each category in total. This can help you be more ruthless as you decide what to keep and what to get rid of, because you know exactly how much you have.

Use the free bathroom decluttering checklist available HERE to make sorting your bathroom items into categories super easy! The checklist breaks the bathroom down into simple categories you can tackle one at a time.

There are a few ways to approach deciding what to keep and what to get rid of when decluttering makeup and personal care items in your bathroom.

Personal care items include things like body care items (lotions, shave gel, scrubs, wax, etc.), hair care products, hair care tools, shower products and anything else related to taking care of or grooming yourself!

Makeup & personal care products have limited shelf lives

First, remember that makeup and personal care products have limited shelf lives. Not only can they lose effectiveness over time. But they can also go bad and/or harbour a lot of bacteria. Check out this post to find a guide about how long to safely keep and use makeup and personal care products in your bathroom.

Knowing this, start by getting rid of any old, expired, or out-of-date products.

Get rid of products you don’t use, need or like

Once you have removed the items that are no longer good or suitable for use, sort through each category of items and get rid of anything you don’t like, use, need or want.

Also, look for duplicate products you don’t use, need or want. Keep your favourites and get rid of the rest.

Separate everyday and special occasion products

From what’s left, sort through each category and pull out all the items you use regularly, on a daily or weekly basis. These are the things you know you use regularly and want to keep.

Then look at what’s left. Reassess if you truly use, need or want to keep the remaining products.

If you have products you use occasionally or for special occasions, it’s ok to keep them. But consider keeping them somewhere separate from your regular, everyday products.

This makes it easier to use your everyday products without having to sift through the products you only use occasionally or for special occasions.

Continue this process for each category of items in your bathroom.

It’s not recommended to keep medications in the bathroom due to the heat and humidity. But because medications can fit under the umbrella of personal care items, we’ll cover how to declutter medications here, too.

Sort through your medications. First, getting rid of any that are expired. Then any that are no longer used or needed.

It’s important to dispose of medications safely and properly.

Many pharmacies will accept expired, unneeded or leftover medications and dispose of them properly. Contact your local pharmacy to find out how to dispose of medications properly in your area.

Towels and other related linens are another type of item that can easily cause clutter in your bathroom.

It’s important to decide how many towels you actually need and use regularly. Try not to think about ways you could possibly, maybe, might, someday need or use a bunch of extra towels.

Remember, your goal is to simplify and declutter your bathroom. Focus on keeping what you realistically use and need. Then let go of the extras or “just in case” towels.

For example, in our family, 2 towels per person is plenty. One to use and one to wash.

Based on how often you do laundry, decide what is enough for you and your family.

Do the same with other types of towels, too, like guest towels, beach towels, etc.

Think about how many guest towels you would realistically need at one time. Then, only keep that amount.

Keep the number of beach towels that you use and need regularly, and get rid of the rest.

Continue working through each category of items in your bathroom until you have removed the things you don’t use, need or love and only kept the things you do.

After thoroughly decluttering, you can start thinking about ways to organize the stuff you’re keeping.

Remember, never start organizing until you have thoroughly and ruthlessly decluttered. Otherwise, you’ll likely end up organizing clutter. Which can waste both your time and your money.

Organizing your bathroom so it functions efficiently is a great way to simplify your life. But only if you’re organizing the things you truly use, need and love. Organized clutter is still clutter.

Always get rid of the clutter first, then think of ways to organize what’s left.

Do what works for you

There’s no right or wrong way to organize. The key is figuring out what works best for you.

Don’t be afraid to experiment with a few different set-ups in your bathroom to figure out what will work best for you.

But if possible, avoid buying any organizing baskets, bins, containers, etc. until you know what is going to work for you. That way, you won’t be stuck trying to make certain organizing products work because you already spent money on them.

Separate everyday and special occasion products

One way to help your bathroom function efficiently and make it easier to start and end your days with ease is by separating your everyday and special occasion products from each other.

This makes it easy to pull out the products you use regularly and use them. Without having to sort through the products you only use once in a while to get to them.

For example, keep your everyday makeup somewhere easily accessible. And your special occasion makeup stored elsewhere, so you aren’t sorting through it every morning to find the selection of products you use every day.

Keep it simple when organizing

Another thing to think about as you organize your bathroom is ease of use. Try to keep it as simple as possible to access products and put them away after using them.

If your organizational system is too complicated or difficult to maintain and keep up with, there’s a good chance you won’t keep up with it and end up with a cluttered, messy bathroom again.

Remember, sometimes clutter comes from items that either don’t have a home to keep them or don’t get put away in their home. Make it easy to access things and put them away to avoid this type of clutter.

Clutter-free counters

Keeping your bathroom countertops clutter-free is a great way to help your bathroom look, feel and function better.

Not only do clutter-free countertops give you more room to use as you get ready for the day. But they also make it so much easier to clean your bathroom and keep it clean, too.

A simple way to help your bathroom look and function better is by keeping your counters completely clear or only keeping the essentials out on your counters. Then, finding homes for everything else in cabinets or drawers.

Take stock of what you have

After thoroughly decluttering your bathroom, take stock of what you have. Plan to use up the products you have before buying more.

This is a great way to keep your bathroom tidy, clutter-free and pleasant to use moving forward.

I hope this post helps you clear the clutter from your bathroom and make it a space that looks, feels and functions the way you like it.

And hopefully, seeing and enjoying the benefits of decluttering your bathroom will inspire you to continue clearing the clutter from the rest of your home too!

As a way to help you break your bathroom down and clear the clutter from each category of stuff, one thing at a time, I have a special bathroom decluttering checklist for you to use. And the best part is it’s completely free!

Simply click the image below. Then fill in your name and email address in the form on the page that opens, and I’ll email you a bathroom decluttering checklist you can use to easily clear the clutter from your bathroom!