How to Organize Your Bathroom

Is your bathroom a cluttered mess? Tired of starting your morning stressed out because you can’t find what you’re looking for? Let’s fix that! Today we’re talking all about how to organize your bathroom and linen closet!

This is part of my 30 Day Declutter Challenge. Find everything you need to about this in my intro to the 30 Day challenge post!

To begin, here is the process for doing this area. I’ll go more into detail for each part of your bathroom and linen closet but this is the general plan:

First, remove everything from the area.
Second, clean the freshly cleared out space.
Third, go through each item to see if it fits into the keep, donate/sell, fix or throw away category.
Fourth, put everything back in an organized way (more on this below).

Check out what's in this post!

How to Organize Bathroom + Linen Closet

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When we walk through your bathroom and linen closet, there will be some areas where you may have an abundance of stuff and others where you have minimal items.

I love things like skin care, makeup and hair product so I have a plethora of products for that. If you don’t have many of those you could always use the tips from that one on another area in your home!

Skin Care + Makeup

First let’s start with our skin care and make up! The older I get, the more skin product I need and use. There are serums and moisturizers and cleaners and masks and…more and more!

If you’re anything like me, you probably have a ton of little samples of things. At one point I was doing BirchBox and getting samples every month and my bathroom drawer was busting at the seams with tiny little containers that I couldn’t keep track of.

The best thing I did was take a solid month and use up all the products. This way I was actually trying the new products to potentially find something new that I liked as well as using up all of the tiny product samples that filled my drawer!

Once this was done, I picked up some drawer organizers from Amazon (like these plastic bins that you can mix and match to suit your needs), and separated all of my products to keep myself organized. Eye creams went in one section, acne treatment went into another — basically combine like with like.

I have a full post with even more details about how to organize your makeup here. Be sure to check that out if you have a lot of products to keep track of!

Hair Product

If you’re someone with a lot of hair product (both full size and samples) you know how overwhelming it can be. When you’re going through your products, throw out (or donate) any product that you’ve had for years that you just don’t use or like.

There’s no sense in having 4 different hairsprays when you buy the same one over and over and never use up the other ones!

I have an entire blog post on organizing your hair product because I have a LOT of hair product. My best trick is to use lazy susans! I use lazy susans for under my sink where all of my hair products are, and it’s been the best thing for me!

(Find more under-the-sink product ideas here!)

I have 2 separate lazy susans, one for product when my hair is wet and one for when it’s dry. That helps me know exactly what product I have, when I need to get more and where product is for different hairstyles, etc.

My best tip is to use up what you have before you buy more. You’ll have way more space and way less overwhelm if you use up products before getting more!

Medicine + Vitamins

When you start sorting your medicine and vitamins be sure to check expiration dates. The last thing you want is to realize your cold medicine is 2 years expired when you come down with a terrible head cold!

When I sorted my medicine and vitamins I picked up some plastic bins like these from Amazon. Then separate your items into similar categories. I put all of the kids medicine in one bin, all of the flu and cold medicine in another bin and all of our vitamins in another.

Make sure that you keep your medicine high up enough that curious little toddlers can’t get into it! We keep ours in our linen closet high enough that our kids currently can’t reach.

One thing to note, we do keep a handful of our daily vitamins in our kitchen (in a lazy susan!) for easy access rather than shutting them up in a cupboard. Do what’s best for your family!

Towels + Sheets

This is one area where you’ll need to be really honest with yourself. Do you actually need 8 extra hand towels? When was the last time you use all 6 of those guest towels? Are you sure you need 10 towels for cleaning (this one’s me!!)?

Take an inventory of all the towels and sheets you have, and get rid of what you don’t actually need. We keep one extra set of sheets for all of our beds so we can put fresh sheets on without having to immediately wash them. We also have 4 extra towels for guests.

Don’t keep what you don’t actually need! And when you’re putting them back, put them back organized. I keep a basket under the sink in our kids bathroom with extra towels rolled up. Next to them is our hand towels and washcloths. That way I can easily pop in there and grab what I need whenever we have a guest over!

Cleaning Supplies

Cleaning supplies is one area that can have a TON of stuff. You can have everything from toilet bowl cleaner, glass cleaner, bathroom cleaner, kitchen cleaner, stainless steel cleaner, dust cloths, mops, and the list goes on and on.

One thing I’ve done is start using Branch Basics, which is not only an all-natural cleaner but it helps eliminate a ton of the “extra” cleansers! You need one concentrate to make all of your cleaners (you just mix it with water depending on what you’re cleaning).

And the extra great thing about this is since the bottles are refillable they’re significantly less expensive than other similar single use products. AND you’re not throwing out empty bottles every time you finish one!

Whether you’re using something like Branch Basics or not, go through all of your products and, like all the other areas, get rid of what you don’t use, use up what you have (but wouldn’t necessarily buy again), and put them in easily accessible areas (for you, not your kids!).

We keep a handful of cleansers under our kitchen sink (with a kid proof lock on it) and in our laundry room (which is by our master bathroom and kids’ bathrooms).

Those are the 2 key areas in our home where I constantly need cleaning supplies, so it’s best for me to have them on hand so the mess gets cleaned up right away!

In both of these spots I use this drawer organizer from Amazon! It helps keep things organized and easy to get to.

Extra Products

This is something that’s super important to have a good handle on; otherwise you’ll end up buying multiple 3 packs of body wash and have 9 bottles of body wash in your cupboard that takes you forever to go through (not like I know from experience or anything haha!).

I have a shelf in my linen closet for extra products, just because we do a lot of shopping at Costco and end up buying things in bulk. To help me stay organized, I have one container for all of Rishi’s items and one for myself. I put my deodorant, razors, contact solution, etc., in my bin so I can keep track of it. Rishi’s also responsible for his own.

I also have a bin for things such as cotton balls and q tips. I put small jars in all of our containers with these items and simply refill them as needed. That way I’m able to still buy in bulk but have them accessible to anyone who uses them.

I hope these tips help you know how to organize your bathroom and linen closet! Taking things day by day and area by area is key in keeping things manageable.

Don’t have the 30 Day Declutter Challenge calendar yet? Get it here!

Want more organization tips? Check out one of these!

Kitchen

Closet

Bathroom + Linen Closet

Living Room, Storage Room + Garage

Living Room Organization

Kids

Misc

If you want to do a 30 day declutter challenge, get a free guide here!

Author

Jen Biswas

Jen has styled women for photo shoots, fashion shows, board meetings, work trips and most importantly, every day life! She's been hired to style many homes as well. Her aesthetic aims to make style approachable and practical, and most of all fun! She's a mom of 3 who loves frozen cookie dough, plants and a generous pour of creamer in her coffee. Her biggest joy is helping others find joy in personal style through practical tips and inspiration. She loves to share all of her styling secrets on Paisley & Sparrow! Feel free to send Jen a message or join the fun on Instagram!

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