Bathroom Storage and Organization

It's January, that month when every one jumps on the "Getting Organized" band wagon.

 I get it, after the overload of the holidays we are all ready to clear out some clutter and get our homes running better. I love organization, and when it's also part of a beautiful room redo, I love it even more!!

So today, I want to share all the little ways I organized and added storage to the girls bathroom.

I think organization begins with a plan, figuring out what you need to store, and how to store it.

I always start each room design with a list of what needs to be stored in the space.

You might remember my design drawing of the girls bathroom.

I drew it to scale and colored it to get an idea of how my design would look, but what you didn't see was the other plan.

I make a copy of the the drawing before it's colored and plan for my storage.

I literally write in where I will generally store everything from the list I created.

This ensures my space will turn out as functional as it is beautiful.

Let's take a closer look at what all the hidden storage in this beautiful bathroom looks like or at the 'function' level.

Starting with that gorgeous new medicine cabinet.

Here is what the inside looks like. 

Keep in mind I replaced a flat mirror with this 3 1/2' x 4 1/2' cabinet. 

It is 7" deep creating lots of added storage space. 

There is room to expand!!

Just for fun I added navy blue striped wall paper to the back of the cabinet.

 (Found the wall paper at a second hand store for $1)

Each girl has a section for her personal stuff, like perfumes, hair products, makeup, deodorant, etc. The center section holds shared items and bulk storage for TP, shampoo, soap, etc.  

Storage doesn't have to be ugly or expensive. For example, I purchased a couple of plastic baskets at the dollar store for hair accessories and cotton balls then used my Silhouette cutter and created labels for some of them. 

Notice the highlighted buckets?

 They started out green, and were purchased for 50 cents each. I just spray painted them navy and gold. 

I love labels, they look super cute and help ensure things stay more organized, 'cause no one has to guess what goes in them. So once again I printed off some vinyl to label these cute bucket. 

Mine are labeled: Razors, Brushes, and Hair ties.

My favorite storage item in the medicine cabinet are the girls makeup baskets.

I knew I wanted the girls to be able to pull there make up out as a unit and set it on the counter. As opposed to opening the door, getting the blush, closing the door, applying blush, opening door, putting blush back and getting the mascara, etc..... 

You get the idea!!!

I decided to use this basket designed for picnic silverware. It fit perfectly in the space and with it's divided sections would work perfectly for makeup.

Problem was I only had one, and couldn't find another matching one!

(Yes, I know it didn't have to match, I just wanted it to!!)

My sister had the exact basket, but was useing it so I made her one out off wood and traded her!!

Go check out the full story.

I truly love how these baskets take full advantage of the space and are easily moved out onto the counter for use. You already heard my speech about labels, so you knew I would make labels for these!! I just printed some up with my computer and laminated them. It is a bathroom which means, things are going to get wet!! So laminating is a must if you want your labels to last very long!!

OK, let's look at the second storage piece in the room, the base cabinet.

This blue baby is not just another pretty face!

I wanted to pack in as much storage as I could, you can never have too much storage!! This was a builder grade cabinet with two stationary drawer fronts over the sink area. I carefully pulled these drawer fronts off and converted them to flip outs. You can purchase kits for this at most home improvement centers. The kicker for me was the size. The smallest kit I could find was from Home Depot and it was 11 inches. My opening was only 10.5". So I went ahead and ordered the kit.

I installed the scissor hinges and then cut the plastic drawer. That's right I cut out a section from the middle, leaving two ends that totaled 8 inches. I sanded the cut edges smooth and tried to decide how to get them back together. Duct tape fixes everything right? All I had on hand was zebra duct tape, but I am impatient so I tested out my theory. It worked great, but it didn't look so good. I could have just covered the hole tray with duct tape, but I decided to just go buy some white duct tape. You can barely see the white!

If you have teenage girls you know about the "Bobby Pin Plague!" They are everywhere. So I decided these little trays were the perfect spot to corral them.

 Oh, and of coarse I had to label them!!

When we first moved in this base cabinet was just one big open area with four doors. 

That's ridiculous!

 Before this remodel the base cabinet was the ONLY storage place in the room, so I had added some much needed shelves to the end compartments.

You can see how I made and installed these cabinet shelves here.

This time around I spray painting the green baskets gold and updated them with new labels I created on my computer and then laminated them. I attached them with twisty ties, if you were wondering.

Easy peasy.

(Note: I used primer first to get the paint to stick well to the plastic.)

Under the sink I installed a slide out trash holder.  I could have just set a trash can on the side of the cabinet, but I have a dog who gets into this bathroom trash can, so putting it under the sink solved my problem. You can purchase these at most home improvement centers, or buy it at a second hand store for $5 like I did! 

I also used the inside of the door to store my girls Friday chore check list. 

Let me explain. My kids have daily chores and Friday Chores.  Daily chores are like making their bed and dishes. Friday is the day they are required to do bigger chores and basically clean the house. Bathrooms are divided into zones and the zones are assigned to each kid. For each zone I have created a to do list. This helps them remember everything that needs to be done. When they are done, I check their zone by going over the list. It works well and hangs neatly out of the way until needed on Friday.

I purchased two sets of towels for every member of my family. Clean towels are put out each Friday, and the second set is washed and folded until the next Friday.  I like to store them in the bathroom. In the girls bathroom, there was only one space left under the sink where towels would fit. I wanted a shelf, but had the drain pipes to deal with. Not only did I need to work around the pipes, I needed to be able to remove the shelf to have access to the pipes in case they needed to be worked on.

I made an L shaped shelf out of white melamine, and a ledger for the shelf to rest on. To keep the shelf in place, but also remain removable, I use some small pegs and holes.

I can lift the shelf up off the pegs, turn it sideways and pull it completely out!!

I was on a roll, so I decided to go add some under sink shelves to the master bath.

(This has been on my to do list for a few years!!!)

I had more space to work with in the master bathroom, so I made stackable shelves. They are like up side down "U"s. Two legs and a top. In the photo I just stacked two different sizes I made. I built these in the same afternoon I did the girls shelf.

 (I don't know why we put off such easy tasks?)

I also use paper towels a lot when doing my makeup, to wipe my hands and stuff on, so I installed a tension bar with paper towels on it. Genius!!

OK, what do you think? 

Does this give you any ideas for your bathroom storage?

Good luck and thanks for stopping by!!

I used Krylon Gold Metallic and Krylon Navy Blue paint on the baskets and buckets.