Your bathroom can often be the main source of clutter in your home as bathroom cabinets, cupboards and closets can easily accumulate tons of unwanted stuff if you’re not careful. To help you get the tidiest space possible, we asked two household experts to find out, and they shared with us the most overlooked spots in the bathroom.
Meet the expert
- Barbara Brock is the founder and CEO of Barbara Brock Inc., a professional event and staging company.
- Isfira Jensen is CEO and Chief Designer at Jensen & Co. Interiors.
Bathroom Countertops
Although a beautiful and well-designed bathroom countertop is nice in theory, Isfira Jensen, interior designer at Jensen & Co. Interior, says that he believes that this area is usually one of the biggest problem areas.
“People like to keep their most-used items within easy reach, but that often turns into a cluttered collection of toiletries, makeup and even decor,” she says.
Jensen also says he notices this especially in luxury bathrooms where there’s plenty of space to fill. Understandably, people want all their favorite things on display. Instead of frantically cleaning your countertops, Jensen recommends a storage system to help keep your space clean.
“Group similar items in drawers or bins and avoid cluttering visible spaces,” she says.
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The back of any shelf or cabinet
If your medicine cabinet or linen closet has any depth, Barbara Brock, a professional organizer at Barbara Brock Inc., says you probably have accumulated clutter that needs to be removed.
In these areas, it’s all too easy to scan what you have on the surface, or keep only your most-used items up front and push the rest to the back. Unfortunately, this usually results in things getting lost or pushed to the far corners.
Brock says the best approach here is to remove everything and inspect what you have. Once you’ve determined that, throw away or donate anything you don’t need, use or want.
Vanity Drawers
Not every bathroom has a vanity with drawers, but Jensen says these can be major problem areas if not maintained properly. This is especially true for anyone who uses drawers to store smaller bathroom items, such as hair ties, bobby pins, and travel products.
“They can quickly turn into junk drawers without regular maintenance,” explains Jensen.
Fortunately, this is also a great space for smaller bins, baskets or bags and can help you keep track of your belongings.
Cupboard under the sink
Under-sink storage is a great place to store bathroom cleaners and spare toiletries, but it’s also a major problem area in terms of clutter. Brock explains how since it’s a big space it can hold a lot and how people don’t want to clean this area very often.
Jensen agrees, noting that this is another big problem he sees among his clients. She suspects it’s because this is the easiest place to drop anything randomly, making it an obvious place to forget it completely.
“Over time, this space becomes a mess of things you can’t find or use, making it difficult to access what you need,” says Jensen.
Along with routinely sorting through cleaning supplies and throwing away anything empty or expired, it’s also a good idea to check this area regularly for leaks or moisture.
Anywhere in your store items that may expire
Whether it’s a vanity drawer, medicine cabinet or your linen closet, Brock says all too often, she finds stashes of old products, lotions and potions in her clients’ bathrooms.
“(This) needs trimming at least once a year,” says Brock. “The shelves also get dirty and a thorough cleaning would help.”
Jensen agrees, noting that some expired items can cause problems. It’s important to really look at expired medications, skin care products, and makeup to make sure you’re not getting stuck with something that may be contaminated.