The Family Home: 8 Easy Tips for an Organized Bathroom

astraea I like a lot of the ideas here, but some of the open "storage" looks more like "display", and doesn't seem necessary or practical .. glass jars with enough cotton balls & Q-tips for 10 years, taking up valuable counter space between sinks? I've had magazine racks in my bathrooms for years; once a month I rotate newer ones in, and the older ones go to recycling! Not for nothing, but no coverings on a wall of clear windows in a bathroom?! While people might not be able to look directly into a 2nd floor bathroom, if the bottom of the windows is thigh-height, people ARE going to be able to see an awful lot of a naked person, getting into a bathtub that's right against the windows!

waterlynx The one thing I never see, but would like to see, is ideas for hanging towels. Every picture of a bathroom design seems to miss this critical element. You can't artfully drape a towel on the side of the tub while soaking in the tub, it'll get wet. Same thing hanging a towel over the edge of a shower -- it'll get wet while you bathe. You can't wash your hands and then go rummaging through the pretty pile of towels in a basket, you'll end up getting many towels wet. And while it may be controversial to hang a towel to dry for another use, to me, throwing a wet towel in a hamper = mildew.

Fine Art & Portraits by Laurel Waterlinx: I agree about the mildew. I throw wet towels on the covered clothesline, just off my kitchen, and they're dry in an hour. I use a freestanding towel valet, in my towel-rackless rental.(yikes, try saying that three times)

kennedytarheel just who wants to see toilet paper rolls?!

beachfrau To respond to waterlynx: My shower is next to the bathroom door in both the master bath and the guest bathroom. In both, I put up an attractive bar with 4 "hooks" to hang towels and/or robes, etc. I use it specifically to hang towels and when I'm in the shower or the tub, I can simply reach out and grab the towel when I need it. I can also leave them there to dry. I don't think they look unattractive, either. I left only one towel hanging for the photo. Unfortunately, they cut off the top of the photo, so you can't see the towel bar, but you get the idea!

tobler we just did a bathroom with spice rack pull-outs in the cabinets. we keep everything off the counters. and we have electrical outlets in them to keep hair dryer and flat iron and a phone hidden inside.
bathroom pictures with a pile of towels and cotton balls in a jar are not real life

halbanes Last photo - #8: "While people might not be able to look directly into a 2nd floor bathroom, if the bottom of the windows is thigh-height, people ARE going to be able to see ...."

I see at least 8 houses in view of this bathroom. I used to have a neighbor who spied on people with her telescope. I did not know this until one day I was in her home and she had her telescope trained on an adjacent neighbor and gave me a play-by-play report of what was going on in the other house.

In my opinion, if this window has no hidden coverings, I believe it is defective design.

zzipper Wet towels: I sew pretty twill tape to the middle of the long sides of our towels, or corners if I want them to hang longer, so they don't fall off hooks. I use s-hook style shower curtain hooks and hang our bath towels on them to keep them handy and help them dry fast. I also use command hooks to hang the hand towel from the mirror.

botchoco ...hanging dry towels and wet towels. I just purchased a small mountain shack, with lots of sleeping space for guests. My brother added a 3-hook towel bar next to the shower for a quick grab of dry towels and bath robe. He hung additional 3-hook towel bars in each sleeping space for guests to hand damp towels and robes. Guests love the in-room towel solution, as they know their towels are theirs alone to use for another shower session. Once-used towels usually are o.k. on such an occasion, but I have a stack of extra towels for anyone who cannot use a towel twice...

karelina That glass shelf over the tub is a really bad idea. A child could easily knock something (or everything) off to break in the tub, get stepped on or smash his her head on the edged.

madimatt I have no storage in the bathroom and would love to store cleaning products instead of having to go to the main floor to get them. Any ideas for that ?

grandma42 A glass shelf above a bath tub scares me. Ever seen toddlers in a tub?

dmahmet I have two bathrooms-one which is VERY small and the other also serves as my laundry room. It has a SMALL shower-I give up on ideas for both...

astraea Two more really good points I didn't mention in my first comment! When did towel bars go out of style .. too "functional" for decorators?! The fairly recently remodeled home I bought in 2009 has hooks in the bathrooms; towels can't possibly dry as well draped on a hook, and it's probably not good for a heavy towel either, with all its weight hanging on a 2" patch. And about glass shelves .. that's why bathroom skylights & showers have to be made of special glass .. so why would anyone think that loose glass shelving be safe?!

manpower1 as with many designers ideas, look pretty in pictures but totally impractical in real life, gass storage jars and shelves over baths? big no no when youve got kids

me_n3cats2 I would love to see you work with the standard 5'x8' or 5'x6' bath more frequently. It seems like you always show these huge spacious bathrooms that would require the average house to sacrifice an entire bedroom. Let's see some ordinary people spaces.

momaimp "...sort things out with these tried and true ideas..." Who tried them? As has been pointed out in many comments, most of these ideas don't work with kids, especially young ones. And if I put a glass jar that size on my bathroom counter, there wouldn't be room for anything else!
The only idea that truly seems practical is the over the door shoe organizer for small items in a linen closet. That I will use in my kids' bathroom since they actually have a linen closet in there.

Pangaea Interior Design, Portland, OR I place hooks next to the bath/shower so that you can take a towel from the towel bar and have it on the hook within reach when you exit the bath. Hooks are easier for kids to use than towel bars. I actually used hooks in my last home instead of towel bars because my husband can't fold a towel to save his life. Turns out he can't find the middle of a towel either to hang it on a hook so the towels always looked crooked anyway. :0( As far as drying is concerned, speaking from my personal experience, if I leave my towel on a hook it is dry when I go to use it the next day. But my husband is bigger and his towel gets more water than mine, so his really needs to go back on a towel bar to dry well enough. Depends on your climate too. His towel drying on a hook wasn't an issue in San Diego, but it didn't work up here in Portland.

I'm currently designing a bathroom with the laundry hamper in a pull out drawer incorporated into the vanity. Very convenient. The same bathroom will have a storage area in the medicine cabinet towers that will hold electrical items such as hair dryer, electric toothbrushes and so on, with electrical outlets within.

My personal best tip for maximizing storage in the average bathroom is to replace under sink cabinets with pull out drawers. Drawers can be made in a "U" shape to pass around the sink plumbing. That under sink space is the most wasted space in bathrooms.

writerinfact Will someone diss me because I see no problem with the repeated use of bath towels, as long as they have time to dry in between, like one day to the next? For goodness' sake, whether we're talking about my kids or me, the body is supposed to be clean when leaving the shower, so it's just water on the towel. What's the big deal?!?

OK, I do not advocate the use of a single towel until it disintegrates from old age; I'm talking about a week, until I go to the laundromat again. I refuse to waste water, energy, and time washing a bath towel that was used once - and if the towel's "dirty" after a single post-shower use, then the showerer, presumably under 10 years old, probably needs to stand a little closer to the soap once in a while. : ) That was my advice to my three boys, twenty-odd years ago.

As for the controversial glass shelf above that really nice tub, maybe the kid picture on the wall is by a grandchild, not someone who also lives in the house. Maybe this is the master, not family bath. And, just maybe, the designer/builder/homeowner was aware of the glass dangers so thoroughly articulated here, and did, in fact, use the same type of glass that is used in the shower doors, or something similar. That would be my assumption, at any rate. Personally, with no small children around any more, I would love to have that shelf, or one very similar, in my bath. Just gives me an incentive to also install a grab bar for balance so I'm not the potential casualty!

beachfrau This is for Me_n3cats2 and writerinfact - I'm attaching a photo of what I did in my rather small bathroom to add a lot of storage and make it more functional by putting in a cupboard with 3 drawers plus a linen closet that is 84" tall. Now I have all the storage I need. Then, what doesn't show is that I enlarged the 36X36 shower by 6" to 36X42, which gives more room to move around in. Somehow it works, for a bathroom that is only 6X8 feet to begin with. Re: the towels being used more than once - hey, I live in Southern Calif. where the towels dry quickly. We use our towels for a week because, as you say, by the time we use them to dry ourselves, we are already clean!

Judith Murphy We keep clean towels on a towel shelf, and used ones either on the bar below, or on a bathroom radiator/towel rail. Both are chrome, good looking and very practical.
Re the glass shelving over the bath, we had this in our old bathroom, and although securely fixed to the wall, I couldn't wait to get rid of it, it's dangerous!

olldroo The theory is that when we rub ourselves dry we remove the dead skin cells from our bodies so therefore should wash towels daily. That being the case I'm sure plenty would be lurking on the floor, so bathroom floors should also be vacuumed and cleaned daily. I can live with my cells, dead or alive.

Rolled or folded towels on shelves look very pretty, but don't they get clammy from the steam which would then make them more prone to collecting dust.

kmjab81 Judith Murphy, can I ask where you bought the towel shelf and bar combo from your 2nd pic?

highuintas groovygranny, so I assume that you change your bed linens daily since you rub yourself in bed and therefore there are plenty dead skin cells in your bed.

olldroo Highuintas -- Lol, "since I rub myself in bed"?????. I said it was only a theory, following discussion on how often towels should be changed. It isn't MY theory, nor my opinion and I also said I can live with my cells, dead or alive.

I also like to iron and I am an ironing freak, I wouldn't dream of making a bed with unironed linen, I was raised to believe that the heat of the iron killed germs but unless you change bed linen daily it sort of negates that too doesn't it.

From all the comments here, it is obvious everyone has different opinions and preferences, it all comes down to the practicalities of how you want to live and what you can live with. It is all food for thought and makes these articles interesting.

botchoco For health concerns, I added a paper towel bar just above the sink in my mountain shack bathroom. I use the same idea in my flatland condo for guests. The paper towel bar makes guests and family feel confident they are using a "single use" towel. You might want to buy really pretty paper towels for the incidental bathroom visits. I buy the 'choose your size' towels.
My shack sleeps 8 with 1 bathroom. I give each guest a set of 2 bath towels, a hand towel, and a washcloth (so 1970s) and provide a each sleeping area with several hooks to account for and dry towels. It's a big hit because everyone has been able to get by with 2 towels for a weekend and the mountain air dries everything quickly. Bathrooms are free of used or drying towels and weekend clean up of towels is easy...just pull them off of the hooks and wash. Some guests bring their own towels (out of habit of staying overnight as guests elsewhere) and this system makes it easy for them to dry and restrict the use of their towels. Say what you want, this system leaves the bathroom free of used towels, guests are responsible for keeping bathroom neat, and they often comment that it's good to know the towel they are using isn't used by someone else. If anyone doesn't want to reuse a towel for a second day, I have a stack of extra towels...really, who are these people who have time to wash 7 - 14 single-use towels a week per person at home?

Hooks by the bathtub/shower provide space for towels and a robe while in the bathroom. Another suggestion, use wall-mounted 4-unit wine bottle holders or small shelving units with hooks to store clean towels and hooks for drying used towels. Visit 2nd-hand stores and thrift shops to accumulate these items over time. I put the towels on the beds with clean sheets for the guests to make their own beds. This way, every guest knows the sheets are clean.

This system has been seamless and has reduced laundry and towel confusion completely. Additionally, guests remark that the system has a "spa-like" feel. Don't know, I don't frequent spas.

phobbs When we updated one of our bathrooms, we installed brass shepherd's hook tie-backs instead of a regular towel bar. They have worked great to hold robes, towels and wet washcloths.

jkristamagee I think it's neat- I have only 2 bathrooms - my master suite (which I absolutely adore decorating so my personal bathroom is very classy and elegant- just my style not everyones- including the hubby) and the "guest" as people call them but we just call it "aydens bathroom" since I we are more family oriented compared to entertainers lol- but since it is used by visitors it's decorated for the eye also - I would love love love to have a half bath- then I could have a powder room for guest to be decorative and I would customize my sons room for him/us- I'm not saying I wouldn't cover the windows or whatever else being shot down here but I absolutely would not be worried about who was going to see it- I would make it to where his bath toys were placed in arms reach after I have cleaned them- I would absolutely not worry about hiding the items used in the bathroom - I too would have a magazine rack ( probably full of Dora and blues clues lol) anyway I'm not sure if this room is used by all or if it was a personal space but either way I envy the fact that its not perfectly tucking all out of site- it's moments like this that seeing the difference in a designer and and engineer are very very easy - designer cares more about what it looks like- but that good ole engineer is more worried about how it functions- I've said it once before (many )and ill say it again- home decor/design etc... Is opinion based- NONE of it is facts - no matter how one looks at It- as for the using bath towels over again- I have to say that's Also an opinion - I obsess over small things and have things that I just can't live with/without- and I can't use a towel over nor can I let it be in my " dirty clothes " while wet BUT its very common for people to reuse them- so actually thought most people did reuse them - and I do change sheets everyday- mine and my sons- it's a personal preference - as soon as I get off work and arrive home I go from military/nursing- to mom wife cook maid keeper if all the one who looses all the one with all the answers yet always wrong lol u other moms get my drift- anyway very neat

jkristamagee I think it's neat- I have only 2 bathrooms - my master suite (which I absolutely adore decorating so my personal bathroom is very classy and elegant- just my style not everyones- including the hubby) and the "guest" as people call them but we just call it "aydens bathroom" since I we are more family oriented compared to entertainers lol- but since it is used by visitors it's decorated for the eye also - I would love love love to have a half bath- then I could have a powder room for guest to be decorative and I would customize my sons room for him/us- I'm not saying I wouldn't cover the windows or whatever else being shot down here but I absolutely would not be worried about who was going to see it- I would make it to where his bath toys were placed in arms reach after I have cleaned them- I would absolutely not worry about hiding the items used in the bathroom - I too would have a magazine rack ( probably full of Dora and blues clues lol) anyway I'm not sure if this room is used by all or if it was a personal space but either way I envy the fact that its not perfectly tucking all out of site- it's moments like this that seeing the difference in a designer and and engineer are very very easy - designer cares more about what it looks like- but that good ole engineer is more worried about how it functions- I've said it once before (many )and ill say it again- home decor/design etc... Is opinion based- NONE of it is facts - no matter how one looks at It- as for the using bath towels over again- I have to say that's Also an opinion - I obsess over small things and have things that I just can't live with/without- and I can't use a towel over nor can I let it be in my " dirty clothes " while wet BUT its very common for people to reuse them- so actually thought most people did reuse them - and I do change sheets everyday- mine and my sons- it's a personal preference - as soon as I get off work and arrive home I go from military/nursing- to mom wife cook maid keeper if all the one who looses all the one with all the answers yet always wrong lol u other moms get my drift- anyway very neat

jkristamagee I too like bath hooks and rods- I use both just because I didn't want to choose!

suzyq2260 In my previous home I had three glass shelves above the bath, they were there for eleven years and were never a problem. Check to see if you have a hotel hospitality and healthcare supplier in your area, you may be able to purchase the super towel racks they sell to hotels. You know, the ones where you can place folded towels on the top shelf and hang towels on the bar below. In my new home, I have placed 18" towel rails above the floor heating vent and damp towels are dry in no time. For the glass showers, I had towel bars integrated with the door handles, so just have to open the shower door inward and get the towel.

opankova We have a towel dryer = oil-filled radiator heater mounted on the wall next to the shower. It performs the double function - heating in winter time and drying the bath towels (you can regulate the temperature, too). It has space for 2 big towels, for my husband and myself. It also feels very comfy to grab a warm towel when you step out of the shower!
For hand/face towels we have small hooks beside the mirror.

In our second bathroom, where we have a bath, the solution for the bath towels was to place 2 wide chromated racks on the wall next to the bath, one at good distance above the other - we have 2 adult sons living with us. The first idea was to install the similar radiator towel dryer too, but then it was declined, for economic reasons (it´s not cheap, although I feel it´s a good investment).
The hand/face towels are also placed on the hooks beside the mirror.

olldroo opankova - is that heater specially designed to put towels on? Most oil filled radiators warn against putting anything on them.

opankova Hi there,
Yes, this is a special towel dryer. I live in Barcelona, Spain, and this type of appliance is quite common here. Mine is from Leroy Merlin (the description is in Spanish): http://www.leroymerlin.es/leroymerlinonline/productos/calor/calefaccion_fija/radiadores_toalleros_electricos/fichaVariante.html?idCat=169581

olldroo Looks a great idea, I haven't seen them here in Australia. Our's are mostly electric railing.