Decluttering the Bathroom: Quickly and Easily

The bathroom is easily one of the most used rooms in anyone's house. The bathroom is regularly used and can quickly get cluttered, whether it's the morning routine, afternoon freshen-up, or evening clean-up. Having so much traffic through the room can often lead to a cluttered bathroom, but it doesn't have to! Follow these tips for decluttering the bathroom and add a little clutter-free sanctuary to your home!

How to Declutter Your Bathroom

The bathroom is a vital room when it comes to your morning routine. You set yourself up for the start of your day and often set the tone for the rest of your day when you are getting ready in the morning. When I visit a friend with a million things on their bathroom counter, I always wonder, “WHY?”

If you have a chaotic bathroom counter, it's probably because you are storing a lot of unused or unnecessary items in the storage that you have built into your bathroom. Let's change that.

Step 1: Grab Your Supplies

Before beginning any decluttering project, it's best to get your supplies in order. When it comes to the bathroom, I recommend the following supplies:

• Trash Bags
• Empty Boxes/Bins
• Notepad/Note on Your Phone
• Step Ladder
• Cleaning Supplies (Clorox Wipes, Vacuum, Windex, Toilet Cleaner)
• Music
• Water

I know you want to declutter your bathroom and not clean it, but when you pull all of your stuff out and see what's hiding in the back corners (think hair, skin cells, and fingernails), you'll want to go ahead and wipe your bathroom down. (You can thank me later!)

Step 2: Prepare to Declutter

When preparing to declutter your bathroom, it's essential to gather all loose items together. Do a sweep of the bathroom counter and put everything in a box. Repeat the process around the bathroom, checking shelves and any other flat surface with random items. This is your starting point.

Go through the items you have collected and sort them into piles—all of the makeup together, then hair products, etc. Next, check each pile and get your daily/weekly used items together. This new pile – is the one you want to be able to access the easiest.

I put them in my bathroom drawer, but you must decide what makes the most sense. Ideally, you shouldn't have anything on your bathroom countertops outside of toothpaste and hand soap. (So, choose somewhere besides there…)

Step 3: Decluttering

Usually, when decluttering, it doesn't matter where you start as long as you begin the process and hit all of the areas in that space. However, when it comes to the bathroom, if you have a chaotic counter with zero space left, you need to make room for those daily used items. Due to this, I recommend starting in the drawers and cabinets after you have found and sorted out your everyday use items.

Logically thinking, if all of your daily used items are out on the counter, most of the items in your drawers and cabinets are taking up too much space. And, if those aren't used daily or at all, why are we keeping them? Will that lavender body wash from Christmas 2 years ago save you when the world ends? Yeah, I didn't think so.

The Decluttering Process

The steps involved in decluttering are the same no matter where you are working, at least for the most part. Ideally, you want to remove EVERYTHING from whatever storage space you are working on and then eliminate anything that is no longer necessary. In my blog post that has a checklist to declutter the rest of your home, I recommend checking the following areas of your bathroom for potential unnecessary items:

• Makeup (old/expired, those seasonal colors that you never use)
• Paper Products (toilet paper, cotton rounds, flushable wipes, tampons/pads, kleenex)
• Medicine Cabinet(old/expired, check other areas of your home too!)
• Hair Accessories (hair ties, bobby pins, stretched headbands)
• Beauty Products (lotions, cleansers, nail polish, products you didn't like)
• Hair Brushes (old combs, round brushes you don't use)
• Perfumes (ones you don't like, old/expired)
• Hair Products (gel, hairspray, mouse, old/expired)
• Samples (if you're a sample hoarder, get rid of them)
• Overflow (razor blades, face wipes, shampoo, conditioner)
• Towels/washcloths/Linen Closet
• Bath Toys
• Rinse and Repeat for Extra Bathrooms

While not all-inclusive, this list is a great starting point! When decluttering, you don't want to jump around a lot. Instead, focus on one area and work around the room from there.

Follow this process in each area:

• Take everything out
• Sort by Type (all hair ties together, all tweezers together, etc.)
• Throw away anything that is expired (especially open lotions and creams that can have bacteria)
• Throw away anything that is no longer necessary
• Clean the storage space (vacuum to get all of those hairs!)
• Put the keepers back neatly, or decide on another location for them.

If you follow this process, you should be able to eliminate a lot of the bulk items in your bathroom cabinets, drawers, and shelves. Now you can move your daily use items to the newly opened storage areas. If you still don't have room in your cabinets, it might be a good idea to ask yourself if you really NEED to keep what you've deemed necessary. If you do, and you still can not clear off your counters, try these solutions:

1. Can you move less-used items to another storage area?
2. Can you add a shelf or storage unit (ONLY if you absolutely need to keep the items)?
3. Can anything be consolidated?

Benefits of a Decluttered Bathroom

My bathrooms are always picked up. While they may not be germ-free, I always put my bathroom items away. There is just something about trying to get clean in a room that doesn't feel clean. I can't do it. Declutter your bathroom, get a sense of organization, and see how much better your days can be!

You must make a point to keep your bathroom organized and your bathroom counter clutter-free. Try writing a note and sticking it on your mirror as a reminder to “pick up the bathroom” after each use. Before long, it will just become a new habit! I have a post about how to organize your bathroom further coming soon! (I'll update this post with the link when it's done!)

Final Thoughts

You use your bathroom multiple times a day. Don't let such a common area become a clutter zone. Rather, take steps to declutter your bathroom today and keep it that way moving forward! The easiest way to avoid cluttering it up again is to put your items back where they go! If you make a conscious effort to keep your bathroom somewhat maintained, you can quickly re-organize it in a few months.

To start decluttering your home today, you should check out the Declutter Boot Camp! It will walk you through all of the commonly cluttered areas of your home. Work through decluttering your bathroom, and once you have the joy and sense of accomplishment associated with a job well done, you'll wanna keep going! You've got this!