BATHROOM AND LAUNDRY ROOM ORGANIZATION AND DECOR

We continue my detailed organization and decor tour of each space in my mid-century modern bohemian tiny southern California studio apartment by going into every cabinet and drawer of my bathroom and laundry room. Yes! Because I have created a laundry room where there was no laundry room, I have these two spaces combined into one. You can find the full video tour of my apartment here! The previous organized space I shared was my office. In my bathroom and laundry room, I organize our toiletries, hair tools, and laundry products. If you struggle to organize a tiny bathroom, you are in the right place! And, if you don’t like going to the laundromat, you are also in the right place! I share twenty-two organizing, cleaning, and functional decorating tips and my DIY laundry room in this blog and the video. Click here for access to my freebie library which includes all kinds of free resources so that you can easily get your spaces and your finances in order!

Bathroom Decor

Let’s start with the decor of my bathroom and laundry room organization and decor tour, then we will get into the detailed organization of each cabinet and drawer.

Before we moved, I told my daughter to choose our bathroom decor so we could have one room completed. Not one single piece of my previous furniture would fit in this tiny studio apartment, so we were pretty much starting over in regard to getting every piece of furniture and decor for our new place. Decorating tip: I always suggest starting with furnishing and decorating the smallest room when you move so that you could have one room completed and start to feel at home as soon as possible. Since the bathroom is typically the smallest, it’s the best place to start.

So, where did my daughter want to go for our decorative items? Target, of course! Decorating tip: When deciding on your decorating theme, I suggest starting with the largest item (i.e. your living room rug). From this item you will pull your inspiration for the rest of your room. In the bathroom, the largest item is typically the shower curtain. Target has some really cute shower curtains, so we were in this aisle of the store for quite a while trying to make a decision. We were especially drawn to the Opalhouse line. Since we purchased our shower curtain a year ago, it is no longer in stock. However, here are a few similar styles here, here, and here. In the shower organization section of this blog post below, I share how these lovely shower curtain hooks are actually great as on organizing tool.

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The next largest items in the bathroom are the towels and/or rugs. Cleaning tip: My rule for bathroom towels is they must be white or light in color. The main reason is that towels must be washed in hot water, so white or light colors are ideal as bright or dark colors will fade when washed in hot water. White or light-colored towels will look prettier longer. Also, white is just classic and spa-like, so you can’t go wrong with nice white towels. We actually just replaced our Opalhouse towels as, though they were lovely and embossed with a lovely white pattern and trimmed with white fringe, they were rather linty. So, we just replaced them with these Salviken towels from Ikea which are double-sided. One side is a terry cloth material and the other is a waffle weave material making it super absorbent. Bonus: it’s made from sustainably-sourced cotton. I just love a good eco-friendly option!

Though our bathroom is tiny, we have space for two rugs/mats. Functional decorating tip: I chose a bamboo mat for the area in front of the shower as bamboo is naturally antibacterial. We can stand there and dry off knowing we’re standing on a clean surface. Functional decorating tip: then, I have a rug in front of the sink where we can stand and lotion up on a dry, comfortable surface. The funny thing is, when we first moved, we were using an Opalhouse rug which was twenty-five dollars. The rug was a beautiful white, shag style rug with a black pattern. It turns out, the white rug did not stay white very long as my daughter would run into the bathroom after class … with her shoes on. So, I happened to be in the Dollar Tree for something else and actually found this rug! I mean, you cannot beat that price anywhere else and it coordinates just perfectly! Then, (cue the music of doom) I washed the rug. It turns out it is colorfast, and the white tassels turned grey from the black color that bled. Here are some other beautiful options here, here, and here that I am sure will not bleed color.

For our sink accessories, my daughter wanted to go bold with color. So, we got this lovely green soap dispenser from Target. And, this teal blue toothbrush holder is also from Target. Decorating tip: add pops of color in to brighten up a small space. With the neutral decor of the black and white curtain and rug and the natural materials of the bamboo mat and baskets, these accessories bring life to this tiny corner of our apartment.

Bathroom and Laundry Room Organization

Speaking of baskets in my bathroom and laundry room organization and decor tour, not only are baskets lovely to decorate with, they are great to organize with. So begins the tour of how I organized this tiny bathroom and laundry room.

Laundry Product Organization

I like to make my own affordable, natural, homemade laundry products and I show you how I do so here. I store my collapsible clothes drying rack just behind my laundry products and on top of these shoe shelves. Organizing tip: using modular closet organizing systems can be the perfect solution for customizing storage in tight spaces. You can usually find the size of shelving you need for your space and purchase as few or as many pieces as you need. I show how I use this same shelf in my previous office space here.

Organizing tip: on the top shelf of the shoe shelves, these baskets in size x-small from The Container Store fit absolutely perfectly. They contain my daughter’s body sprays in the basket on the left, some of her less commonly used products like spray tanner in the middle basket, and our nail supplies in the basket on the right. The shelf below contains a bin of produce bags. Yes! Produce bags! Cleaning tip: reuse produce bags as small trash can liners. They are the perfect size to line our small trash can. I purchased my trash can at Ross but here is a similar version. Finally, I store toilet paper on the middle two shelves, and I can fit eight large rolls, two deep and four across on each shelf.

In the cabinet just outside the bathroom and under my bird cage, I store our ironing board and iron. This is the most compact ironing board ever (I show it expanded in the video). Organizing tip: when organizing needs in a tiny space, search for the word “collapsible” or “foldable” to find the most compact version of the item. An otherwise typically large item like an ironing board can be found in a compact and portable size.

Speaking of compact items, our washing machine is just across from the shoe shelves and I share all about my small apartment laundry routine in the next post. This is one of the best purchases I have ever made and I’m excited to share my small apartment laundry routine with you.

Hair Styling Station Organization

Here is another modular closet organizing solution. This shelf contains a hand towel holder, skin brush, and vintage container of reusable makeup remover pads on the top shelf. Decorating tip: I was looking for decorative fingertip towels to hang on the hand towel holder and I found that these bar mop towels from the Dollar Tree fit perfectly. I might embellish them with embroidery eventually. You only need to purchase one pack as they come in a pack of two. Here is another option as well. On the shelves, we contain our hair tools in the top basket. We contain homemade product ingredients, containers, essential oil bottle funnels, and essential oil bottle openers in the middle basket. And, at the bottom, we contain some products in tall bottles. These lovely baskets are from Target and very, very old, so I do not have a link for them. However, this set in size small will fit the shelves.

Medicine Cabinet Organization

Yes, this medicine cabinet looks like it’s fifty-years-old (it probably is!) I was hesitant to show this in my bathroom and laundry room organization and decor tour, but I’m sure others have spaces that are just as aged. Here’s to making the best of it! Organizing tip: use drawer organizers in medicine cabinets. On the top shelf, I use two of these containers from the Dollar Tree to contain hair accessories including hair ties, bobby pins, and hair-styling clips in the top container. And, in the lower container, I contain some extra hair oils, floss, and deodorant samples. The small acrylic bin to the left of the containers was part of an acrylic organizing set from Ikea and it contains a topsy tail, a small hair clip, and the brush that came with my hair dryer (the one that is designed to clean your hair dryer vent). Here is a similar option which is larger but fulfills the same purpose. Organizing tip: group items by size and category. The middle shelf contains tall toiletries in two layers. The front layer is composed of my daughter’s facial cleansing products. The row behind contains our hair-styling products. And, again on the bottom shelf I use another drawer organizer to contain small products. I have always used narrow drawer organizers to organize medicine cabinets. They are typically the perfect depth to fit within the cabinet and contain small toiletries and accessories.

Under Bathroom Sink / Vanity Organization

These tiered organizers are from Madesmart brand and are great for all kinds of organizing purposes. Organizing tip: I have two sets of these and used the brackets from one set to create a three-tiered organizer on the right side of the cabinet. This was necessary under this sink as the piping sticks out much more on the left side of the cabinet. We don’t need to store any more items than we have here, so we are okay with the empty space above the organizer on the left side. On the left, I contain my hot roller set along with its hair clips. Organizing tip: be okay with empty space. There is no need to fill a space for the sake of filling a space … especially if you don’t need the items you are using to fill the space.

The contents of the drawers are shown in detail in the video of my bathroom and laundry room organization and decor tour. In the top drawer on the right, I contain all things medicinal and first aid. Within the middle tiered organizer drawer, I stack two of these Dollar Tree organizers on top of each other. Organizing tip: to contain lots of different types of small items, you can stack drawer organizers on top of each other to maximize space in deeper drawers. The top organizer contains tubes of scrub, bars of soap, and compact tampons. The lower organizer contains the packets for my nasal irrigation container, a tin to contain old razors (organizing tip: once the tin is full, I can throw it in the recycling), and a safety razor with razor refills. Next to these stacked organizers I contain additional tampons. In the bottom drawer, I contain toothpaste, toothbrushes, cotton swabs, and wash cloths.

Shower Organization

If you require a shower curtain like we do, I think these shower curtain hooks are a must. Cleaning tip: not only do they make it easy to hang your decorative curtain and your liner, they make it easy to take one curtain down at a time when your laundering each. Organizing tip: also, you can hang items on the outside of the curtain like towels or skin brushes, And, on the inside, you can hang loofahs and pumice stones. In our shower, we use a free-standing caddy to contain all our products. Since our shower head is handheld, the tubing didn’t make it convenient to use a caddy that you hang on the shower head. So, a free-standing caddy, as shown in the video, is ideal for us.

Tips for Organizing for Two

Since my daughter and I have multiple items that are identical, we created a rule. Her items are on the right and mine are on the left. Organizing tip: designate a “side.” For example, our toothbrushes, towels, robes, and razors are identical. So, her toothbrush, towel, etc. is on the right and mine is on the left. Organizing tip: another rule you can create depending on your options for storage is to designate whose item will be higher or lower. For example, we have identical shower mitts. So, hers is hung higher on our shower caddy and mine is lower. We decided hers would be higher because she is taller. You can do the same if you have towel rods or hooks hung one above the other. Organizing tip: for households with more than two, you can label items by initial, number, color, or letter. If you would like more ideas or clarification on that, let me know in the comments below!

If you have lots of categories of items to organize too, grab your free organizing resources here. Be sure to subscribe here as I share the organization and decor of my kitchen next.

Happy Organizing!