Chances are you’ve seen the gorgeous bathrooms on Pinterest that are absolutely beautiful to look at, but leave you with little to apply to your real-real-life bathroom situation. Trust when I say I have small bathroom ideas. We have one small bathroom with a pedestal sink and 6 people sharing it. Now that’s a bathroom that gets some werk.

Small bathroom design, products, organization and simplification coming at you! These real life small bathroom ideas will have you loving your space in no time.

*includes affiliate links

Small Bathroom Ideas: Declutter & Simplify

Decluttering and simplifying is one of the most dreaded jobs…I know. Just make this promise to yourself right now: “I will finally conquer the clutter in my bathroom”. (check out the link to the video at the end to see my tackle this problem head on)

If there is one thing you take from this post on small bathroom ideas, let it be declutter, declutter. declutter!

Here are the bathroom decluttering and simplifying rules.

1. Be ruthless! If you haven’t touched it in six months, if it doesn’t make you happy or it isn’t useful- let it go! (cue the Frozen song now). This is a phrase that helps me a lot when I am decluttering and simplifying and I repeat it as needed: “I can always buy it again”. Now the goal isn’t to buy it again, but somehow knowing that I can makes it easier to JUST LET IT GO.
2. Invest in quality products you love and that multitask. Seriously, we use to have the kids’ shampoo\conditioner, my husbands shampoo conditioner, my shampoo/conditioner and shaving cream. Then I switched to this shampoo/conditioner which the whole family loves and uses and I use the conditioner as shaving cream! We went from 7 bottles to 2! Same with the body wash.
3. Sort what stays. Once you have thrown out expired items or donated unused items, its time to get sorting. Sort items by how you use them, and like items. Now we are ready to get organizing!

How to Organize a Small Bathroom

This might take a small investment, but you can also get pretty creative. Here are some key organization rules to consider.

1. It has to be maintainable. If every morning when you go to blow dry your hair, you need to open a drawer, move a bin, grab another bin and open the bin just to get to the blow dryer and then repeat that in reverse to put the blow dryer away, your’e organization is going to fall apart overnight. So think about how you use things and organize accordingly.
2. Make a plan that keeps surfaces primarily clean. If an “organized” bathroom has a ton of clutter where you work and that is your starting point, imagine what it will look like after your family gets a hold of it.
3. Use your vertical space. No matter how big your bathroom is, we all have the same 8 feet of vertical wall space to work with. Consider shelving over the toilet, medicine cabinets with storage and hooks for towels (so much easier for kids).
4. Label all the things! I love these labels for our bathroom. The plastic sleeve makes them bathroom friendly, but they are easy to change as our family’s needs change.

Because of the pedestal sink, there is limited storage in our bathroom. We solved that by simplifying, adding two medicine cabinets with storage and a small linen cabinet. We also utilized baskets, bins and organizers.

Small Bathroom Ideas: Style- Get the Look

1. Pedestal sink
2. Shower rod
3. Bathroom shelf– Ours appears to be discontinued. Something like this is great to hold towels, extra toilet paper or a basket of items you rather not see.
4. Schoolhouse light fixture – Classic and clean and beats a boob light any day.
5. Bathroom organizers– This is the one that I use for my makeup.
6. Beautiful basket– We use one like this to hold the blow dryer and epsom salts. It just tucks nicely under a stool for easy access.
7. Bathroom vanity light
8. Paint color- Glass Slipper by Benjamin Moore
9. Plastic bins– great for organization
10. Extra long shower curtain– The clean neutral white along with extra length makes the whole bathroom feel bigger and brighter.
11. Bathroom Rug– A great place to add color and personality
12. Turkish Towels (dark blue)- We made the swap to Turkish towels for a bunch of reasons. They take up less space both visually and physically. They dry quicker. We love the way they look.
13. Linen cabinet– This narrow cabinet gets a workout. It is where we store our bathroom goodies and it is where I get ready every day. It kind of functions like my vanity.
14. Basket– We have a big tall and narrow basket on the shelf above the toilet. It is the perfect place for me to store feminine products. Easy to reach when I need them, but I don’t have to look at them.
15. Glass shelf– we have one of these below both medicine cabinets. It adds a much needed surface to set things (especially since we have pedestal sink).
16. Stool– A beautiful stool/bench functions as a place to sit during tub time and a stool for little kids to reach the sink. It also allows for storage underneath!

How to Put Together a Bathroom that Functions

Our bathroom is basically split into four sections: shower, toilet, sink, linen cabinet.

Small Bathroom Ideas: Shower

Here are the changes our family of six (sharing ONE bathroom) made to the shower area to make it work better for our family.

• We simplified products (as mentioned above). We found products gentle and effective enough for everyone from toddler to mom and dad that we no longer needed 7 different bottles. This is the shampoo/conditioner we all use (plus the conditioner is my shaving cream) and the body wash we all use.
• We switched to turkish towels that took up less space visually and physically, looked prettier on a hook next to the shower and dried quicker.
• An extra long, white shower curtain makes the space feel bigger and brighter.
• Updated the shower rod. Small details really do make all the difference.

Small Bathroom Ideas: Toilet

Use the vertical space above the toilet. Add a shelf to hold:

• toilet paper
• towels
• basket for feminine products

Small Bathroom Ideas: Sink

This is where you want to think about the things you use by your sink. Here are some ways we made our sink space work for us.

• We incorporated a stool (added storage underneath) for the kids.

• We hung a glass shelf above the sink. This is great for setting things down while at the sink like contact case, etc.

• We hung a medicine cabinet with storage above the sink. This is where we store things we use at the sink like:
  • toothpaste & toothbrushes
  • contact cases and contact solutions
  • face wash
  • the husband gets a shelf here for his hair products & deodorant

Small Bathroom Ideas: linen cabinet

The linen cabinet adds extra storage and also serves as my vanity. Here are the ways that we made this space function for our family.

• We hung a medicine cabinet above the linen cabinet to mirror the sink. I am able to store things I regularly use in there like face creams, deodorant, and other lotions and potions.
• We hung a glass shelf to mirror the sink side. I keep a tray on the glass shelf to coral things like hair clips, etc.

• Inside the cabinet, we use a combination of plastic storage bins, storage drawers, basket, a makeup organizer and a turntable.
  • plastic storage bins are labeled and stacked. They hold things like hair cutting kit, date night makeup (not the everyday stuff), headbands, etc.
  • We use a set of storage drawers to organize hair supplies. One for hair ties, one for hair clips and one for bobby pins.
  • The basket sits on the top shelf (easy to reach) and holds all the brushes and combs.
  • On the top shelf, opposite the basket, I use a makeup organizer. I can pull out the tray with ease and set it on top of the linen cabinet to get ready, and quickly put it away to keep the surface clean.
  • The turn table is great for holding hairspray, lotions and hair products I don’t want buried, but maybe don’t grab a ton. A quick spin-and I can access what I need.

This is also where I straighten or curl my hair. I’ve used this to hold my straightener for years and absolutely love it. It is so nice to be able to put my straightener away while it is hot.

What is really cool about utilizing our space this way is that I can be at the linen cabinet doing my makeup and hair while someone else is brushing their teeth or using the sink space.

Small Bathroom Tour

I covered a lot of my bathroom decluttering and simplifying on Instagram stories and even saved them to my highlights. You can click the image of link below to watch the video.

Here is a video behind the scenes of decluttering, organizing and decorating our small bathroom.

There are advantages to small bathrooms! They are easier and quicker to clean and you can use higher end finishes without breaking the bank (due to less square footage). I hope these small bathroom idea help you and your family love your home more and live a simpler, more aligned life.

Believe it or not, spaces really do have that much power over us!

 

Found this post helpful? Check out how we organize and save school papers here.