How to Organise your Bathroom Cupboard

Are you always rushing in the mornings? Late for work, racing around marshalling the troops to make the school run before the bell goes? If you are wasting valuable minutes looking for things in the bathroom cupboard, it may be time to have that long overdue spring clean and put a little order back into your morning routine.

No time like the present as they say, so, find yourself a little quiet time, baby asleep, kids at school? Grab a coffee and let’s get to it!

Clean it ALL out!

Start by taking everything out and sorting into three piles. His, hers and theirs (the kids). If you have a second bathroom for the children just repeat the process ensuring, of course, that medications of any sort, even children’s Panadol, are stored out of their reach, preferably in a lockable medicine cabinet.

Start the Cull

Once you have everything sorted, check the use by dates on your toiletries and make up. Anything more than a year old should probably be binned, especially if it has been opened. Check for signs of aging such as rancid smell, oil separation, and change in colour, caking or flaking.

Life Expectancy

The shelf life on everyday products like moisturisers, sunscreen, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioners etc. can be up to three years, less if they have been opened. If you buy in bulk when something is on special just ensure that you put the new stuff at the back and use the oldest first.

Quick Tip For easy recognition, just use a permanent marker and write the purchase date on the front of the pack. Then if you are fumbling around without your glasses (like me!), or in a hurry (like all of us), identifying the correct order of use is made easier.

Lipsticks and other items with less liquid will last the longest, as opposed to things like mouthwash which go off fastest of all.

Fragrances including perfume and after shave are usually good for about a year if opened, a couple if not. If exposed to the light they will oxidise and begin to break down sooner.

Super Organisation!

Group like items together, hair care, makeup, personal and oral care. Put the things you use more frequently in the most accessible spot. If you only have a small storage area, everyday items like toothpaste and moisturiser should be at the front with less frequently used items behind.

Depending on your bathroom set up, you may find that even the smallest of spaces will become more user friendly by utilising some of the storage products available.

If you only have shelves and no drawers, keep small items together using a segmented tray. These are ideal for sorting your make up products and tools. Tubes, lipsticks, mascara, eye pencils etc. can be stored upright for quick selection, compacts, eye shadows and blush flat or on their edges depending on quantity with brushes, tweezers and scissors also organised and at your fingertips.

Spice racks are not just for the kitchen and can also be very useful for helping with organisation in your bathroom cupboard. They can be easily fixed to the inside of a cupboard door or partition inside the cupboard for storing all those fiddly items like pump spray bottles, small jars, moisturisers, tubes and fragrances. The bonus is they take up very little space.

If you have drawers, instead of just tossing things in willy nilly, scout out a drawer organiser to house all those bits and pieces we always seem to lose like hair ties and clips, and odd shaped items that don’t really fit anywhere else such as eyelash curlers, nail files, emery boards etc.

Follow Stay at Home Mum’s board Bathroom Organisation on Pinterest.

Need More Room?

For all you bargain hunters out there, try storing the overflow of toilet paper, soaps, shampoos and tissues in a small section of your linen cupboard, just remembering as before to label and rotate the items with a use by date and consume the oldest first.

If you are still pressed for room and have space under your bathroom cupboard try a freestanding drawer set, there is a wide variety on the market.

If you don’t already, take the pressure off the bathroom cupboard and pop a shower caddy in the shower to house not only the shampoo and conditioner but also shower gel, razor, loofah, your nail brush and anything else you need close by. This will also have the added benefit of not having to bend down to pick them up off the floor or tripping over them when you have a face full of suds!

How do you organise your bathroom cupboard? Do you have any great tips to share with the SAHM community? We’d love to hear from you!