Smart Storage and Space Saving Solutions for Bathrooms

I wanted our new bathroom to be clear and tidy.  My inspiration was the sleek hotel bathrooms we'd stayed at recently.  Having a place for everything means it's so much easier to keep tidy, with essential toiletries out of sight, yet we're much more organised and able to find everything in an instant.

However, I didn't want it to be too clinical.  I still wanted to be able to display my treasures.

Shelving

With no available surface areas in our refurbished bathroom, shelves were the obvious choice to be able to display trinkets and keep items to hand.

I struggled to find shelves the same colour wood as the units we'd build in, but thankfully found these high gloss coloured floating shelves in Homebase.  I opted for dark grey to match our colour scheme, but they're also available in a range of wood effects and colours from scarlet red to lime green.

Being floating shelves, they give smart, sleek and modern lines. I've displayed my collection of vintage bottles holding my bubble bath and salts. I've also added a fresh pot plant and a citrus lime cut-work lantern also from Homebase to tie in with my scheme.

Sliding Bath Storage Panel

About 15 years ago I said someone should invent one of these.  There's so much wasted space under your bath and for small bathrooms that's space you should be using.  I knew I should have patented it at the time because of course now someone makes them.

This two door sliding panel is made by Croydex and we purchased it from Plumbworld.  Each end is lockable making it the ideal place to keep your dangerous cleaning products and bleach out of reach from small hands - not to mention keeping your expensive bubble bath safe!

Now we have somewhere to hide away all those unsightly spare loo rolls, bottles of cleaning products and the everyday bubble bath and shampoo you don't necessarily want out on display to the world.  It's the best thing we've installed in our new bathroom and if you're looking for extra space I recommend you simply change your bath panel to one of these - you'd be amazed how much space there is under there.

Sink Vanity Units

We didn't like the look of some of the built in bathroom furniture - some of them looked more like kitchen units with worktops.  We finally settled on this hanging sink unit from IKEA, which has two generous drawers beneath.  Perfect for storing spare towels, as well as your everyday face-care.  It has a divider in the top drawer so you can have his-n-her space.

I've added these storage pots, also from IKEA and it's made my daily skin-care routine so much simpler.  I love having everything on hand but out of sight. There's also a good range of perspex drawer organisers for cosmetics and toiletries currently on sale at TK Maxx.

Tall Wall Cabinets

If space is at a premium, go upwards.  We selected this matching tall unit to go with our vanity.  Although fairly slimline, it's amazing how much extra storage it's afforded us.  I arranged the internal shelves to accommodate a laundry bin in the bottom, to keep all the dirty washing out of sight.  Our bathroom fitter installed our shaver socket inside the cupboard so we can keep all our electricals out of view when on charge.  Visitors don't need to see my epilator now do they?

Above, there's another five generous shelves which I've loaded with baskets and filled with our ridiculous amount of toiletries.  The plastic baskets make it easy to reach anything, and items don't lurk at the back never to be seen again.  Our old bathroom was so chaotic we could never find anything and it often meant buying more on the weekly shop just because I never knew if I was running out of shampoo or toothpaste.  When I unpacked all our boxes after the bathroom was finished, I discovered I had 11 cans of deodorant!  Now we can easily see what needs replenishing - although I suspect nothing will need to be bought for quite a while!

Mirrored Cabinets

Everyone has a mirror over the sink, so it may as well be a mirrored cabinet that you can use for storage.  This tall, slimline cabinet is also from IKEA, and now houses our toothbrushes, medicine, first aid items and various lotions and potions.  As it's so tall, it's perfect for keeping tablets and medicines out of kid's reach, but it's narrow enough to fit comfortably over the sink.

What are your top bathroom storage solutions?

Disclosure: Homebase provided me with a voucher for some finishing touches.