Welcome to our minimalist bathroom! Today we’ll show you what’s inside, and how, even with six people in our house, we easily make these two small bathrooms work!
Our Minimalist Bathroom
Generally when people are curious about our simplified bathrooms, they’re interested in two things:
- The numbers – How many towels? How many wash clothes? Tubes of toothpaste?
- SEEING inside the drawers & cabinets – What does it actually LOOK like in a minimalist bathroom?
We’ll show you all of this today, as well as my favorite tips and tricks for decluttering and simplifying your bathroom quickly.
Or watch this video on YouTube here!
How many towels do you have?
This is probably one of the questions that I get asked the most! So let me tell you:
We have 8 bath towels.
Here is how I arrived at that for our family of 6:
2 towels per adult + 1 towel per child = 8 bath towels
The best part? We’ve never had an instance where someone didn’t have a towel! Yes, it means we do more laundry more often, but it also means we rarely have huge piles of laundry to do… it’s almost physically impossible!
And, as you can imagine, we also have the same number(ish) of washcloths in our bathroom. Again, this took a little getting used to, but now I really like that our cabinet isn’t stuffed full. It’s easy to see what we have and to move things around.
And while I usually try to make it work by organizing with dollar store bins, I did invest in acrylic bins for this space. I like that they are clear so it is easy to see what’s inside. They are sturdy and the straight sides allow things to stand up nicely.
It is nice, too, that you can pull the whole bin out when you need something. This way, things don’t get lost at the back of the cabinet only to be found again once they’ve expired!
And our rule is that we only keep things that we ACTUALLY USE! In the past I was guilty of keeping hair and bath products that I didn’t really like, hoping that someday I would try them again and love them. But that day never seemed to come. Rather, the products just wasted away until they expired or the cabinet got so full I couldn’t stand it anymore!
If you take a look inside our drawers you’ll find that they’re only 1/3 to half full. At first, this felt VERY strange!! Opening a drawing that only holds my make-up bag feels weird. (And having all of my make up actually fit in that bag is weirder yet!)
But it also feels really, really good. Life is full enough, we don’t need all of our drawers and cabinets to be overfull too.
We carry this same philosophy into our shower storage: only keep things that we actually use. It seems simple, but it always amazes me how things accumulate in there. We use them once…don’t love them…hardly use them…and yet they take up permanent residence.
Along those lines, we’ve also simplified the tub toys that we keep. Through careful observation, I’ve learned that the kids rarely need more than bubbles and a few cups to keep themselves occupied!
We’ve also added these tub toys from Green Toys to the collection. They are perfect for all ages and never get moldy! They are easy to drain the water from and dry out quickly. They are also very reasonably priced, you can find them HERE on Amazon (they make great birthday and Christmas gifts!).
Where do I start with simplifying my bathroom?
Not quite sure where to start? Here are a few ideas:
- Clear off your vanity tops. At first, this may feel weird and bare, but after you adjust, I think you’ll find that you love how it feels. Clutter causes our brain to release stress hormones…that isn’t a great way to start or finish the day! Rather, have a clean slate where you can easily see what you’re using and put it away again quickly.
- Pull everything out and group “like items with like items”. Create groups for lotions, skin products, hair products, makeup, first aid products, and medicines. Also, use this as an opportunity to discard anything that is expired or that you don’t like using. *Remember: keeping it isn’t going to cause you to start using it, you’re just delaying the decision and will have to handle it again in the future.
- Ditch the guilt! We all buy things that just don’t work for our skin and hair. It happens to ALL of us! And to complicate things more, as our hormones change over time, products that worked in the past (or work well for others) simply don’t work for us. And that is okay!! Part with these things now and free up bathroom space and mental space!
- Say goodbye to the samples. If you cannot *realistically* use them in the next three months, pass them on to someone who can. Homeless shelters, women’s shelters or teens in your life may love to have these and FULLY USE them! Don’t let them waste away until they’re no good, pass them on to someone who will appreciate them.
Then enjoy your simple bathroom!
Once the extra items are out of this space you won’t give them a second thought! Bathroom real estate is VALUABLE, so stop letting items that have no value to you take up space.
We hope this helps, happy decluttering!
Here are some of our favorite things in our bathroom:
For more on simplifying your bathroom and other decluttering tips, check out these links!
>> Small Bathroom Declutter + Organization
>> Guided KITCHEN DECLUTTER: Simplify your kitchen quickly & easily
>> DECLUTTER CLOTHES Quickly: The ONE question to ask yourself!
>> Decluttering Questions to ask Yourself (FREE Printable!!)
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