HDYDI: Organize Under-the-Cabinet Bathroom Toiletries

Over the Christmas holidays I went on a massive cleanout of our bathrooms. I discovered so much waste, product purchase duplication and expired items. For me, that’s always been a hard place to organize. Important to straighten it out, but hard to navigate around the pipes and narrow door openings.

Then, I discovered this goldmine of organization for under the bathroom sink. I used some of my gift cards to the mother ship, The Container Store, and got to work. Here’s what worked for me.

Organize Under-the-Cabinet Bathroom Toiletries

1.  I started by dragging it all out onto the bathroom floor. This is about the time Scott retreated to the living room to watch football. I’ll spare you the details, but let’s just say the time for cleaning out under the cabinet was L-O-N-G overdue.

2. The trash can was overflowing with junk, as was the recycle bin. Everything left was sorted into like piles:  nails, makeup, feminine hygiene, dental hygiene, hair products, soap, etc. That gave me a better sense of what I had, what still needed to go and what needed a new home.

3. I put the bigger items back in the cabinet (toilet paper and towels) and then did a quick measurement of the remainder of the space. Luckily, The Container Store was having their annual shelving sale, so I scored everything 50% off. If you ever need a tour guide of that place, holler. The stackable bins come in three sizes. The vertical snapshot under the sink now allows us to see everything instead of piling it into the deep dark abyss.

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4. Then, it was just a matter of putting things in the bins, playing around with the placement and maneuvering around the plumbing lines. In the demo video I watched, she suggested using museum putty to anchor everything down so it didn’t move. I opted out of that for a couple of reasons: 1) I wanted to make sure the system worked before making the extra step and 2) I wanted to see if it was really necessary. So far, I still haven’t used the putty.

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5. The bins came with blank labels to insert, but you all know how I feel about plain white. I had some leftover scrapbook paper that I used as the backing and then I added a simple white label for each bin. Don’t worry, the pink is for me, I gave Scott the blue. Actually I think his reaction was something like, “You crack me up.” What can I say, I love to organize spaces and make them pretty, even if we’re the only two people that see them.

6. I did purchase two over-the-door storage units for hairdryers. That has proved to be the best purchase I made. I just had to account for the space they took up when I closed the door.

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I loved the system so much, I cleaned out three more bathroom cabinets. I’m already seeing less waste because we can SEE what we have. Awesome!

Products I used:
Over-the-Cabinet Door Organizers (I got these on sale for $14.99)
Bin Organizers

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8 Comments

  1. Bea on February 18, 2013 at 9:42 am

    Did you see the holder for hot items like your dryer, flat iron, curling iron? Love it. And gets those items off the counters where little fingers can grab them while still hot. We have their clear drawers for under the sink as the little fingers at our house can also undo the locks in the doors. Sigh. My hubs doesn’t get my obsession either, but he’s happy to have a clutter free bathroom.

    • Kathryn on February 18, 2013 at 9:52 am

      I don’t have any curling irons, but if I did those organizers sound awesome!

  2. Holly on February 18, 2013 at 10:20 am

    That looks fantastic! I need to do this- but I’m not buying non-food for lent, so I hope I remember this!

    • Kathryn on February 18, 2013 at 10:22 am

      Pin it, Holly! I have a huge private board of “projects in waiting” 🙂

  3. Jeff Helfrich on February 20, 2013 at 12:14 pm

    While you are getting organized, don’t forget to put a recycle bin in your bathroom so you can recycle all the time and not just when getting organized! We are fellow Texans who are making a special trash/recycle bin called the Solecan that was designed with bathrooms in mind. Check it out at http://www.solecan.com and let us know what you think.

  4. Lisa Schmidt on February 21, 2013 at 2:57 pm

    You knocked another one of the park, friend. How do the over-the-door holder hooks look when cabinet door is shut? Are they subtle?

  5. Julie on March 21, 2016 at 8:02 am

    Love those stackable bins! What sizes did you use?

    • Kathryn on March 21, 2016 at 8:57 am

      Thank you! I used all three sizes, with most of them being either medium or small. I just used the large ones for makeup and cotton balls/q-tips because I needed lots of storage space.

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