An Organized Bathroom for Kids
Just like any space that kid's inhabit, their cute little stuff can take over. The bathroom is no exception. From teeny tiny little hair elastics to their bath toys, a kiddo's bathroom can take on a life of its own. Luckily I'm here to help you make that bathroom life organized, functional, and beautiful – even when the kid's get in there.
I'll break it down for you in the 3 most clutter-prone areas of a kid's bathroom: oral care, hair accessories, and under-sink. I'll cover the best way to edit, create a system that works, and keep it up. So let's get down to some bathroom business (my three-year-old son would love me for saying that...).
Oral Care:
Your kid's toothpaste drawer can easily become a sticky mess. Especially if caps get left off and a system isn't set up to give everything a home so it's not sliding around. The "before" picture above doesn't actually have a lot packed in, but the containment isn't right for the contents, so items get tossed wherever. This is a great example of organizing products not always adding to the solution.
First things first, take it ALL out and CLEAN the drawer. It's amazing what you'll wipe up. Gross, I know.
Next, EDIT! Really ask yourself what is needed in that drawer and what could possibly find a new home. As you'll see below, these items were moved to a more appropriate location/drawer, tossed or recycled.
TIP: dentists recommend that you swap out old tooth brushes every three to four months. Take this as an opportunity to weed through all those crusty brushes.
TIP: TerraCycle will recycle your unwanted toothbrushes, toothpaste tubes, dental floss containers. Visit their site to get instructions on how to ship your oral care items.
Next, install a better-fitting organizer into the drawer. I love this one by iDesign + The Home Edit from The Container Store because it's not only expandable, but you can take out the compartment partitions to make all your drawer items fit perfectly. You go from this...
To this...
To this... I took out two partitions to fit the toddler toothpaste and the toothpaste tablets (how cool are those?!).
I'm a big believe that the oral care drawer should be kept very simple. Take out hair brushes (hair in your toothbrush?! No thanks!), or anything small that could get tangled in the brushes. Keeping it simple also really helps kids know where the home for each item is, which helps them keep the system up (better than before ;)... they are kids after all!).
Hair Accessories:
If you have girls, you know how messy this drawer can become... and how quickly. Itsy bitsy elastics and bows of every color? A 6 year old's dream, and a parent's eye sore. But beyond the visual chaos, it becomes very hard to locate items. You may ask yourself, "didn't I just buy a new pack of bobby pins!?" Yes, yes you did... but they're buried under the tie-dye scrunchies.
As with the previous drawer, this is another opportunity to assess your current organizing system. Does it contain the items well and help you find what you need in a way that keeps the drawer tidy? The drawer above needed a system that allowed for great accessibility of the small items, and a way to see everything.
Enter the Hair Accessory Bin with Sliding Tray. Girl moms rejoice! This is your perfect solution.
No longer will elastics, pins and ties get lost at the bottom of the drawer. And with the easy sliding tray, you can snag the goodies underneath without items flying.
TIP: You don't need all the bows and scrunchies. I promise. Involve your child in the editing process so they get to keep their favorite accessories. And show them how the end result makes dressing up their hair so much more fun! Also, take into account your daughter's age(s) – do they still wear the small elastic headbands, the tiny little baby clips, or the holiday clips? Whatever they don't wear, need, or love needs to be donated. Your drawer will thank you for it!
Under Sink:
Let's be honest – under sink areas can be dark, dank... and a place most people want to ignore. But with the right products (and some editing skills, of course), I promise it can be a space you love... and that you can maintain.
TIP: Stacking is key. Because of the sink basin and pipes, this space can be difficult to organize. Big bins just don't work. These all-purpose drawers come in two sizes and stack, so your configuration possibilities are endless!
In the picture above, I played around with the best configuration for this space and the items that will go back in. As you'll see in the after below, I changed things up a bit to accommodate larger items to go on top.
TIP: Put the high-touch or large items on top of the stacking drawers so that your little ones can easily access them. Smaller and less used items fit perfectly within the drawers and keep everything nicely contained.
TIP: Label a bin "clean bath toys" so you can keep track of which ones need some attention, and which ones can be chewed on by your baby. This was actually a suggestion from my pediatrician... a lot of gunk can grow in those little squeaky toys when water gets trapped.
Lastly, to tie it all together, whip out your permanent labeling pen and give it your special touch.
Tip: Choose an oil-based permanent pen so that the moisture from the bathroom doesn't make the ink run, and so that wet little hands don't smudge the writing.
There you have it! Hopefully these tips will help you get your kid's bathroom in squeaky clean organized shape so that you can spend more time braiding, bubbling, and brushing, and less time searching and scrambling.
xx,
Holly
Here's a simply list of all the products used:
**this blogpost was sponsored by The Container Store but all pictures, comments and opinions are mine.
