Decluttering your bathroom can simplify your morning routine because the daily essentials will be well-organized and within reach. But bathrooms are a busy spot in anyone’s home. So, knowing how to declutter your bathroom is crucial for keeping your home running smoothly.
The good news is that the bathroom is a small room and doesn’t take as much time to tackle as a larger space like the kitchen.
In considering how to declutter your bathroom, you may encounter difficulty in decluttering and get stuck. That can be a normal part of the decluttering process.
If you find yourself overwhelmed by decluttering, check out these 10 things you want to avoid in the decluttering process.
Now, let’s dive into how to declutter your bathroom and the 20 things you can get rid of today. Grab your trash bag or box and let’s get to it!
1 | Towels & Washcloths
Did you know that the experts (whoever they are) say that bathroom towels should be replaced every two years?! That sounds a lot more often than one would expect.
Nevertheless, if you’re decluttering your bathroom, it’s a good time to reassess your bath towels, hand towels, and washcloths.
If they look like they’ve seen better days, it may be time for new ones. If buying new towels is not a high priority for you right now, then simply washing them well works great too!
2 | Makeup
If you’re wondering how to declutter your bathroom, makeup is a good starting place for women.
This is because cosmetic products have different life spans. While foundation and blush can last up to two years, mascara and eyeliner should be replaced every 3 months. Lip products usually last about a year before they need to be thrown out.
Go through your concealers, powders, foundation, blush, eyeliner, mascara, eyeshadow, lip gloss, lipstick, lip balm, and bronzer. Discard what is old, expired, used up, or unnecessary.
3 | Beauty products
If you have anti-aging products, face masks, or other beauty products, then now is a good time to clean them out.
Perhaps you’ll find “fantasty” beauty products. Those are products that you initially had dreams of using on a regular basis. Or maybe just dreams that they’d be a game-changer, yet they fell short of the miracle product they were touted to be. It can feel freeing to finally let go of such products.
4 | Skincare products
Now let’s move on to the lotions, creams, and other skincare items. It’s helpful to open the bottles and smell the lotions. If they smell off, they are most likely expired or old.
5 | Bath products
Bath products can include bath bombs, body wash, bubble bath, loofahs, and other items you’d use in the bath or shower. Loofahs certainly need to be changed often since they’re full of dead skin cells. Unused bath bombs can be regifted or given away on a Buy Nothing Facebook group. If your shower is cluttered with bottles of body wash, only keep one in there at a time and work your way through the collection.
6 | Hair products
Promises, promises. Oh, the promises that companies allegedly make to sell us their hair products! Declutter the products that didn’t work for you, that you don’t need anymore, or that you don’t use often. Then you’ll be left with the ones you truly need and use.
READ ALSO – How to Declutter Your Home: An Ultimate Guide
7 | Hair accessories
Gather all the hair ties, hairbows, scrunchies, headbands, bobby pins, hair clips, and other accessories. Comb through your collection (or your kids’ collection) and set aside any that aren’t used that often. Broken items can be tossed in the trash. Excess items could be given away or donated.
I recently decluttered a gallon-size Ziploc bag of hair accessories that my daughters and I no longer need or use, and someone snatched it up on my Facebook Buy Nothing group.
8 | Hairbrushes & combs
Hairbrushes and combs need to be regularly cleaned. But life is busy and it’s not always realistic to set aside time to clean the hairbrush that you use daily. If your brush has lost too many bristles or is too full of dead skin cells, it may be time to toss it. If you’d rather keep it, now is a great time to finally clean the dang thing.
9 | Hair appliances
Curlers, straighteners, and blow dryers – oh my! It’s incredible how many different appliances serve different purposes when it comes to doing one’s hair. Only keep those that you actually use on a weekly, if not daily, basis. The others are just cluttering up your bathroom. Let them go.
10 | Nail polish
Today is the day to finally reduce your nail polish collection! Nail polish can get old and clumpy, so probably a few bottles need to be thrown out. However, don’t forget to dispose of them properly. Dropping them off at a nearby Hazardous Waste Recycling center is a good idea.
11 | Medicine
Since we’re talking about how to declutter your bathroom, I’ll include medicine on this list. It’s an area of the home that needs to be decluttered regularly – at least yearly. Although medicine doesn’t technically expire (as my dad, a retired doctor says, even though medicine has an expiration date), it does lose its potency. It’s good to responsibly throw out unused prescription drugs as well.
12 | Travel Toiletries
Something that’s worked for me is to keep my travel-sized toiletries in my travel toiletry bag. Whenever I’m preparing to go on a trip, I check to see if I have everything that I need in the toiletry bag. If not, I can quickly create a list of the things that I need before I go to the store. I do this for each member of our family, and it makes trip preparation a lot easier!
13 | Sample Products
Some sample products could be used as travel toiletries. But if you have too many and you won’t likely try most of them, donate the unopened ones to a homeless shelter.
14 | Shaving Products
Throw away any old razors. Compile all of the accessories that accompany the electric shaving products and declutter any that are no longer needed.
15 | Sprays/Perfumes
Go through the body sprays, perfumes, and colognes. Test them on yourself or a piece of paper to make sure that you still like the scent. Keep your top two or three favorites and declutter the rest. If you have too many bottles, donate them to a homeless shelter or give them away to friends who may like the scents.
16 | Sunscreen
Sunscreen does indeed expire (I’ve personally learned that the hard way). The FDA says that sunscreen bottles must list an expiration date unless they last 3 years. As you declutter your bathroom, be sure to check the dates on any sunscreen bottles you find.
17 | Kids’ Stuff
For those of us with kiddos, it’s important to keep their area of the bathroom neat and uncluttered. Kids thrive on routine and there’s a sense of security in knowing where your stuff is. Also, if they can easily see where things belong, it makes it that much easier for them to put their things back where they belong.
18 | Contact Supplies
If you wear contacts or glasses, then go through all of your contact solution, contact storage cases, old glasses, and other vision-related items.
19 | Dental Supplies
This category isn’t limited to merely toothbrushes, toothpaste, and dental floss. It could also include retainers, Invisalign products, and the containers you use to store or organize your dental supplies.
20 | Countertop Clutter
The clutter on bathroom countertops can reach a threshold where it’s just too much. Sure, it may seem convenient to leave items that are used on a daily basis on the counter for easy access. But, it’s easy for clutter to attract more clutter and then the countertop becomes unnecessarily full of stuff.
Examine the items on your countertop. Are they truly necessary? Could they be stored elsewhere that’s still within easy reach, yet not on the counter? Somewhere like a drawer or inside the medicine cabinet.
If you truly want your bathroom countertop to have only the necessary items on it, a hand soap pump is the most universal must-have item. All the other bathroom items can be stored under the sink, in a drawer, or in a cabinet.
How to Declutter Your Bathroom – 20 Items to Get Rid of Today
Now that you know how to declutter your bathroom, which of the above 20 categories will you tackle first?
Did I miss anything? Let me know in the comments below!
Leave a Reply