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I’m going to share a not-very-pretty space with you today that you might need to organize: under the bathroom sink.
I don’t care how many people on Instagram try to glam up this area …it’s still not pretty. (Drain pipes just aren’t pretty.)
The bathrooms in our house are hugely lacking storage. Each bathroom’s storage is limited to a narrow medicine cabinet and under the bathroom sinks. The master bath has three drawers in the vanity, which is helpful. But I’ve had to get creative about storage.
Although we’ve managed to fit a lot under the bathroom sinks, efficient organization has escaped this tiny space …
…until now.
If you’re looking to organize under the bathroom sink, here’s our recent project as an example of the steps to take.
What it looked like under our bathroom sinks
Our bathroom storage is limited but fortunately, we have double sinks in our master bathroom. My husband’s cabinet has a lot more stuff, probably because I have two of the three drawers in the vanity.
Planning the project
Before doing anything, we identified the current problems and our needs. Here’s what we came up with:
- Drawers instead of bins/totes, so we don’t have to deal with lids
- Solid drawers, so small items won’t fall through
- Acrylic/plastic drawers, so that they’re easy to clean
Next, we did an audit of the types of items we need to store under the bathroom sink.
- For him:
- Hair, shaving items
- Oral care
- Personal care
- For me:
- Personal care
- Makeup
Declutter & Organize
Each cabinet was mostly decluttered but we gave each a quick purge. He decluttered his side while I did mine. I don’t know what he decluttered but I purged some old hair spray, old contacts & glasses, some leaky soaps, and hair products I no longer use.
Most of our items were already sorted by category using old shoeboxes, totes, and ziplock bags. At this point, we needed to find drawers to make our organization efficient.
Finding organizing products
During our first trip to Walmart we looked at what was available. Before leaving home, I took pictures of each cabinet and added the measurements (including around the drain pipes) to the picture notes.
We didn’t buy anything. If you read this post, this follows my first rule: be patient & be picky.
We went back again two weeks later and decided on these IRIS drawers. I liked them better when I noticed they’re made in the USA.
In total, we spent less than $45 on four drawers.
How to organize under the bathroom sink
Back at home, I cleaned all of the drawers, inside and out. (Here’s a quick Reel on how to remove the stickers.) Then we “installed” them under the sinks.
Here are the results:
We didn’t label the drawers, although we could have. Since I’m the only person using my under my sink and he’s the only one using under his, it’s not really necessary.
It isn’t going to be beautiful when you organize under the bathroom sink. But it can be efficient. Use these steps to get there:
- Identify problems & evaluate needs
- Declutter & sort similar items
- Find the right organizing products
- Organize items by category
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