When it comes to creating minimalist rooms in your home, some starting places might get you more bang for your buck, as it were, than others.
The kitchen is a fantastic place to start if you spend a lot of time there, like in the case of stay-at-home parents or remote employees.
The Minimalist Kitchen: 23 Beginner-Friendly Ideas & Tips
If you’re trying to hone a morning routine, if you put a lot of time and effort into your appearance, or if you share a bathroom with multiple people, the bathroom might be the most helpful room to tackle first.
Let’s start simple–here are 25 items that you can easily declutter from your bathroom right now.
25 items to declutter from the bathroom.
Let’s go!
1. Expired medications and old prescriptions.
Check dates and dispose of properly at a pharmacy.
Flushing medicine isn’t the safe disposal practice you might think it is! It ends up back in the environment. This can cause critters that absorb chemicals through their skin (like frogs) to suffer, die, or even mutate.
2. Unfinished products you don’t like.
Or partial bottles of wanted products you can consolidate to cut down on the bulk.
3. Old makeup.
Mascara over three months, liquids over six months, and powders over two years should probably go.
If you’re a simple makeup wearer, consider only keeping your daily use products.
Also take the time to interrogate products you have several versions of–choose your fav and dump the rest.
Having chosen products for your standard beauty routine negates the need and desire to buy excessively. You just have to keep your favs in stock!
4. Dead loofahs and worn-out washcloths.
If they’re ratty or smell musty despite a run through the washer, go ahead and toss them.
Loofahs and other in-shower cleansing tools harbor bacteria and can grow mold without you even knowing it’s there. Sanitize these items regularly, and dispose of them when they get too icky.
5. Hotel toiletry hoard.
Those tiny shampoos, lotions, bars of soap, 8-inch length dental floss–if you aren’t someone who can use them regularly for travel or other purposes, pass them on to a local shelter.
6. Expired sunscreen.
Sunscreen loses effectiveness after its expiration date, so using those old containers will just give you a false sense of security and make you LESS protected.
Don’t let it expire next time. Lotion up!
7. Old toothbrushes.
This might upset you, but it’s recommended to change your toothbrush every 3-4 months. I won’t tell anyone about the one you’ve had for four years, and I’ll look away while you replace it.
Tip:
Get some extra mileage out of your toothbrushes by regularly running boiling water over them to sanitize.
8. Empty toilet paper rolls.
I know a lot of people who kind of save their empty toilet paper tubes near the toilet… Either to bring to the garbage or repurpose, supposedly.
I usually save paper tubes to use as toys and enrichment for foster rats, but I had to stop keeping them in the bathroom because it just looked like I was collecting trash. Which…I guess I was.
Anyway, deal with your toilet paper rolls somewhere other than openly in your bathroom.
9. Rusty razors and old razor heads.
Do you ever replace your razor blade but keep the old one because it “still has some life in it”? As if you’ll ever put an old blade back on. Throw them out!
9. Hair accessories you never use.
I rarely use claw clips, but I still do use them. Using something occasionally doesn’t mean I needed the 9 versions that I had in my drawer. Those guys are bulky! I kept a couple favs and stowed them in my not-for-daily-use storage area.
Quick fix tip:
For those stretched out hair elastics, try putting them in boiling water for a minute or two. They’ll shrink back to their original size!
10. Samples and gift baskets.
If you have samples and gift baskets you’ve never used–maybe you’ve never even opened them–go ahead and pass those along to someone who will use them or donate them to a shelter.
Otherwise, become someone who uses the bath bombs instead of hoarding them!
11. Old contacts and solution.
If your vision changes a lot (like mine does), you probably have several different prescriptions of contact lenses stuffed somewhere. Get rid of the ones that aren’t your prescription anymore! Even if your vision shifts back to that particular measurement, the contact will be expired by then anyway.
12. Expired first aid supplies.
Check the dates on your ointments and creams. You might open a tester Bandaid to see if the adhesive is still good.
13. Magazines and reading material.
Has it been sitting there for six months? Have you read any of it? You’re not gonna.
And keeping paper around such a humid area isn’t going to do your books’ longevity any favors.
14. Nearly empty supplies.
If you have items like tissue boxes, cotton balls, swabs, or floss picks, try to combine and consolidate them to save space.
15. Duplicate items.
If you have duplicates for items like brushes, combs, makeup implements, hair dryers, and other tools, keep the best and chuck the rest.
16. Unused cleaning products.
If you stow your cleaning products in the bathroom, let’s take a look at those. Which ones do you actually use regularly? Are there some experimental ones you tried and didn’t like?
Go ahead and pass along your unused products to someone who might make use of them.
17. Old air fresheners.
Do you have any dried up, empty, or dead air fresheners? Replace them, or just throw out the old ones!
Tip:
To level up your bathroom aesthetic, opt for natural solutions, like lavender, potpourri, or eucalyptus.
18. Extra bath towels.
In most minimalist bathrooms, the general consensus is that you only need one or two bath towels per person.
Consider how often you wash towels. Do you have a few at the bottom of the stack that you never really get to? You might have more than you need!
19. Outdated decor.
I want to be clear: if you like the decor, it’s not outdated. When I say outdated, I mean to you. If it’s no longer bringing you joy, or you never liked it in the first place, it’s time to go.
20. Anything you don’t use daily.
For your sink area, whether you’ve got drawers, cabinets, or another storage solution, only keep items that you use regularly within reach. Everything else can be stored further away. And if it can be stored further away, do you need it? How often DO you use it? It might be time to let it go altogether.
21. Instruction manuals.
The bathroom is a good place for gadgets to collect. Razors, trimmers, curling irons, electric toothbrushes, water picks, and other self-care tools come with paper manuals.
Have you ever needed to reference them?
Probably not! Give them a quick glance-through to see if you need any of that information, then toss them.
22. Extra parts and chargers.
I ended up with four bathroom accessories that need charging, and they all use the same kind of charger. So, I got rid of three of them.
23. Random cups and containers.
Especially if you’ve got young roommates (of the toddler variety, for example), you probably have various cups and containers along the ledge of the bathtub for rinsing or playing.
Try to narrow it down to one or two, or even make an effort to match them to your bathroom decor!
24. Expired hair dye products.
These lose efficacy past their expiration date, so if they’re expired, toss them. If they’re not, but you don’t think you’ll use them in time, pass them on to someone who will.
25. Anything rusty.
If you use metal that isn’t water safe, keeping it in the bathroom will certainly lead to rusting. Consider replacing rusty and damaged items, or just getting rid of them.
These 25 easy grab items are great to get the decluttering ball rolling.
Let us know how it goes!
Minimalist bathroom tips.
Here are a few bonus tips for making the most of your bathroom space!
Only keep what you use every day.
If you have products you use, but not daily, it might make more sense to store them elsewhere, like a linen closet or a pantry.
Try to only keep your daily use items within reach. This can greatly reduce bathroom clutter without depriving you of things you do like to use.
For example, I keep my bath items in a closet, because I don’t take a bath every day. The things I use to shower live in the shower caddy.
Hidden storage.
Get clever with how you store things out of sight. If you’re short on cabinets and other concealed storage areas, consider something like this adorable picture frame hack for an extra bathroom cabinet:
Clean color palette.
When choosing decor (or which decor to declutter), you might establish a color palette to guide your decisions.
3-5 colors are usually plenty! Staying within your color palette gives the room a cohesive and focused look.
Fit your shower curtain.
Choose (or alter) a shower curtain to properly fit your space. If you have a tall bathroom, you might try lifting the rod closer to the ceiling for an “expensive” look.
For smaller bathrooms, be sure your curtain isn’t dragging the floor. Hemming a curtain is a super simple mending job, if you have a sewing machine on hand.
Matching hardware.
Matching your hardware is one simple, affordable way to improve the aesthetic of your bathroom. In my bathroom, I’ve opted for brushed nickel.
Don’t worry about matching hardware in your entire home, if you don’t prefer to! In my kitchen, I went for copper hardware. As long as each room is cohesive, everything will look intentional.
Utilize natural light.
If you’ve got windows in your bathroom, try to capitalize on sunlight! You might do this by nixing traditional window dressings and opting for privacy stickers instead, or strategically placing mirrors and other reflective surfaces to bounce the light around the room.
Use trays.
For smaller items that you’d like to keep on the bathroom counter or another visible space, consider using trays to collect them. This “tricks” the eye into taking the collection in as one item rather than several.
It can also simplify your cleaning routine.
100 more items to declutter.
Did you like this list?
Here are 100 more easy items to declutter around the house!
