28 Days to Love Your Home – Day 21

Day 21

Bathrooms can accumulate a lot of clutter. Kids bathrooms can be a magnet for mess! Keeping the bathroom clean and neat is tough. Really tough. Between the toothpaste everywhere, the wet floors, toilets that must move when the kids aim (if you have boys you know what I am talking about), and wet toys that take on a life of their own (not sure the bacteria that grows inside them is a good thing!), a bathroom for little ones can be a war zone!

My boys share a very small bathroom. There is one open shelf for storage and a small countertop. We HAVE to keep it under control! But, as I have cooed over before, our home in Tennessee had a large bathroom in each of my boys rooms. I have found through all 7 homes we have lived in (yes 7 in 10 years…we are nuts!) there are a few keys to keeping a child’s bathroom clean and neat.

1. Organize the Drawers. I have talked repeatedly about drawer organizers. I must say in a kids bathroom, go inexpensive! I love the plastic Rubbermaid Drawer Organizers.  Because I have a small countertop, there is little that sits on the counter.  I keep the tooth brushes in the drawer in their own organizer space.  I try my best to make sure the kids put their toothbrushes back in their own assigned drawer organizer so they don’t spread germs.  I use a drawer organizer for floss and threaders (a brace face necessity).  There is also a place for the toothpaste and any medications (hello athletes foot runs rampant in our boys -EEWWW!).  These organizers keep the nasty toothpaste drips separate from the medicines and so forth!  It keeps the mess contained and I only have to clean one container instead of the whole drawer!

2.  Hooks for towels.  Our home in Tennessee was a new construction and it came with NO towel bars and toilet paper holders.  This was actually a blessing.  Not only did I get the chance to pick what I wanted, but I wasn’t limited to what they had chosen.  Usually a towel bar is installed in the bathroom.  I prefer hooks.  I had spent the first part of my marriage re-hanging the towels after my husband had showered.  It was never lined up nicely.  It would drive me crazy (there is a part in the movie Sleeping With The Enemy with Julia Roberts where her crazy husband sees the the towels aren’t lined up and goes nuts…I was verging on this!)  I finally realized he would never put the towels back the way I wanted.  So I fell in love with hooks.  Now, the towels are hung up and I am not wasting time adjusting towels like a crazy person!

3.  Toy storage.  If you have kids, you have toys.  Bathtubs are multitasking machines.  They are play zones and cleaning zones all rolled into one!  For our home, our small kids bathroom also serves as the guest bath.  We cannot leave the kids toys scattered all over the bathtub floor.  Also, I feel like the toys get nasty if they don’t have enough time to dry out – hello germs!  So I love toy storage for the bathroom.  I love any storage with holes that let air in.  Take a look at these options.  You can see I am not a fan of mesh…I personally think it gross, but that is just me.  I will not think twice if you love mesh holders!

4.  Hair Care.  I have two boys, so no hair accessories are worn in our home (except me).  But working with clients with young girls, I know how hard it is to keep the hair products under control.  We do have one large bin that hides all the gels and hairsprays we use on the boys.  My boys have cal-licks that take more products than Dolly Parton uses!  You would think we are trying to hold up mohawks instead of just trying to tame the hair fairy!  I just pull out the bin, tame the hair beasts and then throw everything back in and put it away.  So easy!

For girls, you require more accessories.  I love anything clear for ease and convenience.  Clear acrylic/plastic jars are great for hair accessories.  Kids will see what they want to get out and will easily toss it back in when they are done.   Also, there are some adorable Etsy products where you can find fun new ideas for storing hair accessories.  Also, a great idea is a jewelry organizer that can hang on the back of the door.

Now it is time for you to clear out your kids bathrooms.  Clear out the drawers and cabinets and get rid of anything that you don’t need anymore.  This means have used bottles of shampoo your kids don’t like, old sunscreens, and other products that you’ve kept for years but never used!  Get down to what you actually use now and a FEW back ups. A few extra rolls of TP are suffice, that is unless you store things in them for the whole house!  Clear out the broken hair accessories, clear out the broken and mildewed toys, and clear out the extra stuff you don’t NEED!

I would love to see before and after pictures!  What do you do to keep your kids bathroom under control?  Share your tips and tricks!