Using Spice Racks to Add Storage Space
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Determine if spice racks will work in your bathroom. If you have wall space above your toilet, to the side of your mirror, or in a similar location in your bathroom, extra spice rack storage will likely work for you. Use a tape measure to measure the available space so you know what size shelf your bathroom can accommodate.
The narrow design of most spice racks along with their usually raised edges, intended to keep spices from falling, are perfect for holding toiletries and bottles.
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Purchase suitable spice rack(s). Your bathroom may only be able to fit a single spice rack, or it may fit a few shelves, but in both cases you'll need to go purchase a spice rack. Pre-made racks are available at many big box retailers, furniture stores, and hardware stores.
Be sure to check the dimensions of potential shelves against the measurements you took earlier of your available spice rack space.
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Measure and mark your spice rack placement. Use a pencil and a tape measure to mark the placement of your shelf or shelves on your bathroom wall. Try not to hang the racks too high or low, as will make them less convenient.
Generally, two marks measured to the same height, one for the right end of your spice rack and the other for the left, will be sufficient for hanging.
The distance between your marks should be the same as the distance separating the holes that will attach your rack to the wall.
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Install the spice racks. Depending on your spice rack, your method of installment will vary. In many cases, you'll have to attach some hardware to your wall with a drill. This hardware, usually some kind of simple holding bracket, will then support the shelf or shelves.
In other cases, you may have to screw your shelf directly into the wall with a drill.
Hanging the spice rack on your own, while possible, may be difficult. A helper would likely make installing your shelf or shelves easier.
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Check the levelness of the spice rack(s). Once the spice racks have been installed, take a carpenter's level and check that your shelf or shelves are level. If your shelf is uneven, this could cause your toiletries to slant toward one end of the rack or the other.
If your spice rack isn't level, remove it from its hardware or the wall, adjust it slightly, re-check its levelness, and if it is level, reinstall the shelf.
Optimizing Your Bathroom's Storage Space
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Utilize all available surfaces. The back of your bathroom door is a frequently underused space. But this is a great place where you can install extra towel racks. You could also purchase organizers with adhesive backing and stick these to the inside of the doors of your cabinets to boost your bathroom storage capacity.
Though these kinds of organizers are frequently small, they still work great for things like lipstick, cotton swabs, lotions, eyebrow pencils, toothbrushes, and more.
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Use drawers in cabinets to improve storage. Drawers stack, which will allow you to use more of the vertical space in your cabinets. Too often, items clutter the bottom of cabinets while the upper space is unused. Drawers, or stackable shelves, will help you make better use of this space.
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Put a lazy susan in your cabinets. Items can be easily pushed to the back of a cabinet and lost or forgotten. For this reason, you may be under-utilizing the space in the back of your bathroom cabinets. A lazy susan is essentially a tray that rotates on a base, so you can spin the tray to reach items in the back of your cabinets more easily.
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Install tower shelving in your shower. These kinds of shelves often fit right into the corner of your shower, where they are out of the way but still convenient. They are perfect for holding soap bottles and loofah, and will prevent bathing supplies from crowding the floor of your shower or edge of your tub.
Some variations of tower shelving hang from the shower itself instead of fitting into the shower's corner. This variety may be even better for especially small showers.
Upgrade your sink storage. There are many pre-made cabinets, available at hardware and furniture stores, that wrap around your sink to increase your storage space. If this option is a little outside your price range, you could buy a decorative curtain and install it around suitable sinks with storage space underneath (like pedestal sinks), and then store bathroom items there.
You can improve storage space behind your curtain even more by adding stackable shelving beneath your sink as well.
Baskets are an inexpensive household item that work well in place of stackable shelving for storing items behind your sink curtain.
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Put in a second shower rod. Buy a second shower rod and install it above head height along the wall opposite of your shower curtain. Once the rod is securely in place, you can hang light bathing supplies from it in a suitable, waterproof bag.
Water will collect in your waterproof bag over time, so its best to choose one that is mesh or has drainage holes at its bottom so excess moisture drains and the bag dries quickest.
In many cases, you'll be able to insert the shower rod between bag handles to hang it. In other cases, you may need to use a durable rope/thread, like paracord, to fasten bags or supplies from the extra shower curtain rod.
Getting Creative with Storage
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Use a door hanging shoe caddy for added storage. If the back of your bathroom door is still available, a door hanging shoe caddy can contribute plenty of storage space. These can be bought at most general retailers and hang simply from a door.
Fill the pockets of your hanging shoe caddy with toiletry bottles, bathing supplies, and so on.
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Create a towel holder from a wine rack. The shape of many wall hanging wine racks is perfect for holding rolled towels. In addition to this looking classy, these are usually generally easy to install. In most cases, all you'll need to do is screw the rack into the wall to create a wall holder for towels.
Before you screw in the wine rack to the wall, be sure to check that it's level. To do this most efficiently, you may want to ask a friend to help.
You should be able to find suitable wine racks at big box stores, general retailers, and hardware stores.
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Store spare toilet paper in oatmeal canisters. Toilet paper stacked precariously in your cabinets can be easily knocked over and can contribute to clutter. Large oatmeal canisters can store two to three rolls of toilet paper, depending on the kind of toilet paper, giving you a nifty spot to stash TP.
You can add some flair to your oatmeal canister by covering its outer surfaces with a wrapping paper that matches the decor of your bathroom.
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Consolidate magazine storage with hangers. Stacks of magazines can rob your bathroom of valuable floor and counter space. Place hangers on doorknobs and towel racks in your bathroom. Hang the magazines from the hangers by opening the magazines to their middle pages and draping them from the hangers.
For normal sized magazines, you can expect to be able to drape quite a few from your hanger before it becomes over-encumbered. For larger or special edition magazines, you may only be able to hang two or three.