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cull, baby, cull: bathroom edition by Yee-Fan Sun | 1 2 3

My last two bathrooms have made it pretty clear why another term for the bathroom is water closet, as "room" is a far too generous term for spaces that are just barely big enough to accommodate a bath, sink, toilet, and one average-sized adult human being. Yes, I know all too well: in your typical twentysomething's less than palatial pad, the bathroom is far and away the tiniest room in the abode. This is why it never ceases to amaze me how much stuff we can still manage to squeeze into our bathroom spaces.

I used to blame my bathroom clutter on inadequate storage -- until I moved from a place with a good-sized bathroom, complete with fabulous double sinks and ample cabinetry, into a pad featuring one of the aforementioned tiny closets of a bathroom. This bathroom offered no stash space whatsoever. But living with a miniscule bathroom forced me to take a long hard look at the things I was keeping in my bath space -- and what I discovered was that most of it didn't really need to be in the bathroom at all.

No matter how small a bath space you might be dealing with, chances are good that with just a little sensible culling, you can make enough room for the true bathroom necessities. Here's our step-by-step guide on what to stash and what to pitch…

getting prepped
Arm yourself with the following items before you start pulling things out of the medicine cabinet willy-nilly:

1 Storage box: For stuff you'll continue to keep in the bathroom, but that you don't need to access on a regular basis. If you're short of cabinet space, consider picking up a few small storage containers that'll fit in spare nooks around your bathroom. These small boxes can be stashed on top of the toilet tank, on the countertop beside your sink, in the cabinet beneath your sink, wherever you can find space. Think you don't have any room? Install a wall-shelf or corner-shelf.
2 Transfer box: For stuff that doesn't really need to live in the bathroom, at least not for now. Make-up, medicine, travel toiletries, extra linens and the like might typically live in the bathroom, but they don't absolutely have to -- your bedroom, a spare closet shelf, or a hall cupboard might also be able to house extra bath stuff. Basically, anything you don't use in the bathroom on at least a weekly basis could potentially be stored in other areas of your abode if necessary.
3 Trash bag: For stuff that really has no good use whatsoever.

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