Sharing a Bathroom with Kids
This month we are focusing on Family Friendly design strategies for different areas of your home. Last week we posted a blog about creating a beautiful and organized living space for those of you with children. Today we will talk about tackling your shared bathroom.
Before looking at design, take a look at de-cluttering your bathroom. Jesenia Montanez with The Latina Homemaker wrote a great article in her 5 week series of organizing your home on organizing your bathroom. Here are a few steps that can help you tackle the de-cluttering process:
DE-CLUTTERING TIPS
Step 1- Take inventory, and create a keep, toss, and donate box. Keep only the products you use all the time. Toss or donate anything that you rarely use. Most of us collect bath items given as gifts or samples, but they aren’t something we would really use. Donate these items. Other items could include old towels that we keep even after buying new ones. I am personally guilty of this one. What has worked in our household is to sort the keep from toss towels. Then determine if the toss towels could be cut up for rags and stored elsewhere. They can even be used as extra beach towels, but should be stored with your summer beach items.
Step 2- Once you have your keep box, organize these items in baskets, or clear bins to make it easier to find when needed. One of the greatest tips I found was color coding. This can be done by giving each member in your house a different color basket, or by making their label a different color. This makes it easy for them to find all their items in one place. Here are a few of our picks for baskets, bins, and DIY boxes.
The Crazy Craft Lady found many bathroom storage containers at her local dollar store. Check out her blog for some more storage ideas.
Designing by Maximizing
After you have finished organizing, now it's time to maximize the space you do have. Finding ways to add more storage space in under utilized areas is key. Take advantage of the vertical space you have. Use the space above your toilet with shelves, baskets or above toilet racks. You can also create shelving above the doorway, storage on the back of your door, and hanging storage in the shower. Here are our top favorite picks.
One of the last spot for maximizing storage is under the sink. Whether you have a pedestal sink or a cabinet there are many option for creating more storage. Here is a great IKEA hack to create a cabinet around your pedestal making it look like a vessel sink.
They used an Ikea cabinet to the right of the pedestal sink, added a black laminate top which they cut around the bowl of the sink, then added a Grundtal Towel Rack screwed upside down.
Another option is to find a metal rack made to fit around a pedestal sink, like this IKEA RÖNNSKÄR shelf.
If you have a cabinet vanity there are many ways to maximizes the storage. Here are some of the favorites we have found.
Hope some of these examples will get you motivated and inspired to maximize the space you do have in your bathroom. If you would like more inspiration, or how-tos please visit our pinterest board for Family Friendly Bathrooms
Follow JLM Designs's board Family Friendly Bathroom Ideas on Pinterest.
