I used to hate those over-the-toilet shelving units, but now we are in a house where it would be so helpful. Except that there is a bathtowel rod right over the toilet, it's much wider than the toilet (and superwide shelves wouldn't have room because the vanity is thisclose to the toilet), and it's part of the tiled wall! Makes me want to bang my head against the towel rod sometimes.

One of the best bathroom space savers I have found is the Carlson II tower from CB2. I have a small bathroom, but its 10" x10" profile fit well behind my bathroom door. I use it to store folded towels, toiletries in apothecary jars, etc. And I grabbed a "charcoal felt storage box" from CB2 to store my hair dryer and flat iron on one of the shelves.

I use a Simplehuman adjustable shower caddy in the shower to hold shampoo, soap, shower gel, etc.

Another good small space storage option is the Componibili from Kartell. I use mine in the bedroom, but it seems like a great small space solution for almost any room.

I absolutely loathe those over the toilet shelving units. If you can install some regular wall shelving (on the shallow side... No more than 6in. or so) it helps make the space less cluttered. I think IKEA makes a bathroom cabinet shallow enough to be mounted on a wall above the toilet...

I used to have one in my studio apartment bathroom and I would constantly knock into it and stuff would fall into the toilet.

I love my over-the-toilet shelf unit: towels on the top shelf, toiletries on the lower one.

I had the one pictured in my rental unit and it worked well as the commode was next to the sink - the rungs on the side were great for hanging a hand towel.

The walls in my small main bathroom actually slants in, so no room for tall tower-y things or for extra storage over the toilet. I had a whole series of chrome or rubber-over-metal things in the tub, and they just rust and look horrible after a while.

I bought a piece of granite - 4 inches by 29inches - the width of the tub, and it sits along the back of the tub. I put little rubber feet on it so it could drain properly. It holds all the shampoo etc. that I use and looks better than rusting metal units.

agree with the rusting issue, I had one of those over the toilet shelving units in my backyard studio and it rusted quickly.

To create space for towels in our tiny bathroom, we mounted a shelf on the wall in the shower, opposite the shower head and high up enough to be out of the way. It's great, and it feels a little like living in a hotel.

Simply putting up shelves over the commode seems to be a lot more attractive option than the one-piece eyesores.

I'm living in an old builing where bathrooms have been added (welcome in France!) which means they are extremely small.

Mine is so tiny that I had no other choice than using an Ikea Benno DVD tower to store make up, hair brushes and other small things.

We have a teeny tiny bathroom and I love the look (and the extra storage) of the shelves over the toilet, but is it just me that keeps thinking about all the germs that would just cover everything there? What is it that they say? A 3ft spray radius? And what would it be like if someone did not close the lid first? I'm not a germaphobe... but there seems to be a good amount of logic to keeping things like towels and supplies away from there. Anyone know of a good solution to gaining that space back and avoiding the over-spray?

Yes, plus those legged over the toilet things EAT UP the visual space and make everything feel so cluttered.

@ohanalog - It annoys me to no end when people flush and don't close the lid. I can't do anything about guests doing that kind of thing, so I don't keep towels out in guest bathrooms.

@Analog, we have a small master bath as well, I think 4x 10. Vanity and toilet along long wall and shower the end of short wall. The only place to store bathing items was above the toilet. My concern was also things falling in the toilet from the shelves. So, we ripped out the old useless vanity and my husband built a 42" tall vanity base with drawers for storage. We then put a shallow basin sink from Ikea and it is working perfectly. The total height of the vanity w/sink is about 46 or 47".it's taller than most vanities but at least we have closed storage. Perhaps something similar is an option for you

I couldn't use one of those over the toilet towers due to a small glass shelf high up and a light switch/outlet up there. And I couldn't install shelves on wall either, due to high tile (was in a rental.) Solution I came across (from JCPenney, looking online, but don't know if they have them anymore) was a small table thing designed to make a just one shelf just above the toilet tank. I love it because it takes up less visual space than a tower or wall shelves would. I found one that was designed for the purpose - 4 legs, a top shelf, wood edge on sides and back to keep stuff from falling off. It was designed too deep (apparently, in China, where they are made, they are not familiar with the depth of U.S. toilets or their distance from the back wall...or maybe the U.S. designer of them was too lazy to measure.) Since my very old toilet is set out from the wall a bit, and I was able to have a carpenter cut down the front of the shelf a bit, it fit my space (I didn't want to have it too deep, where my back would hit the table/shelf when sitting on the commode.) It would be easy to make one, or have one made up by a woodworker, and I would certainly think of doing so for a bath in another place where storage options were few.) Or one could use the lower half portion of a commercial one that comes in top and bottom pieces, just add some edging to keep stuff from falling off on the sides and back of the top.

I love the chrome tower on a pressure pole with baskets/shelves in the corner of the shower, but I do also hate that it rusts! Why don't they make waterproof ones? My car doesn't rust in the rain - seems like auto paint would work if they made one with that finish.

If you have over-the-toilet shelving, be sure to keep only LARGE items there.

Long ago, in my old apartment, I had some wicker shelving hanging on the wall above the toilet, as a place to keep some small cosmetic items and such. All was well for years until the time I accidentally dropped a small rectangular Clinique flip-mirror (mirror with hinged hard-plastic cover) into the (clean) toilet and the mirror promptly wedged into the bowl.

In retrospect, I don't recall now why the professional plumber whom the landlord resorted to calling wasn't able to free the mirror or break it up to get it loose (I assume he drained the toilet first, before he attacked the mirror)... but in the end, we had to rip that toilet out and get a new one in there. Live and learn.

What is the shade of the wall?
Paint color

I have a TINY bathroom (I'm pretty sure it was a makeshift bathroom when my landlord converted his house to a duplex) and it has no cabinets, just a couple of shelves built into the wall. The room is so tiny that anything I put in it would make it look cluttered.

Then I happened upon this semi-circular caddy which fits under a pedestal sink (which is what my bathroom has). It had been out of stock for a long time and I searched far and wide for anything similar but could not find it. So when it was back in stock I bought one immediately, and let me just say it's amazing. It does not make my bathroom look one bit smaller and I was able to finally store all the contact solution bottles, lotions, even my hairdryer and straightener as well as a ton of other stuff on it- despite everything being visible it does not look cluttered at all. When those things were on the shelves it was horrendous.

What a find. Really.