32 Things That Don’t Belong in Your Bathroom

Bathroom storage is tricky. You have to decide how you’re going to keep your toothbrushes and whether keeping things you use multiple times a day deserves a space on the counter. But it’s especially difficult because bathroom storage requires you break the cardinal sin of decluttering: In the bathroom, you do often have to keep and organize things that you “might need someday.” This can lead to a pileup collection of bathroom clutter that you’re so used to looking over that you forget you even have it.

By taking a bit of time to go through everything in your bathroom today, you’ll be able to shed things that you won’t (or by this point, shouldn’t) use. This way you’ll see what you have so that you can use it before it expires or you buy unnecessary duplicates. Moreover, you’ll start and end the day with drawers and cabinets that are calming in their neatness.

1. Expired medication (Here’s how to dispose of medication properly)
2. Stretched out hair ties
3. Bobby pins missing a rubber end: They’ll rip your hair and hurt your head.
4. Body lotion that has separated or that smells off
5. Expired sunscreen: Don’t take chances with sun protection. Note that expiration dates are often stamped into the plastic rather than printed on it.
6. Facial lotions and serums that are expired or smell rancid
7. Opened mascara that’s over three months old
8. Dried out lipsticks
9. Eye shadow that you haven’t worn: Like, since your senior year of high school
10. Makeup brushes that you never use
11. Makeup brushes with loose hairs
12. Old toothbrushes you’ve kept “for cleaning”
13. Makeup, perfume, and skincare samples
14. Old nail polish: Check out these 7 Signs It’s Time to Throw Away Your Nail Polish
15. Nail polish in colors you know you’ll never use
16. Nail polish in duplicate shades: Pick your favorite, and the newest one if you know which that is.
17. Extra buttons
18. Hotel toiletries: No, don’t keep them for guests; buy full-sized shampoo and conditioner for your guests to use.
19. Packets from old teeth whitening kits: You got it six years ago and never finished it.
20. Hair products that you never quite liked: Either you never use them or use them resentfully because they don’t work that well
21. Duplicates of the same kind of comb and hair brush: Keep the best or favorite
22. Hair styling tools you don’t use: Like the curlers that you try once every decade, only to be reminded that yep, they still don’t work and are way too much trouble to use anyway
23. Your old hair straightener: You only need one and you bought the new one for a reason.
24. Hair accessories you haven’t used in the past few years
25. The small hair dryer you keep for traveling but never actually pack
26. Costume jewelry with broken or missing pieces
27. Duplicate tweezers, nail clippers, eyelash curlers, and other tools
28. Unused or duplicate cleaning supplies
29. Almost-finished bottles of lotion, shampoo, conditioner, etc.: You intended to cut the tube and get the last dregs out, but just let them go.
30. Accessories that go with tools you don’t use anymore: For instance, refill heads for the electric toothbrush that broke, got thrown out, and that you honestly have no intention of replacing.
31. Coins: Put these in your wallet or collection jar.
32. Things that are no longer “you,” whether it’s makeup, jewelry, accessories, etc.

What do you have in your bathroom that needs to go?