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The $17 Find That’s Finally Whipped the Kids’ Bathroom Into Shape

Shifrah Combiths
Shifrah Combiths
With five children, Shifrah is learning a thing or two about how to keep a fairly organized and pretty clean house with a grateful heart in a way that leaves plenty of time for the people who matter most. Shifrah grew up in San Francisco, but has come to appreciate smaller town life in Tallahassee, Florida, which she now calls home. She's been writing professionally for twenty years and she loves lifestyle photography, memory keeping, gardening, reading, and going to the beach with her husband and children.
published Feb 21, 2019
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Between the gobs of toothpaste, magnetic fishing poles, and the mountain of tiny laundry, if you share a bathroom with children, you know it’s not always the cleanest room in the house.

Try as I might to remind my four kids to put everything away—and as valiant as my efforts are to pick up after them—the kids’ bathroom in my house was rarely in good form. My bathroom laundry pile once got so far above the top of the hamper that my boys drew a Christmas tree star and taped it to the wall at the top of the pointy pile of dirty clothes. And then there’s the whole tooth-brushing scene: Sticky flecks of toothpaste decorate the sink, and toothbrushes and twisted toothpaste tubes are always littering the counter. It’s a disaster.

InterDesign 2-Tier Over the Cabinet Organizer
$16.99
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I realized at some point that one of the biggest obstacles for my kids when it comes to putting their tooth-brushing tools away is the fact that we’ve been keeping all of their supplies in the medicine cabinet. Even with a stool, it’s awkward for the kids to reach. And let’s get real: How many adults are good at putting things back on those precarious narrow shelves? I needed another tooth brush storage solution, one that kept everything clean and out of sight and that, most of all, was easy to use.

This over-the-door cabinet organizer has been the perfect solution. Each child keeps his toothbrush and toothpaste in the color-changing plastic cup they get as a prize from the dentist and they just stick their cups on the shelf. I hang the organizer on the inside of the bottom cabinet door so it’s easy for the kids to get to and everything stays tucked away off the counters.

The best part: They even enjoy putting their things in the right spot. And I realized again how much peace and order comes from setting the kids up for success. I caught my 6-year-old “organizing” the toothbrush shelves with his 2-year-old brother while singing the Clean Up, Pick Up, Put Away! song—and you can imagine how thrilling that was!

Now my reminders to “please make sure that bathroom is picked up!” are realistic, at least when it comes to the counter. Next up, the bathtub.

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Bathroom