If You’re Not Using This Overlooked Storage Spot in Your Small Bathroom, You’re Missing Out

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Bathrooms are one of those spaces that never seem to have enough storage space. Add a shared or small bathroom into the equation, and carving out room for your things becomes even trickier. Fortunately, one storage spot is hiding in plain sight in your bathroom. The answer is as easy as looking up and reclaiming that little sliver of wall space right above your bathroom door.

No matter how little real estate your bathroom offers, this often-underutilized area is perfect for a shelf or two or three. Extra towels, spare rolls of toilet paper, spare toiletries, and other odds and ends that you don’t need daily can all be neatly stashed away up here. All you need to access them is a sturdy stool or step ladder close by.

Credit: IKEA

This storage spot offers one huge pro: It occupies zero floor space. It’s also conveniently situated high enough that you’re not really contributing to visual clutter by stashing stuff here. Unless you look up and over the doorway, you won’t constantly see your things staring back at you (or at least you shouldn’t).

This brings me to the key to making this space work seamlessly — scale. Before you dive into maximizing your newly-found storage opportunity, pay close attention to the depth and width of your bathroom shelving. You don’t want to go so deep with your shelf or shelves that every bathroom trip makes you feel like you have something precarious hanging over your head. For the most balanced look, it’s also best to roughly stick to the width of your door for your shelf, too, with just a couple of inches of overhang on each side at most. Height, on the other hand, is your friend. Add in as many shelves as your space will allow and you can safely access. Fill them up, but don’t overstuff them. That will help keep them secure.

A piece of prime real estate in your small bathroom just hiding in plain sight, the area above your door can be a game-changer. Add a few shelves to this spot, and you’ll be wondering where else you can find some more storage out of thin air!