Smart Organizing Solutions that Make it Easier to Share a Bathroom

Living with roommates—or even with multiple family members—can get complicated in general, but the one place in your home that’s hard to share? The bathroom. Especially when your bathroom is extra tiny, and you don’t have a lot of storage space.

Below, some simple ways to keep all your things separated and organized, without products totally taking over your bathroom.

Rather than hanging one shower caddy from your shower head and trying to find storage space for everyone’s stuff, take advantage of the wall space (or the inside of your shower curtain space) instead by installing an extra shower tension rod parallel to your shower curtain, like this example from Cosmopolitan. From it, you’ll have plenty of space to hang multiple baskets or caddies along with other products and supplies.

If you have some wall space to spare in your bathroom, add shelves or a tiered wire shelving system where you can place labeled baskets for everyone to keep their stuff separate and organized. This particular unit from PB Teen (as seen on Homedit is sold out) but it’s a great example of what you you can do with a pretty standard shelf.

Keep towels separated but easily accessible by giving each member of your household a separate hook—and to keep things ultra-organized, personalize them with initial hooks like Abby Manchesky Interiors did above.

You can take the easy route here and get different colored towels for each member of your household so you know whose are whose. Or if you prefer to keep your towels all one color, you can color-code them with hanging tabs like Design Mom did here.

If you’re in need of extra storage space that can easily divide up items for different roommates or family members, a utility cart like this one (you can get it at IKEA for $24.99) can help—just add baskets to keep products organized.

An alternative to installing shelves or using a cart: if you have wall space above your toilet that’s not being utilized, try adding a storage ladder like the one seen above (from Pottery Barn, for $299). With multiple shelves and baskets to keep products neat and organized, it’s also a rental-friendly shelving option.

If you have the counter space to spare, you can use multiple trays for each person’s products, but if you have more limited space, a tiered stand like this one from Curtis Creation (you can get it for $48) is a great way to divide up and store your things, too.

Keep things in your bathroom cabinet organized by giving each member of your household their own bin for their products, and labeling them by name, like Imperfect Homemaking did here. Bonus: This can easily be done with dollar store finds.

To sort out unruly bathroom cabinet drawers, add dividers and label them with each person’s name. This tip, from Christina Tarabochia, works especially well for dividing up toothbrushes and toothpaste, among other small items.