Clever and Useful Bathroom Storage Tips

If you need more than shampoo and a bar of soap in the shower, here's how to provide space for all your vital beauty potions: Get a couple of those shelves that are designed to hang from a shower arm and hang them on cabinet knobs. Use No. 8-32 hanger screws ($1) to screw the knobs into studs or drywall anchors.

Keep your razor from falling into the tub with this simple holder. Cut a 3-in. length of 1-in. PVC pipe with a handsaw. Cut two 1/8-in.-wide notches in the pipe. Strap the pipe to your wire shower caddy with two plastic tie straps hooked in the notches. Drop the razor into the pipe; the blade will catch on the edges of the pipe, keeping the razor off the floor.

You can add a corner shelf (or another soap dish) on existing tile. Stop by a tile shop and pick up a “flat-back” corner shelf unit (about $20). Then buy soap scum remover, double-face foam tape and a tube of silicone caulk. Clean off all the soap scum or the bond might fail. Apply a strip of foam tape on each mounting flange, stopping 1 in. short of the ends. Test-fit the shelf before you remove the wax liner paper from the tape. Shim any gaps with additional layers of foam tape.

Once the shelf fits squarely into the corner, apply the silicone caulk to the back edges. Locate a spot in the middle of a row of tiles (no horizontal grout lines running through the caulk). Then remove the liner, square up the shelf and press it against the tile. Once the tape grabs, let go, wipe off the excess caulk and then tool the joint with a damp fingertip.

If you keep your toothbrushes in the medicine cabinet stacked on a shelf, they probably fall out when you open the door. If you cut notches in the cabinet shelves, you'll solve this annoying nuisance. Use a rotary tool along with a wood-cutting bit and a sanding drum.

For some reason, once the towel bar goes up, we don't consider the wall usable for anything else. Why not hang a shelf for toiletries and decorative items? Just make sure to mount the shelf high enough so it allows easy access to your towels. Get more simple bathroom storage ideas.

Here's a space-saving solution to the bathroom waste-basket problem. Screw wire shelf anchor clips to the inside of the door and hook the lip of a small wastebasket right on the hooks. It's easy to use, it hides unattractive trash, and it frees up precious bathroom floor space.

It seems like you never have enough wall space to put hooks or towel bars in your bathroom, so why not make your shower walls do double duty? Hang two shower curtain rods instead of one. Hang your shower curtain on the inside rod and use the second rod to hang towels. Plus, you can towel off in the shower—no more dripping your way to the towel bar.