How To Declutter Bathroom Cabinets & Closets

Today's mission is to declutter your bathroom cabinets and closets, removing anything that shouldn't stay there so you can organize what you do end up keeping.


This mission is designed to be done while working on the Bathroom Organization Challenge here on the site, which is one of the 52 Week Organized Home Challenges.

Yesterday we worked on decluttering bathroom drawers, and today we'll do a similar process when working on the cabinets and/or closets you may have in your bathroom.

(Remember though, we specifically worked on decluttering the cabinet under your bathroom sink in this previous mission, here.)

Typically the cabinets and closets in bathrooms are not huge (unless you've got an exceptionally large bathroom), so much like when you did the drawers, today you can take everything out of the cabinet at once to declutter it.

If you've got a significant amount of clutter though, or a large number of cabinet or closet shelves to deal with, you may want to break it down further, focusing on one shelf or cabinet at a time.

This is especially important to do if you have a limited amount of time to work on this project. If so, break it down into 15 minute segments, and make sure to clean up for the last 5 or so minutes of each of those segments, so it never gets to be a huge mess. (You can read more about this method for decluttering here.)

When decluttering this area of your home, evaluate each of the items that you take out of the cabinet, or off the shelves, and keep, put elsewhere in your home if it doesn't belong there, trash (or recycle), donate, or get it ready for sale. Each item should have to "earn" its way back into your bathroom, meaning you only keep the stuff you really do use, regularly, and get rid of the rest.

Only once you've decluttered all of your bathroom cabinets or closet shelves should you begin the next part of this process, which is to organize all of these items.

The reason you declutter completely first, is that you may have similar or like items stashed in a couple of cabinets, and ideally all of those items would be grouped together in the organizational process. This is easier to do if you wait, until all the decluttering is done, to make sure you don't forget to group everything appropriately.

Below I've gathered before and after photos from readers who've already done this mission, to show you what kind of great results you can achieve for yourself, and to get you motivated to start.



Collage photo courtesy of a reader, Karen, and bottom photo courtesy of another reader, Jenna

Before & After Photos Showing Decluttered Bathroom Cabinets & Closet Shelves

Quite a few readers have already done this mission, and they've sent in the photos of what they've accomplished, which I hope you inspire you. The photos above are from Karen.

As you can see, in this photo she showed how she decluttered quite a bit of toiletries. You can find out more about expiration dates for makeup, cosmetics and toiletries here to help you determine when it's time to get rid of some of these items lingering inside your bathroom cabinets.



This photo is from Laurie, who said, "Bathroom cabinet. How the heck did I let it get the way it looks on the left!!"



The photos above are from a reader, Brandy. She explained of the top photo, "before and after of the HUGE cabinet. Things just got thrown in there." Of the second photo she stated, "here's a look inside all those organizers in the cabinet."

Are You Ready To Declutter Your Bathroom Closet Or Cabinets Now?

The photos above are from a reader, Jenna. She said of the first photo, "The before in a seriously dysfunctional bathroom closet!" Then, of the second photo she stated, "And the after! Got rid of duplicates and triplicates of cleaning supplies and bought a drawer system to hold some of the lesser used items!"

Are You Ready To Declutter Your Home?

I hope these photos and instructions have gotten you ready to tackle your own bathroom storage areas, such as cabinets and closets.

When you begin to declutter the feeling you get is contagious, so if you're loving the results you're getting I would encourage you to keep going.

I've got a whole series of 15 minute decluttering missions (eventually 365 of them!) that you can do.

Just pick and choose the ones you want to do, that will make a big impact in your home. But if you want someone else to tell you the order you can also grab the 15 minute daily decluttering mission calendars and follow along as we all get our homes clutter free together!

Related Pages You May Enjoy

Getting Clutter Free 15 Minutes At A Time Hall Of Fame

Getting Rid Of Bathroom Clutter Hall Of Fame

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