I Sent a Pro Organizer a Photo of My Cluttered Under-Sink Bathroom Cabinet, and She Fixed It

I’ve been putting off getting the area under my bathroom sink organized. I don’t share this space with any other family member, so I take full responsibility for the disarray here. It’s my sole cluttered mess. 

I’ve gotten very good at chucking something under there and slamming the cabinet door quickly so nothing spills out. Speaking of spills, there’s even a sticky mess in the bottom where a bottle of hair product spilled out, causing all my bottles to stick to the bottom of the cabinet. It’s overdue for a decluttering session and clean out. In short, I’m ready to spend some time revamping and making it work better for me.

Instead of diving into the mess with no plans, I decided it would be best to phone my organizer friend. I sent a photo of the under-sink area to Tara Bremer, professional organizer and founder of House Peace. Here’s what she recommended I do to fix it.

Bremer told me to pull everything out and then “group like with like.” So I did just that:  I pulled everything out, made a trash pile, and tossed items that I hadn’t used in a while and expired products — some of which I didn’t even use yet. I then corralled like with like.

When grouping products together, I noticed that I had a lot of duplicates and extras. While I do like having a backstock of items that I use regularly, storing bottles of items that were going unused was a waste of space. “Assess if you even use all those conditioners or anything else you find,” Bremer says. This was a great point. I realized I had not and did not truly intend to use all the items that were stashed under the sink. In fact, many of the toiletries I had tried and just didn’t end up liking. These items were just taking up space under my sink so it was time to let them go. I filled up an entire small trash can with things to discard. 

Then, I started adding items back under the sink after I had culled out the unwanted items. I asked her about using a wire basket for all the loose bottles of products that seemed to be rolling around under there each time I reached for something. She dissuaded me from that option for a few reasons: Wire can rust with leaky products, plus the bottom of the cabinet might not fare well with metal scratching around on it. 

Bremer recommended to “get something stackable to use the vertical space in there,” specifically this two-tier storage tower. I had not thought about that option. I knew I needed a functional organizer for this space, but I really wasn’t sure which type would work best here. 

After clearing and cleaning up the hair care spill in the bottom of the cabinet, the space felt so much lighter. I could see and find what I needed more quickly and easily. Ultimately, I purchased the two-tier storage tower she recommended, and it’s served me well.