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Apartment Therapy has published a roundup of 16 bathroom storage ideas sourced from real homeowners’ and renters’ homes featured in its House Tours. The ideas emphasize low-cost, renter-friendly solutions such as towel-rod toiletry hanging, ceiling baskets, lazy Susans, and IKEA spice-rack shelves. The piece targets the common problem of storing toiletries, towels, and appliances in small or awkward bathroom layouts.
Apartment Therapy has published a new roundup of 16 bathroom storage ideas borrowed from real homes featured in the site’s House Tours, offering renters and homeowners low-cost fixes for one of the hardest-working rooms in the house. The guide, written by home editor Megan Baker Detloff, a former editor at HGTV Magazine and This Old House Magazine, focuses on tricks that add storage without renovations — from hanging baskets from the ceiling to mounting IKEA spice racks as slim shelving. It arrives as many households grapple with small footprints, crowded layouts, and the sheer volume of items a bathroom must hold, including toiletries, towels, toilet paper, and grooming appliances.
The article’s central argument is that bathroom storage problems are often solved by looking beyond conventional fixtures. Among the renter-friendly options: using a towel rod outfitted with curtain clips to hang toiletries, baskets, cleaning supplies, or even plants — an approach the author notes works well in humid spaces because items can hang to dry. Other ideas include replacing a towel bar with hooks or pegs, which the piece says fit more towels in the same wall space, and hanging baskets from the ceiling, as demonstrated in a Pennsylvania minimalist home the site previously toured.
Several ideas adapt products intended for other rooms. The guide highlights IKEA’s best-selling BEKVÄM spice rack, which Apartment Therapy says is the right depth for toiletries and the right width for a small bathroom wall. A lazy Susan under the vanity is recommended for making deep, hard-to-reach cabinets usable, and a kitchen rail with hanging baskets above the sink — a trick taken from a camper — keeps everyday items accessible in shared bathrooms, where each person can claim a caddy.
Owner-oriented suggestions include recessed shelving built between wall studs, which the article describes as an option for homeowners or renters with accommodating landlords, and freestanding cabinets used as a substitute linen closet where no closet exists. Rolling carts, pegboards, train-style towel racks, under-sink baskets for pedestal sinks, and glass shelves mounted across windows round out the list. Some entries carry practical safety notes: for ceiling-hung baskets, the article advises screwing the hook into a stud or using a drywall anchor, and for window shelving it recommends clear glass rather than wood to preserve light.
Why Renters Get the Most From This List
The guide matters because bathroom storage is a near-universal constraint with real consequences for daily life: cluttered counters, lost toiletries, and crowded shared bathrooms are among the most common household frustrations. Because nearly all 16 ideas avoid renovation, they are directly actionable for the large share of households — particularly renters, who cannot cut into walls or reconfigure plumbing, and owners on tight budgets — for whom a contractor-driven remodel is impractical. The approach of repurposing inexpensive, widely available products such as spice racks, kitchen rails, and lazy Susans lowers the cost of entry to a few dollars per fix, compared with custom cabinetry or built-ins. The piece also has practical relevance to household organization trends: as more people share smaller living spaces, vertical and multi-purpose storage solutions have become a go-to strategy, and grounding them in real, photographed homes gives readers proven templates rather than showroom concepts. The safety notes included — stud-mounting ceiling hooks, using rated anchors, checking for plumbing before drilling — help readers avoid damage or injury when copying the ideas.
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How Apartment Therapy Assembled the Ideas
The article is a curation rather than a lab test: Detloff, who the site says has covered home upgrades and renovations for more than a decade, selected storage solutions that appeared in previously published Apartment Therapy House Tours — the site’s long-running feature format that photographs real readers’ homes. The piece opens by naming the core problem: bathrooms must store toiletries, toothbrushes, towels, toilet paper, and grooming appliances, and small or crowded layouts make that harder. The 16 ideas are presented as adaptations readers can copy, with each one tied to at least one featured home and, in some cases, a photo credit for the original stylist or photographer.
“Bathrooms can be tricky spots to organize, thanks to all the things you need to store there: toiletries, toothbrushes, towels, toilet paper, and grooming appliances, just to name a few.”
— Megan Baker Detloff, Apartment Therapy
What the Guide Doesn’t Cover
The roundup does not include pricing, product testing, or durability results, and it does not compare the ideas against professional storage solutions. Installation difficulty varies widely across the suggestions — from no-tool hook strips to stud-mounted ceiling hardware — but the article gives only brief guidance on the latter. Weight limits for ceiling-hung baskets and window-mounted glass shelves are not specified. Apartment Therapy’s affiliate disclosure means some linked products generate commission for the site, a factor readers comparing prices may want to weigh. The source text also appears truncated mid-idea, so the final entries on the list may contain additional caveats not reflected here.
How Readers Can Act on These Ideas
Readers can start with the least invasive options — hooks, lazy Susans, rolling carts, and freestanding cabinets — before committing to anything requiring hardware. For ceiling baskets, the article’s own advice applies: locate a stud or use a proper drywall anchor before hanging any weight, and confirm the fixture is rated for the load. Renters considering recessed niches or wall-mounted shelving should get written landlord approval first, and anyone drilling near sinks or showers should check for plumbing and wiring before cutting. Apartment Therapy typically follows such roundups with linked House Tour features, where readers can see the original installations in full.
Key Questions
Are these bathroom storage ideas suitable for renters?
Most are. The majority of the 16 ideas — towel-rod clips, hooks, lazy Susans, rolling carts, freestanding cabinets, and hanging baskets — require minimal or no permanent installation. The article specifically flags recessed niches and some mounted shelving as better suited to homeowners or renters with accommodating landlords.
What is the IKEA spice rack trick?
Apartment Therapy recommends IKEA’s BEKVÄM spice rack as shallow wall shelving for toiletries, saying its depth and width suit small bathroom walls without eating counter space. Multiple racks can be mounted together for more storage.
Is it safe to hang baskets from a bathroom ceiling?
Yes, if installed correctly. The article advises screwing the hook into a sturdy stud or using a drywall anchor rated for the weight. Weight limits are not specified in the piece, so check the hardware’s rating before loading a basket.
Do any of the ideas work around a pedestal or floating sink?
The guide suggests using the floor and vertical space beneath such sinks with chic baskets for towels and toiletries, citing a Dutch home as the example.
Did Apartment Therapy test or price these products?
No. The roundup curates ideas from previously featured House Tours without product testing or listed prices. The site notes prices for linked products were accurate at publishing time and that it may earn commissions on purchases made through its links.
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