If you're short on space in the bathroom, there are a number of ways you can optimize the space you do have to work with. Here are some ideas that have worked great for our family:

- My daughter and I don't have a lot of jewelry, but we keep the jewelry we do have in the bathroom. Something I found that's really neat to organize your jewelry is a coffee mug holder. We've found several very inexpensive at yard sales. They look like miniature coat racks. They're small stands that have posts sticking out of them to hang coffee mugs on. These work great for hanging necklaces and bracelets on. We have one in each of our bathrooms.

- Small corner shelves that are meant to go on the wall fit nicely into the corners of your bathroom counters. These are easy to find at yard sales and give you several shelves to put makeup, knickknacks, etc., on. I keep a small pottery bowl on one of my shelves to keep my good rings in one place (so I'll know where they are). My daughter and I have fun shopping for little one-of-a kind finds like these at local craft shows.

- My husband came up with another neat idea for organizing jewelry. If you have a big mirror in your bathroom, you could place several suction cups with hooks on them on the mirror and hang your necklaces or bracelets on the hooks.

- The bathroom is a great place to keep your bathrobe. Place a self-adhesive hook on either the back of your bathroom door, or on the wall behind the door. Hang your bathrobe up after each use, and it's ready for next time. Put up one for each family member in the bathroom they most often use.

- My daughter always forgets to get out a towel before she gets in the shower. We bought a ring-shaped towel holder (they take up less room), and put it on the wall right by the edge of the bathtub. Now when she's in the shower she just has to reach out to grab the towel.

- A way to organize the clutter on your bathroom counter is to buy a plastic tub with a handle on top. Place all your bathroom accessories (hair sprays, lotions) in the tub and place under the counter. When you're ready to use, just take the tub out. When you're done put the tub back under the counter.

- Shower caddies are an inexpensive way to organize your shampoo, conditioner, razor, soap, etc., in the shower. We got the kind that hooks over the shower head and it kept slipping down, so we eventually ended up screwing it to the wall. It works great and keeps everything in one place.

- If you have shower doors that tend to get water/soap scum build-up on them, keep a water squeegee (like you use on the windshield of your car) handy to wipe down the doors every time you take a shower. We keep ours in the shower hanging on the wall from a suction cup.

- We don't have a whole lot of cabinet space in our bathrooms, so we bought some small shelves to put above the toilets. On these shelves we keep washcloths, hair spray, toothpaste.

Copyright 2002. Rachel Paxton is a freelance writer and mom who is the owner of http://www.organized-mom.com, featuring the Easy Organizer, loaded with tools to help you plan, schedule, remember events, keep in touch, get your family on an organized schedule, prioritize, and more.