For the last two months, my husband and I have been tearing out all the “storage” in our newly-purchased 1920s house. (Don’t worry—not original built-ins, but renovations that had been done in the 80s and 90s.)
Why? Because when you’re minimalists, you don’t have a lot to store—and all those closets, cabinets, consoles, and pantries take up precious living space!
For example, here’s the “before” shot of our bathroom:
Before: cramped bathroom with too many cabinets
It measures only 6’ x 8’, and the under-counter cabinets lining both walls left only the tiniest pathway to move around. Not only was it cramped for us adults—but our 3-year-old daughter attempts to incorporate ballet moves into every task she does (brushing teeth, drying off after a bath), and was forever banging into some fixture or other. The biggest problem: the bathroom was built for storage, not for activity.
You can see our solution in the “after” shot below: tear out all the cabinets! (And since we were moving fixtures, we decided to redo the tile in a more timeless style.)
After: minimalist bathroom with lots of space
The only storage that remains is in the 24” vanity and the small medicine cabinet on the wall. I love how it’s made us streamline our toiletries to the bare essentials—toothbrushes, toothpaste, and a chosen few lotions and potions. It’s almost like being on vacation.
It’s amazing how a little extra space can improve your life! We start our days in a serene, spa-like environment where everything has its place—making our morning routine calmer and more smoothly accomplished. My daughter can dance to her heart’s content with fewer bruises and admonishments to be careful. And our evening ablutions are done with ease and efficiency, leaving us all in a more relaxed frame of mind as we turn in for the night.
Sometimes we look around at our clutter and think, “why bother?” What’s the difference if I have some extra bottles of shampoo or a drawerful of tiny toiletries from my last hotel stay? Is it really worth the effort to clear out the excess?
Yes, yes, yes! A little decluttering can make a world of difference in your mood and outlook. No more frustration, no more feeling cramped, no more digging through cabinets to find what you need. The more simplified your space, the more easily and gracefully you can get through your days.
Watch out, kitchen cabinets—you’re next!
{If you’d like to learn more about minimalist living, please consider reading my book, The Joy of Less, A Minimalist Living Guide, or subscribing to my RSS feed.}
This is beautiful! Thank you for sharing. It looks so much bigger now. Very spacious and elegant!
Beautiful!
I’d love to see the rest of your home, if you’re amenable.
i love what you have done! congratulations and than you for sharing
Beautiful!! So glad to hear from you!
This is an amazing space! The layout is so much more cohesive and open. Looks great!
Agree with all of the above! (Meanwhile, the only storage in our “master” bath is the medicine cabinet. Not even a cupboard under the sink. A little too minimal, I’m afraid.)
Wow, the ‘before’ photo has more cupboards than I have seen in some kitchens!
Our bathroom is small- we have a little cupboard on the wall, a basket of loo roll on the floor and our wash bags on top of the cupboard. I do have a small basket with moisturisers on a shelf in the bedroom…oh and a few spares in a bag on the back of the door. But anyway, the surfaces in the bathroom are clear, which is much more relaxing than clutter!
Good to see an update from you Francine :)
Love the make-over! And happy to see another post from you! Can’t wait to see what you’re willing to share of the rest of your house & make-overs. We are living in a very ugly house that is definitely helping us in my efforts to be minimalist. Some places it has too much storage, but what’s there is all wrong (like my bathroom!) other places have not enough storage, like the kitchen, but previous attempts to add storage to the house by other occupants were just plain weird. It’s a work in progress for sure & it’s a rental but the owner doesn’t care what we change which is nice.
I Love it.
I appreciate a clean, streamlined bathroom
to start off the day (or end the night) with
serenity. That is exactly how we have it in our
house.
Good work.
That before picture made me laugh! What on earth were they storing in there?! The after looks amazing. So spacious and light. Nice work!
Beautiful! Would love to see more pictures of your house and how you live minimally!
I love this! We’re making similar changes around our [small] house. We’re getting rid of cabinets to open up the space in order to give us room to live. :-)
I really like what you’ve done with the bathroom! We used to live in a small English cottage with no room for excess of any kind. Then we moved to the U.S. and I discovered Target, Marshalls etc.! 20 years on and I’m trying to return to the minimalism that used to be a way of life! What to do with useful items I no longer need but can’t be donated, it seems such a waste to consign them to landfill?
I get so happy every time you post something on the blog! :) I agree that you don’t need so much storage, and I believe that if you do you’ll only end up filling it with stuff. We also only have very limited storage in our bathroom and it’s so much more relaxing to just have the essentials instead of tons of things you never use! And I love how you renovated the bathroom! Very hotelly :)
Stunning bathroom. If I could afford to outfit ours like that I would.
Our home is very small, including the internal bathroom which doesn’t have a window, and we are on a tight budget. There is far too much stuff everywhere and it depresses me so I’m always looking for things to give away, bin or sell. I’d be more ruthless but BF has trouble letting go of things, so space and storage is at a premium.
In an effort to renovate and create some much needed storage I’ve bought inexpensive but nice white ‘bumpy’ bathroom wall tiles with some mosaic tiles to place in a strip between two layers to jazz it up, also a large, plain, white cabinet for towels/toilet rolls and a smaller mirrored one for toiletries. BF has accepted the challenge of fitting all bathroom goodies into the new storage and I’m hopeful when he sees how nice it looks and how easy it is to keep it clean it will inspire him to make progress in other rooms.
Those “Before” cabinets were an atrocity! What you’ve replaced them with is both very European looking and closer to what was probably the original bathroom setup. Best of luck with the rest of your renovations!
Fabulous re-do. It inspires me.
SO beautiful! i love that you feel like you are on vacation everyday now. It’s amazing the effect clutter has on us emotionally and visually right? x
Such a good idea to remove much of the cupboard space. I have always had a bathroom with nothing more than one small, wall-mounted cabinet. I think many people see lots of cupboard space and then feel the need to fill it. By not having a lot of storage space, it really focuses the mind on what is essential and what is superfluous.
We live in a condo and yet I see neighbors with 36 roll packs of toilet paper and paper towels. I wonder where they store them and why they stock up like that. Each of our bathrooms has under the sink storage and one has a linen closet. It’s plenty of space.
Well done, Francine!
For me, this photo of the bath has a “vibe” similar to the lovely place you rented in London. I just love the clean, clear lines and refreshed feeling of this renovation. And now it’s much more functional and comfortably suited to you and your beloveds.
You have indeed found your “home” here in the PNW and a simply beautiful way of living.
:-)
Very nice, and so happy to see a post from you! I have oddly abundant storage in my bathroom as well, but we could have used an extra kitchen cabinet! BTW, we too relocated this year(from Hawaii) to Oregon, and are loving it here. :)
It’s always fun to see a post from you. I was hoping we might get an update on your minimalist wardrobe now that you’re a parent. I find it hard to keep a minimal wardrobe while working and having two kids under 3 years old. I seem to always have either snot or food smeared on an article of clothing.
Beautiful!
We have severely cut down on our clutter, excess furniture, even our Christmas decorations, having been inspired by you and some other bloggers.
But the thing I am still struggling with it everyday items, like in our bathroom, there is hubby, myself and 3 teens. I have gotten rid of all the eccess, but there is still the first aid supplies, basic cold remedies, shaving stuff, basic hair care stuff, sun screen, feminine products, extra t.p. etc etc etc.
Even my bedside is trashed at the moments, with kleenex, Tums, ear plugs (hubby snores like a lawn mower under water), my water for during the night etc. etc etc.
I’d love to see some posts on everyday stuff, the things we neer and use and where/how to store it all. Please, pretty please?
A friend told me she had several years’ worth of shampoo and conditioner that went bad and she was throwing it all out. Stocking up is not something I do since my mom is a champion hoarder.
My main bathroom is also 6 x 8, and the fixtures are arranged similarly to your “after” photo. Fortunately, no renovations were required on our part; the house came that way! We don’t have the marble tile in the shower, and we have only one window, but the shower, sink, and toilet are all in the same places as in your bathroom. Our main storage is one cabinet below the sink, roughly the same size as yours. We had moved our old over-the-toilet storage from the old house, a rental, to this one, which we “own”. It was rickety, impossible to clean, and allowed for far too much storage. Even with that in place, we didn’t have enough storage for all of our bathroom stuff! Several months, and a couple of minimalist awakenings later, we’re down to one simple wood shelf above the toilet, the under-sink storage, and one tiered basket system for the cans of cat food. We do have a few excess things, like soap, toothpaste/brushes, and deodorant, in the hall closet, along with (too many!) towels. However, we do go use the excess stuff in time. I bike everywhere and so I go through a stick of deodorant about every 4-6 weeks, which means that a supply of 4 doesn’t last that long.
We have the food bowls for our three furbabies in the bathroom because they’re sloppy eaters and the tile floor is easy to clean :) In fact, we used to have rubber mats on the floor below the bowls, because our old house had carpet in the feeding area. My sig other would often be bent over in the tub trying to clean the mats, and I thought, why are we going through all of this trouble, just to clean the mats, when we have to clean their bowls and the floors anyway? Why not get rid of the mats? We did, and now when we clean the floors, we just bring their bowls down to the kitchen for washing, clean the tiles, and put down fresh food bowls. Removing the mats saved us a good 15 minutes of cleaning time a week, easy.