You Don't Need These 5 Items In Your Bathroom

All you wanted was the aspirin, but about a dozen other tiny bottles avalanche out of your medicine cabinet. If this sounds familiar, you aren’t alone. It happens to the best of us. It seems the bathroom or medicine cabinet has become the burial ground for unnecessary health and wellness items.

Whether you’re storing the wrong items in your bathroom, or they simply don’t work, we all have junk taking space. Sure, some items no washroom should be without, but others can’t go soon enough. 

Minimalism in the bathroom is NOT about getting rid of necessary health items. Toothpaste, combs, an even that bottle of aspirin are important. However, we all have a tendency to accumulate “stuff” and shove it in the medicine cabinet or bathroom closet. As such, the bathroom can be a messy and cluttered space. 

It’s time to downsize the bathroom.

Detox Kits

For generations, products have claimed to remove excess toxins that Mother Nature couldn’t possibly know how to do so. That herbal tea supplement may taste nice and that arm patch may peel off a layer of black gunk. However, they typically don’t remove much else.

Your body knows how to remove as many toxins as it can. Fax detox pills and cleansing kits just aren’t that effective, if at all. They may even prove potentially harmful, and their benefits stop at being a potential hangover cure.

Your colon, liver, kidneys, digestive system, even your skin, all naturally remove harmful items from your body. And even if they didn’t, a 99-cent patch from the pharmacy isn’t going to do it for you. 

Many of these health items contain harmful chemicals themselves. At best, they’re marginally effective at doing anything other than removing money from your wallet. At worst, they’re potentially harmful themselves. 

Bottom line: there are simple, natural, even homeopathic ways to do everything from clearing stress to clearing your sinuses. Don’t buy the hype and overload your bathroom drawer with miracle fixes and empty detoxifying promises.

Face Masks

Ripping off a tacky face mask temporarily makes your skin feel like new, but it turns out they usually aren’t great for your complexion. And while some people swear by them, your face shouldn’t create enough oil to warrant using them every week.

Instead, you may want to try a cream-based exfoliator that gently penetrates your pores without you tearing through them. Or, it could be time to try a different shower soap or makeup product to see different results.

Want to really go minimalist? Try your hand at creating your own skin creams or soaps. It’s easier than you might think!

If these products remain a small joy in your otherwise hectic week, or if you happen to be one of the folks who swear by them, then, by all means, keep using them. We’re not about reducing joy or taking away from products that actually work! However, do try to reduce the amount of time, money, and energy you spend loading up on your skincare products. Find, or create, an item that works and stick with it. 

One bottle. One jar. One tube. Don’t get suckered into the clearance aisle at the store and load up on sale items. A. Most don’t work, and B. Once you find one you like, stick with it.

Immunity Boosters

You have a flight in a few days, so you make sure to take a few fizzy tablets now. You hope that by drinking three days’ worth of vitamin C, you’ll avoid the flu when you leave the airport. Well, not so much.

 

While there is definitely some benefit to taking vitamin C, these blends of herbs and vitamins provide little more than your usual daily supplement. If you find it helps, by all means, go for it. However, the science behind this tends to say that most promises of boosting your immune system, fighting off infection, and etcetera… well, they generally don’t work. 

Plungers, Cleaning Products, And Brushes

Now minimalism is not about suggesting that if your toilet gets stopped up you’re out of luck. However, these items don’t necessarily need to be in the bathroom itself. That’s why hall closets exist. 

Where we will say to reduce your “stuff” accumulation is in the number of products you need. There are plenty of fine cleaning products on the market, many of which serve multiple purposes. You likely don’t need seven different foaming bathroom cleansers. Cut back. 

Makeup Brushes

Does this one sound weird? Okay, maybe some people need this health and beauty item, but you don’t need it in your bathroom. While it’s understandably more convenient to keep it all with you, it’s unsanitary to do so.

Unsurprisingly, your bathroom has tons of ambient germs and bacteria hanging around, including those landing on your brushes. When you batter and beat your face, you’re only smearing them across your skin and into pores.

Much like the dangers of storing a toothbrush too close to your commode, well, you get the idea. This one isn’t so much about getting rid of the item; rather, moving it to a more sanitary location. 

Combine Duplicate Products & Containers

Okay, we’re not throwing anything out here, but we are making things more efficient. We’ve all experienced this: you were nearly out of shampoo, so you planned ahead and bought a new one. And then, you forgot which was which and now you have two of them taking space. It happens.

Although it’s common sense, most of us have multiple bottles of the same skincare, hair, or makeup products that could be combined. Even one fewer item from your medicine cabinet can prevent them all spilling out again.

From old containers from your last hotel stay to duplicate projects, everyone has things they could compartmentalize. You may even open the medicine cabinet without causing a mess. Wouldn’t that be nice?

Going minimalist in your bathroom isn’t just about throwing things out. It’s about reducing clutter, casting off excess, and emphasizing functionality. The bathroom tends to be one of the smaller rooms in the house. However, it’s also a room where we spend a fair amount of our time. Let’s create a more peaceful, harmonious environment for the time we spend there.