Bathroom Storage Ideas: Smart Ways to Free Up Space
The best bathroom storage ideas are the ones built into the room rather than added on top of it: recessed shower niches, wall-hung and tall cabinets, drawers inside the vanity and, if you are converting a loft, fitted eaves cupboards. Baskets and shelves still help, but a bathroom that stays tidy usually has storage planned in from the start.
This guide covers both sides of the question. First, what works in a bathroom of any size, with extra attention to small ones. Then the often forgotten loft and eaves space, which is where overflow towels, spare toiletries and cleaning supplies can live so the bathroom itself stays calm.
TL;DR
Edit first, build second. Keep only daily-use items in the bathroom and move backups elsewhere.
Recessed shower niches and recessed shelves add storage without taking up floor or wall space, but they must be planned before tiling.
Tall cabinets, wall-hung vanities with drawers and mirrored cabinets use vertical space best in a small bathroom.
Anything electrical (lit mirrors, heated rails, extractor fans) falls under Part P and ventilation rules, so plan storage around it.
Loft eaves cupboards turn awkward sloping space into practical storage, ideally designed with the conversion itself.
Table of Contents
Start with what you actually need to store
Before you buy a single shelf, empty the room and sort what you own. Designers quoted by Real Simple make the same point: the first step is to edit and minimise, keeping only what you use daily in the bathroom and moving extra towels or spare soap to a nearby cupboard.
Then sort what is left into three groups:
Daily items: toothbrushes, skincare, shampoo, razors. These need to be within easy reach.
Weekly items: hair tools, spare toilet rolls, bath products. These can sit behind a door or in a drawer.
Bulk and backup: towels, cleaning products, medicines in bulk. These belong in tall cupboards, a landing cupboard or the loft.
This simple audit tells you how many drawers, how much shelf depth and how much hidden space you really need. It also stops you paying for storage you will not use.
Shower niche ideas that keep the floor clear
A shower niche is a recess built into the shower wall to hold bottles and soap. It removes the need for a hanging caddy, and it keeps bottles off the floor, which matters for safety as much as looks. Elle Decor makes the point that slippery soap and running water make easy access to your essentials a safety matter.
Where to put it
Place the niche where you can reach it without stepping into the water stream, and where it is not on show from the door. A common choice is the wall opposite the shower head or the end wall of the enclosure. Think about your height and the height of anyone else using the shower, then set the shelves at a comfortable reach.
Size, shape and tiling
Niche depth is limited by what is behind the wall. In a typical stud partition that is the depth of the timber frame, so a niche is shallow by nature. On a solid or party wall you need to know what is behind before you cut anything. Line the niche up with your tile layout so grout lines run through cleanly. A few approaches work well:
One tall niche with a shelf in the middle suits families with many bottles.
A long, low horizontal niche looks contemporary and holds a row of bottles.
Two small niches at different heights keep things separated.
A contrasting tile or mosaic back turns storage into a feature.
Always make the base slope slightly outwards so water drains into the shower rather than pooling. Your installer should waterproof the niche as part of the tanking system, since it is a weak point if done badly.
Shower ledge or niche?
A shower ledge is a continuous shelf built across a wall, usually from a boxed-in panel, instead of a recess. Ideal Home has looked at shower ledges versus shower niches with bathroom experts, and the choice often comes down to wall construction and how much storage you need. In our experience, a ledge suits a wall that is too thin or too awkward for a recess, and a niche gives the cleaner, flatter finish. If you want the plumbing hidden too, a ledge can double as a boxing-in for pipes.
Shower shelf ideas if you cannot build in
If you rent, or the wall cannot take a recess, there are still options. Corner shelves in stainless steel or glass, a slim pole shelf, or a wall-fixed ledge with adhesive tile fixings all lift bottles off the floor. Choose rust-resistant materials and avoid overloading adhesive-fixed items, which are fine for light bottles but not heavy ones.
Recessed bathroom shelves and built-in storage
Recessed shelves are not just for the shower. Between wall studs, a recess beside the basin or above the toilet can hold toiletries, a rolled towel or a small basket. They sit flush with the wall, so they take no floor space and nothing sticks out to catch a hip in a narrow room.
Real Simple’s storage guide recommends tall cabinets, recessed medicine cabinets and wall-recessed shower niches as ways of using vertical space. A few ways to use the principle:
Recessed medicine cabinet: a mirrored door in a wall recess gives you storage and a mirror in the space of a thin panel.
Alcove shelving: if you have a chimney breast alcove or a boxed-in soil stack, fit shelves or a shallow cupboard.
Built-in toilet unit: a cupboard or shelving around and above the cistern uses a spot that is usually wasted.
Bath panel storage: a hinged or push-open side panel can hold cleaning supplies.
Because these recesses go into walls, check what is inside them first. Pipes, cables and chimney flues are not things to cut into on a guess. This is where a survey before design saves money. Our guide to bathroom plumbing layout explains how pipe runs affect what you can build and where, and our piece on the role of plumbing in renovations covers why moving services early keeps options open.
Small bathroom storage: use height, not floor
In a small bathroom every centimetre of floor has to earn its place, so think upwards and think shallow.
Go tall and slim
A narrow tall cabinet or open shelving unit fitted in a corner or beside the toilet holds a surprising amount. Wall-hung units leave the floor visible, which makes a small room feel bigger, and make cleaning easier.
Choose the vanity for its drawers
A wall-hung vanity with deep drawers usually stores more than a cupboard under a basin, because drawers let you see everything from above. Real Simple cites shelf risers and compartmentalised drawer organisers as a way to raise usable capacity compared with an open cavity. A semi-recessed basin gains you a few extra centimetres of shelf space without a deeper unit sticking out into the room.
Use the back of the door and the space above it
Hooks or a slim rail on the back of the door take towels and robes. A shelf above the door frame, if the ceiling allows, is good for spare toilet rolls or a basket of towels you rarely use.
Pick a mirror that works harder
A mirrored cabinet replaces a plain mirror and a separate cupboard in one. If you want lighting built in, remember the electrical side: more on that below.
A quick comparison
Storage idea | Best for | Floor space used | Planning needed |
Shower niche | Shampoo, soap, razors | None | Before tiling and waterproofing |
Recessed wall shelf | Toiletries, towels | None | Check the wall cavity first |
Wall-hung vanity with drawers | Daily and weekly items | Small | Plumbing position |
Tall slim cabinet | Towels, spare items | Small | Door swing and clearances |
Mirrored cabinet | Medicines, grooming | None | Electrics if lit |
Baskets and trays | Flexible overflow | Varies | None |
Baskets are the easy non-permanent option. House & Garden notes that baskets are the most affordable, pretty and non-permanent way to add storage to a bathroom, but we would treat them as a supplement to built-in storage, not a replacement.
Making the most of vanity and cabinet storage
Fitted units look best when they finish cleanly against the ceiling and walls, with no dusty gap above. Taking tall cabinets to the ceiling gives you an extra shelf for items you rarely need, and a neat top line makes a modest room look considered. If you like a finished detail where wall meets ceiling, coving options suited to bathrooms are worth a look, particularly for period London homes where cornice lines are part of the character.
Inside the units, small changes pay off:
Fit drawer dividers so products do not slide into one pile.
Add a pull-out tray or tip-out front for small items beside the basin.
Use clear containers on deep shelves so nothing gets lost at the back.
Keep heavy items low and light items high.
If you want carpentry made to your exact dimensions, which is often the best answer in older properties with uneven walls, our carpentry ideas guide shows what bespoke joinery can do around the home.
Plan storage around electrics and ventilation
Storage and services share the same walls, so decide them together. Lit mirrors, shaver sockets, heated towel rails and extractor fans all need to be placed with your cabinets in mind. Under UK building regulations, new electrical installations in a bathroom must meet Part P, and the same guidance says a mechanical extractor fan venting moisture directly outside is the ideal way to meet ventilation standards in Part F. That guidance is written for houses in multiple occupation, but the principle applies in any home. Our own explainers cover Part P electrical certificates and bathroom ventilation requirements in more detail.
In practice that means:
Do not box in a fan or block its route with a deep cabinet.
Keep sockets and switches where they can be used and are compliant, rather than hidden behind units. Our note on socket heights shows why this matters when you sell.
Choose damp-resistant materials for storage near the shower and bath.
Use an electrician who can issue the right certificates.
Good ventilation also protects your storage. Towels and cardboard packaging stored in a damp room will not last.
Loft storage ideas and eaves storage
If the bathroom is the place for daily items, the loft is where the overflow can go. This is especially useful in London terraces and semis where landing cupboards are small or missing.
Eaves cupboards
When a loft is converted, the low sloping sides under the roof, called the eaves, are often too short to stand in but ideal for storage. Fitted cupboards, deep drawers on runners or push-to-open doors turn this area into proper storage for suitcases, bedding, seasonal clothes and spare towels. Because the angles differ in every roof, built-in joinery works better than off-the-shelf furniture.
What works well in the eaves
Deep drawers on full-extension runners: you pull out the contents instead of crawling in.
Hinged or sliding doors: sliding doors save swing space on a landing or bedroom.
Low open shelving: good for baskets in a study or teenage bedroom.
Window seats with lift-up lids: storage and seating under a dormer.
Plan it with the conversion
The cheapest time to design loft storage is while the loft is being converted, when insulation, flooring and lighting are all open. Eaves voids also need thought for insulation and ventilation, so storage should be fitted to the conversion design, not added afterwards. If you are weighing up a conversion, our loft conversion service covers dormer, mansard and hip-to-gable options, and it is worth deciding on storage before the design is fixed.
If you are not converting, a boarded loft with proper access and lighting can still hold seasonal items, but keep towels and anything damp-sensitive in the house.
Our view: plan storage when the walls are open
We have been refurbishing London homes since 2006, and the pattern repeats: the bathrooms that stay tidy are the ones where storage was decided before the first tile went up. A niche, a recess or a run of fitted cupboards costs far less to build into an open wall than to add later, and it makes the whole room feel considered.
Our advice is simple. Start with how your household uses the room, then fix the plumbing and electrical positions, then place the storage around them. Because we run projects in-house with director oversight, those decisions are made once and carried through, rather than passed between separate trades. The result is storage that looks as if it was always part of the house.
For small London bathrooms in particular, we nearly always look for a recess first, then wall-hung furniture, then joinery for awkward corners. Freestanding extras come last.
— Mateja
Bringing it together in a bathroom refurbishment
If you are thinking about more than a shelf, a full refurbishment is the moment to build storage into the room properly. Our bathroom refurbishment service covers the work from layout to plumbing, electrics, tiling and fitted joinery, with a site visit and an itemised quotation so you know what you are agreeing to. Our bathroom and kitchen refurbishment page shows how we approach both rooms. We work with homeowners across West and Central London, including Fulham, Chelsea, Kensington, Chiswick, Hammersmith and Notting Hill.
If you are still deciding on the shape of the room, our bathroom layout examples will help, and our wider guide to space-saving storage ideas looks at the rest of the house.
A simple planning checklist
Declutter and list what you need to store.
Measure the room, door swing and ceiling height.
Decide whether walls allow recesses, and check what is inside them.
Fix positions for basin, shower, rail, fan and sockets.
Choose a vanity with drawers and a tall or wall-hung unit.
Add a shower niche or ledge and agree its waterproofing.
Finish with baskets, hooks and trays.
Plan overflow storage elsewhere, such as the loft eaves.
FAQ
How do I add storage to a small bathroom?
Use height and recesses rather than floor space. A wall-hung vanity with drawers, a slim tall cabinet, a mirrored cabinet and a shower niche together add a lot without crowding the room. Move backup items to a landing cupboard or the loft.
Is a shower niche better than a shower shelf?
A niche is flush with the wall, looks cleaner and takes no space in the shower. A shelf or ledge suits walls that cannot take a recess. Ideal Home’s piece on niches and ledges is a good place to compare them.
Can I fit recessed shelves in any wall?
Not always. Stud walls can usually take a recess between the timbers, but solid, party and external walls need care, and any wall may hide pipes or cables. Have the wall checked before cutting, and do not remove structural timber without professional advice.
Do bathroom storage plans need building regulations approval?
Shelves and cabinets do not, but electrical work and ventilation can. New bathroom electrics must comply with Part P, and ventilation must meet the standards in Part F, so use a qualified electrician and plan fan positions before fitting units.
What is the best way to use loft eaves for storage?
Fitted cupboards or deep drawers built to the roof angle make the most of eaves space. Designing them with the loft conversion lets you deal with insulation, flooring and access at the same time.
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