DON’T LET GOOD TASTE GO DOWN THE DRAIN
Ideas to help keep order and function in the bathroom, especially when hosting guests
Whether your bathroom is your own personal spa or a tiny space shared with three roommates, it should be a place of order, freshness and calm.
Take a good, hard look around, says designer Shazalynn CavinWinfrey of SCW Interiors. “The perfect look and feel of a bathroom is one that meets the end users’ needs,” she says.
“It’s different for everyone, but I think that a space that is functional and flexible is key. And your bathroom should be the cleanest room in your home.”
Cavin-Winfrey says she is amazed at how many things people leave scattered on bathroom vanities, shelves and floors.
“I think a bathroom should always be uncluttered.
The average human makes so many choices and scans so much information in a given day — your daily rituals at home should be easy to maintain and not require any extra work to find things you need.”
Always keeping the bathroom tidy has its benefits, including being ready for guests at all times, she says: “That can help make entertaining stress-free.”
Whether you have a dedicated powder room for guests or everyone must share the one bathroom in your home, these dos and don’ts might help you clean up your act:
DO STOCK BOTH BAR AND LIQUID SOAP
In a powder room, Cavin-Winfrey prefers a pump bottle so there is no gooey soap bar left in a pool of water by a previous guest. She would choose ElizabethW’s Vetiver hand wash (US$22, elizabethw. com; contact elizabethw.com for international rates).
If you have a guest staying the night, it’s a nice welcoming gesture to leave a fresh bar of soap atop a stack of clean towels on the bed. She likes Crabtree & Evelyn goat milk soap ($11, crabtree-evelyn. com).
DON’T THINK OF TISSUE PAPER AS AN ACCESSORY
It’s thoughtful to have a box of tissues around so guests won’t have to rip off a piece of toilet paper to blow their nose or adjust makeup.
Extra points for a tissue box cover, such as the one in white lacquer from the Container Store ($19.34, containerstore.com).
DON’T USE PLASTIC BAGS TO LINE TRASH CANS
Do you want to take your style tips from motels? Hopefully not, so don’t use your plastic grocery bag as a trash liner, Cavin-Winfrey says, or buy rolls of mini trash-can liners.
It seems wrong for the planet to be buying small plastic bags to corral trash in your teeny-tiny wastebasket, she says. Instead, buy good-looking metal or recycled plastic wastebaskets that can be easily and frequently wiped out and sanitized.
DO USE HOOKS FOR BATH TOWELS, NOT BARS
How many people neatly fold their large towels when they hang them up over a bar? Do you really expect guests to do that?
Hanging towels on an oversized hook makes them dry faster and looks less messy, Cavin-Winfrey says.
She often uses the large Restoration Hardware Spritz hook (US$39, restorationhardware. com).