Our Three-Square-Metre Bathroom: The 9 Things That Made Room
Two people, one sink edge, no cupboards and a landlord who said no drilling. The Saturday afternoon we gave a tiny rented bathroom somewhere to put things.
9 products8 min read
The bathroom you can touch both walls of
Our bathroom is three square metres if you count the bit behind the door. It has a sink with a ten-centimetre edge, a toilet, a shower with a glass screen, one plank shelf above the cistern and no cupboard, no cabinet, no mirror with a door. The lease says no holes in the tiles.
For a year two people’s toothbrushes, razors, contact-lens cases and five bottles of various things lived on the sink edge and the floor of the shower, and every morning one of us knocked something into the basin. In October we gave it a Saturday afternoon and a rule: nothing we bought could leave a mark. Here is what we did, surface by surface, in the order we did it.
2 p.m. — the sink edge
The sink was the worst of it. Ten centimetres of porcelain held a soap bar, two toothbrushes in a mug, a razor and whichever bottle had been used last, and when the tap ran hard everything got wet.
The pump that replaced a melting bar of soap
The touchless automatic soap dispenser, about $21, is a steel cylinder with a sensor under the spout: put a hand underneath and it gives you a measured squirt. We bought it because the soap bar had fused itself to the sink and because nobody wants to pick up a pump with hands that are the reason they are washing. It holds about a week of two people’s hand-washing, has three dose settings, and charges over USB. The sensor is keen; the first evening it fired at a towel going past, and we learned to put it at the back of the shelf rather than the front.
Touchless Automatic Soap Dispenser (480 ml)
$20.55
The shelf that gave the sink its edge back
The no-drill aluminium bathroom shelf with a towel bar, about $15, is the thing that changed the room. It is a long, shallow tray with a rail along the front and hooks underneath, and it fixes to tile with adhesive pads: clean the tile, press, and leave it alone for a day. We put it on the wall beside the mirror at shoulder height, and on Sunday morning every bottle, both toothbrushes and the razor went up onto it, the hand towel went on the rail, and the sink edge had nothing on it for the first time since we moved in. It will not hold on painted plaster or textured tile; we tested a pad on the painted wall by the door and it peeled in an hour.
No-Drill Aluminium Bathroom Shelf with Towel Bar
$14.55
With the sink clear we turned round, which in that room takes one step, and faced the shower.
3 p.m. — the shower floor
The shower had no shelf at all, so the shampoo, the conditioner and a bottle of something one of us swears by stood on the floor in the corner and were kicked over once a week. The glass screen had a white crust at the bottom that we had stopped noticing.
The shelf that came off the floor and will come off the wall
The suction-cup bathroom wall shelf, about $21, hangs on two large suction cups with a locking lever each. You press them onto dry tile, push the levers down, and the shelf is on. We hung it at chest height on the back wall of the shower, loaded it with the three bottles and a razor, and it has not moved in two months of steam. The point of suction over adhesive in here is that it comes off: on moving day we flip the levers and there is nothing to show it was there. The limit is the surface. The cups need a flat, glossy tile with no grout line under them, and the first position we tried, which crossed a grout line, let go overnight with a crash.
Suction-Cup Bathroom Wall Shelf (30–60 cm)
$21.05
The blade that stopped the crust
The EHOMGUI telescopic shower squeegee, about $11, has a silicone blade on a handle that extends from a hand’s length to an arm’s length, so the top of the glass screen gets wiped without standing on the edge of the tray. Thirty seconds after each shower and the white crust stopped coming back; it took one proper scrub to get rid of the year that was already there. The one thing it lacks is a hook of its own, so it hung from one of the hooks under the new shelf, which is the kind of problem we were happy to have.
EHOMGUI Telescopic Shower Squeegee
$10.99
By four the shower was a room with a shelf in it rather than a cupboard with a drain. The floor, the one plank shelf and the back of the door were what was left.
4 p.m. — the floor and the one shelf
The toilet brush lived on the floor in a plastic cup with a puddle under it. The plank shelf above the cistern held a hairdryer, a box of cotton buds and a stack of hand towels, which fell off whenever the door closed hard.
The brush that got off the floor
The MENGNI silicone toilet brush and holder, about $10, is a brush with flat silicone bristles that drips dry, in a slim holder that sticks to the wall with an adhesive pad. The silicone matters more than it sounds: a plastic bristle brush holds water and smells, and this one does not. We stuck the holder to the tile beside the toilet at knee height, gave it a day, and hung the brush. The floor under where the cup used to be took a week to stop looking like a cup had been there.
MENGNI Silicone Toilet Brush and Holder
$9.55
The hooks that hung under the only shelf we had
The under-shelf hanging rack with hooks, about $12, is a wire frame that slides onto the edge of a plank shelf and hangs a row of hooks underneath it, with no fixing at all. Our shelf above the cistern is a two-centimetre board, and the rack slid on and sat there. The hairdryer hangs from its loop, the hand towel and a shower cap hang beside it, and the top of the shelf has room for the cotton buds and a plant one of us bought on the way home. It needs a shelf board thin enough to clamp, about three centimetres or less, and the hooks are for towels and a hairdryer, not a wet bathrobe.
Under-Shelf Hanging Rack with Hooks
$11.69
What was left were the things nobody buys until they have to, and we had to.
5 p.m. — the small things
The toilet roll had lived on the cistern for a year because the old holder had been drilled by a previous tenant into the wrong place and taken down. Spare rolls lived in the bedroom. The shower drain had been running slow since the summer.
The roll holder that stuck where the old one wasn’t
The self-adhesive toilet paper holder with a shelf, about $10, is a steel arm for the roll with a flat tray on top for a phone or a spare roll. It sticks to tile with a pad: press hard for a minute, wait a night, hang the roll. We put it where a hand falls, which the previous tenant had not, and the phone tray turned out to be the feature we use most. It will not hold on textured paint, and the pad is single-use, so decide where it goes before you peel the backing.
Self-Adhesive Toilet Paper Holder with Shelf
$10.45
The box that fits beside the toilet
The slim fabric toilet roll storage box with a bamboo lid, about $17, is a narrow lidded box the width of a hand that slides into the gap between the toilet and the wall. Ours holds twelve rolls with the lid shut, which means the spare rolls left the bedroom and the bathroom finally stores its own supplies. The lid is a shelf for a candle. Measure the gap first; the box needs about fifteen centimetres, and the fabric sides want a dry floor, so it lives on the side away from the shower.
Slim Fabric Toilet Roll Storage Box with Bamboo Lid
$17.45
The small thing that fixed the drain
The silicone sink strainer hair catcher, about $5, is a soft cover that sits over the shower drain and catches hair before it gets to the trap. We put it down at five o’clock and by the next Saturday it had collected more hair than either of us was prepared to discuss, and the drain ran clear. Empty it every few showers; if the hair dries into it, cleaning it is the least pleasant two minutes in this story.
Silicone Sink Strainer Hair Catcher
$4.82
We finished at half past five with every bottle on a shelf, the brush on the wall, the rolls in a box and nothing on the sink edge but the tap. Two months later it is still like that, which for a shared bathroom is the only review that matters.
What we’d leave at home
Everything in this story
Touchless Automatic Soap Dispenser (480 ml)
$20.55
No-Drill Aluminium Bathroom Shelf with Towel Bar
$14.55
Suction-Cup Bathroom Wall Shelf (30–60 cm)
$21.05
EHOMGUI Telescopic Shower Squeegee
$10.99
MENGNI Silicone Toilet Brush and Holder
$9.55
Under-Shelf Hanging Rack with Hooks
$11.69
Self-Adhesive Toilet Paper Holder with Shelf
$10.45
Slim Fabric Toilet Roll Storage Box with Bamboo Lid
$17.45
Silicone Sink Strainer Hair Catcher
$4.82
Everything here comes to about $121. Prices in USD; they move a little from week to week.
Frequently asked questions
How do I add storage to a tiny bathroom without drilling?
Three ways, and we used all of them: adhesive pads on smooth tile for shelves and holders, locking suction cups for anything in the shower, and things that slide into a gap or clamp onto a shelf you already have. Give adhesive a full day before loading it and it holds; rush it and it falls off at two in the morning.
Do adhesive bathroom shelves actually stay up?
On clean, smooth tile, yes. Ours have been up for two months carrying two people's bottles. On textured paint, grout lines or wallpaper, no; that is where the suction shelf or a slide-in box earns its place.
What's the first thing to buy for a small shared bathroom?
A shelf above the sink. The sink edge is the one surface two people fight over, and moving the bottles and toothbrushes up a foot changes the room more than anything else. Ours cost about $15 and went on in ten minutes.
Is a cheap automatic soap dispenser worth having?
For a shared sink, yes. It replaced a soap bar that melted into the porcelain, and nobody touches a pump with dirty hands. Buy the rechargeable version; batteries do not last in a steamy room.
How much did the whole bathroom reset cost?
About $121 for the nine things in this story. If you only sort the sink and the shower, the two shelves and the soap dispenser come to about $57.