A “Big Kid” Bathroom

We’re finally past the little toilet seats and stepstools, but the children still need help keeping the bathroom organized and functional. They are responsible for cleaning the kid/hall bathroom, and I pop in every now and then for a full scrub-down because they’re still learning how to clean and, well, I’m sure you can imagine how many spots they miss 😊 

Is your bathroom a disaster?

If your bathroom looks anything like mine used to, I’m sure there are globs of toothpaste all over, shredded toilet paper on the floor (seriously, why? Do children turn into cats on the toilet?), an empty TP roll on the holder and a full roll on the counter, spit speckles decorating the mirror, dirty laundry on the floor, a mashed up slimy bar of soap sitting on the tub rim chilling next to Spider-Man and mermaid Barbie, with numerous shampoo bottles hiding puddles of water and tiny Legos.  Oh, and let’s not forget that someone forgot to flush, and the trash is full, but everyone decided to play trash jenga anyway. Sound about right?     

I’m here to tell you there’s HOPE… you can have a kid/hall bathroom that doesn’t need a frantic and surreptitious cleaning when an unexpected guest stops by.

Easy Changes Make a Big Difference

Take control of your kid’s bathroom! These easy changes will transform the functionality of your bathroom and make cleaning up much quicker and easier. Here they are—my top 10 tips for a clean kid’s bathroom, with less nagging and work! This is a real picture of our kid bathroom. I didn’t clean it up or stage it, except for moving the soap dispenser and putting down the toilet seat lid. It’s 100% presentable for an impromptu guest!

10 Easy TIPS

1.  Never-on-the-floor-patterned towels—I have 2 towel tricks. 1: Patterned towels hide a LOT more toothpaste than solid ones. Get patterned towels, my friends. And 2: safety-pin your towels. I used to pick the towels up off the floor at least 3 times a day. Never again. Pin those suckers!

2.  Replace the stool with a small mirror. Ok, so we are past needing a stepstool to wash hands and brush teeth, but the mounted wall mirror is still too high for our youngest to see his teeth, so I have a smaller mirror leaned up against the big one. Now he can see his whole face without a stool taking up floor space- easy peasy!

3.  Use a HUGE hand soap dispenser. Ever feel like ½ your life is spent filling up soap dispensers? LOL. I bought this giant dispenser and I love it. You may have noticed that it’s clear - so are all the other dispensers in this room – which enables me to see at a glance if it’s low and needs filling. I also love that the nozzle is black, which doesn’t show all the dirt that white and clear ones show.

4.  Practical and clean toothbrush storage. Have you ever seen the slime that accumulates in the bottom of toothbrush holder cups? Disgusting! Our vanity doesn’t have a drawer, and when I kept the toothbrushes underneath… I can’t believe I’m going to admit this… they didn’t brush their teeth. Yes, our children are that lazy and gross that out-of-sight meant out-of-mind. Ugh. I may be the worst parent ever… ok. So, clearly the toothbrushes must be IN THEIR FACES. But also not together, or else I hear, “His toothbrush touched mine!” and “He just grabs any toothbrush and doesn’t even look! He used MINE!” I also have kids who prefer different toothpaste flavors. I know. It’s ridiculous. But one can’t stand the berry kid flavor and one can’t handle mint: “BURNING! I’m BURNING!” lol.  Here’s my genius solution.  Everyone has their own basket, which holds their own toothbrush, own toothpaste (do your kids also fight over who made the tube messy, or is that just us?), and own reusable cup. We keep flossing picks underneath the sink in the bag. Every week I switch out the washcloths underneath the bins when I do the towels and rugs, and it’s someone’s job each week to keep the baskets and toothpaste tubes clean (see #10). Everyone has their own easy-to-clean-and-keep-separate bin.

5.  Kid-friendly mouthwash dispenser. After having to open the childproof mouthwash each day for one child, and after a different child spilled the entire bottle of mouthwash, I knew we needed a change. I made a cheap but fully functional mouthwash station out of a soap dispenser. They can all use it independently! I actually got this idea from the milk dispenser in the movie Big Daddy! Each child has a little labeled reusable cup (extra medicine dispensers or mouthwash caps). Yeah, you can use disposable dixie cups, but we went through the entire box of 2 million in three days, and they were leftall over ½ full and soggy, so nope.

6.   Get rid of the bottles. A shampoo/conditioner/soap dispenser is not necessary, but it does keep things less cluttered. We’ve replaced all the bottles with this dispenser. I can see that this might not work so well when they’re teens, but for now while I’m controlling what kinds of potions and lotions we’re buying, it makes it a lot easier to see what needs to be refilled, to wipe down the tub rim, and to keep the tub area clean. This also eliminates the soggy soap bar, which was another reason to complain: “I don’t want to use his germy soap.” The kids like using the poofs and their bodies may be cleaner… maybe.

7.  Use a small toy bin. Our days of playtime baths are numbered, for sure, but not quite over. We’ve mostly moved to showers or reading baths, but our youngest still plays with toys. I like the small toy bin with drainage. Not much to say here… you need to corral the toys and get them dry. Again, it’s off the tub rim for easy cleaning. Small bin = less toys. Big bin = more toys. You can do the clean up math!

8.  Towel hooks and laundry basket. My secret is: we don’t have them. The kids get naked in their rooms and walk to the bathroom with their towels around them (or not- streaking alert!). This eliminates laundry in the bathroom and towels stored in there. I grew up going to the beach down the shore, where everyone 1-99 years old walked from their outside shower to their inside bedroom wrapped in a towel—past neighbors, family, friends… normal (I mean, you’re showing less wrapped in a towel than in your bathing suit). This may not work for every family or even for ours as the kids grow, but while we’re all comfortable with this set up, I’m going with it. If this isn’t for you, then I would suggest one hook for each person, labeled with their initial or name, a towel- preferably color coded- for each child, and a laundry bin in the bathroom.

9.  Easy-to-take-out trash. The easiest way to get the kids to take out the trash (aside from making it someone’s job-see #10) is to make it EASY for them. Line the trash can with a bag, and put all the extra trash bags in the bottom of the bin, so when they take out the full bag, the next liner is RIGHT THERE in their face! lol.

10.  Get the kids involved. This is the most important tip. It’s their bathroom, so it’s their responsibility to keep it clean. I have our cleaning broken down into 3 jobs. We rotate the children through the jobs so everyone gets a turn doing the dreaded toothpaste-on-the-sink job. I use a cleaning chart in the bathroom with magnets to designate who does what job each week. It’s their job to keep the area tidy all week, and once a week they need to actually clean. For example, one job is “floor, walls, trash”  - all week this child will pick up anything on the floor. Once a week s/he will sweep and wash the floor.  They don’t do a perfect job, but they do it. They’re learning, and practice makes perfect! You can read more about our chore charts here.

So, there you have it. My top 10 tips for a clean kid’s bathroom. I’d love to know if you have any others, or if you do any of these! Tell me your secrets!