Storage is the most underplanned element of almost every bathroom renovation. People spend hours choosing tiles and taps, then realise on day one of living in the new bathroom that there's nowhere to put anything. Shampoo bottles line the edge of the bath. Towels stack on the floor. The mood board looked perfect; the reality is chaos.
The good news is that most bathroom storage problems can be solved — often elegantly — if you plan for them before work begins. Here's how to approach storage for every bathroom size.
Small Bathrooms and Cloakrooms: Make Every Centimetre Count
Vanity Units with Drawers vs Pedestal Basins
The single biggest storage upgrade in a small bathroom is replacing a pedestal basin with a wall-hung vanity unit. A pedestal basin offers zero storage and exposes all the pipework underneath. A wall-hung unit with two or three drawers provides generous concealed storage and, because it's off the floor, makes the room feel noticeably larger.
Even a 450mm vanity unit — the smallest standard size — provides enough drawer space for toiletries, cleaning products and spare loo rolls. In a cloakroom where floor space is genuinely limited, a slimline wall-hung unit at 300mm depth can work where a standard unit won't fit.
Mirrored Cabinets
A mirrored cabinet above the basin does two things at once: it provides the mirror you need and hides a useful cavity behind it. Quality mirrored cabinets — brands like Roper Rhodes and HIB make excellent ones — have adjustable internal shelves suitable for medicines, toiletries and skincare. They're recessed into the wall during installation for the slimmest possible profile, or surface-mounted if the wall construction won't allow chasing out.
In a small bathroom, a mirrored cabinet is far more space-efficient than a flat mirror with a separate storage unit somewhere else.
Over-Toilet Shelving
The space above the toilet is almost always wasted. A simple shelf unit — either wall-mounted or a freestanding over-toilet tower — turns this dead zone into useful storage. Keep it to two or three open shelves rather than a tall closed unit, which can make a small room feel oppressive.
Hiding Pipes Behind Stud Walls
Exposed pipework is both an eyesore and a missed storage opportunity. During a renovation, boxing in pipes with a tiled stud wall creates a flush surface to tile and can incorporate a recessed niche or shelf at the same time. The niche takes no additional floor space — it lives within the depth of the stud wall — and provides ideal storage for toiletries at exactly the right height.
Medium Bathrooms: Build In Where You Can
Recessed Shelving in Shower Niches
A tiled niche in a shower wall is the cleanest possible storage solution. There are no edges to clean around, no wire baskets to rust and no shower caddies to fall on your foot at 7am. A standard niche is typically 300mm wide, 150mm deep and 200mm tall — enough for bottles and a razor — and is built into the wall structure before waterproofing and tiling begins.
Two niches at different heights work well: one at eye level for frequently used items and one lower for heavy bottles. Plan their positions before tiling starts to ensure they fall cleanly between studs and the tile layout doesn't require awkward cuts around the opening.
Heated Towel Rails with Integral Shelves
A heated towel rail with a small shelf above or beside it is a practical detail that many people overlook. Some rails incorporate a small shelf at the top — enough for a candle, a folded flannel or a small toiletry. In a bathroom without a separate airing cupboard, a rail with more rungs rather than fewer keeps towels aired without them doubling over each other.
Under-Bath Drawers
A freestanding or built-in bath with a solid panel offers another hidden storage opportunity. Under-bath drawers — accessed via a hinged or sliding panel in the bath side — use the cavity beneath the bath for bulky items: spare towels, bath toys for families with young children, cleaning supplies. This works particularly well with a fitted bath panel rather than a freestanding unit.
Large Family Bathrooms: Plan for Volume
Full-Height Vanity Runs
In a larger bathroom — typically a main family bathroom of 6m² or more — there's often room for a full-height vanity run along one wall. A combination of a double basin unit with drawers, a tall storage tower and open shelving creates a fitted look that handles everything a busy family bathroom demands. Specify soft-close drawers and hinges: in a bathroom used by multiple people every day, cheap drawer runners fail within a year.
Tall Narrow Storage Units
A 200–300mm wide tall unit fits into spaces that nothing else can use: beside a toilet, in a run of wall between the door and the basin, in an alcove. In a family bathroom it provides dedicated storage per person — each shelf for a different member of the household — without taking up meaningful floor space.
Clever Corner Solutions
Corners are consistently under-used in bathrooms. A corner vanity unit, a corner shelf tower or a corner bath with a recessed shelf at one end turns awkward geometry into usable space. Corner shower enclosures that make use of a previously dead corner are among the most common ways I free up floor space in a larger bathroom renovation, without reducing storage — the opposite, in fact.
The "No-Drill" Situation: Adding Storage Without Touching the Tiles
If you're renting, or if the renovation isn't happening for a while, some practical no-drill options exist: freestanding over-toilet towers with adjustable feet, tension shelf organisers inside existing vanity cupboards and magnetic spice-rack style strips on the inside of cabinet doors for small items. These are compromises, though. If a renovation is coming, plan the storage properly from the start — retrofitting is always harder and more expensive than building it in.
5 Best Space-Saving Bathroom Buys Under £200
- Mirrored cabinet (£60–£120) — replaces a flat mirror and provides concealed shelf storage in one unit
- Wall-hung WC unit with shelf (£80–£150) — conceals the cistern and adds a usable surface above the toilet
- Slim over-toilet shelf tower (£40–£80) — freestanding, no drilling required, instant storage above the toilet
- Shower niche insert kit (£30–£60) — a pre-formed waterproof niche insert that tiles directly over, simpler than building from scratch
- Pull-out under-sink organiser (£20–£50) — makes full use of the depth of a vanity cupboard, with pull-out trays that bring items at the back within reach
The Most Important Rule: Plan Storage Before You Tile
Almost every storage idea in this article is easier and cheaper to execute when it's planned before tiling begins. Recessed niches, stud wall cavities, under-bath drawers, vanity runs — all of these need to be considered at the design stage. Adding them afterwards means lifting tiles, chasing walls or rebuilding sections of the bathroom.
When I'm planning a renovation with a customer, storage is one of the first conversations we have — not an afterthought. How many people use the bathroom? What are you currently storing that doesn't have a home? Where do the clutter spots tend to develop? The answers to those questions shape the layout as much as the choice of basin or tiles.
If you're planning a renovation in Surrey, Kent or Sussex and want help thinking through the layout and storage, I'm always happy to talk it through before work begins. See also our guide on small bathroom renovation ideas and our full bathroom renovation planning guide.
Want a Bathroom That Actually Works for Your Home?
Haydn designs and fits bathrooms across Surrey, Kent and Sussex — with storage solutions built in from the start, not bolted on at the end.