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Hosting friends, family, or colleagues for a dinner party or a weekend stay is a wonderful way to create lasting memories. However, the preparation process can often feel overwhelming. While most hosts focus heavily on deep cleaning the kitchen, preparing the perfect meal, or ensuring the living room looks immaculate, the bathroom is frequently treated as an afterthought. This is a critical mistake. The bathroom is one of the few spaces in your home where guests will be entirely alone, giving them plenty of time to look around and take in their surroundings.
If you want your visitors to feel comfortable, welcome, and relaxed, you need to curate this space carefully. Creating a spa-like, welcoming environment isn’t just about what you put into the room; it is equally about what you take out. Knowing exactly what things to remove from your bathroom before guests arrive can mean the difference between a guest feeling like a pampered VIP and feeling like an awkward intruder in your personal sanctuary.
Why Editing Your Bathroom Space Matters
Before diving into the specifics of what needs to be hidden away, it is important to understand the psychology behind a well-prepared guest bathroom. When a guest steps into your washroom, they should ideally feel like they have walked into a high-end boutique hotel room. The space should be a neutral, clean, and calming oasis.
When a bathroom is filled with your daily personal items, guests can feel like they are encroaching on your private life. They might feel awkward moving your personal skincare products just to wash their hands, or they might feel uncomfortable surrounded by intimate hygiene items. By clearing the clutter and removing highly personal items, you provide a blank slate that allows your guests to feel completely at ease. Let’s explore the crucial items you need to stash away before the doorbell rings.
9 Things to Remove From Your Bathroom Before Guests Arrive
1. Prescription Medications and Supplements
One of the absolute most important things to stash away is your collection of prescription medications, daily vitamins, and supplements. First and foremost, this is a matter of privacy. Your medical history and current health conditions are your business alone, and leaving pill bottles out on the counter or easily accessible in an unlocked medicine cabinet invites unnecessary curiosity. Let’s be honest: snooping in medicine cabinets is a well-documented temptation for many people.
Beyond privacy, removing medications is a critical safety measure, especially if your guests are bringing young children. Curious toddlers can quickly get their hands on brightly colored pills. To ensure peace of mind for everyone, gather all medications and relocate them to a secure drawer in your bedroom or a high, locked cabinet in the kitchen.
2. Used Toothbrushes and Oral Care Items
There is something inherently intimate about a toothbrush. While it is an essential tool for your daily hygiene, a used, wet toothbrush sitting in a cup on the sink is not an appealing sight for guests. The same goes for water flossers, tongue scrapers, used tubes of toothpaste squeezed from the middle, and partial rolls of dental floss.
Clear these items off the vanity and tuck them into a drawer or a medicine cabinet. If you are sharing the bathroom with your guests for the weekend, consider keeping your oral care items in a small toiletry bag that you can bring in and out of the bathroom as needed.
3. Razors and Hair Removal Tools
No matter how clean you think your razor is, leaving it perched on the edge of the bathtub or hanging in the shower caddy is a major faux pas when hosting. Used razors can harbor bacteria, rust, and stray hairs, which can instantly ruin the illusion of a pristine, spa-like environment.
This rule also applies to shaving creams, beard trimmers, epilators, and tweezers. Store all hair removal tools completely out of sight. If your razor is currently sitting in the shower, move it to a vanity drawer or place it in a designated caddy tucked away in a closet until your guests depart.
4. Wet Loofahs, Sponges, and Washcloths
Much like razors, wet shower accessories are heavily personal and can be unsightly. Loofahs, shower poufs, and sponges are designed to scrub dead skin cells away, and leaving a damp, used sponge hanging over the showerhead is not the welcoming aesthetic you want to achieve.
Before your guests arrive, ensure all wet washcloths and personal shower sponges are removed from the guest bath. If the bathroom is shared, store your personal loofah in a plastic bin under the sink or in your bedroom. Replace them with fresh, neatly folded towels and a brand-new, wrapped bar of soap or a high-quality body wash dispenser for your guests to use.
5. Everyday Skincare and Makeup Clutter
Your daily routine might require an arsenal of moisturizers, serums, foundations, and setting sprays, but your guests do not need to navigate a maze of bottles to reach the sink. Countertop clutter makes a bathroom look messy and disorganized, even if it has just been scrubbed clean.
Take a few minutes to clear off the countertops entirely. Invest in some stylish organizers to corral your everyday products inside your drawers or under the sink. Leaving the vanity clear not only looks incredibly chic and inviting but also provides your guests with much-needed space to place their own toiletry bags and makeup bags.
6. The Bathroom Scale
A gathering or a vacation should be a time of relaxation, indulgence, and joy. The last thing most people want to think about when they are enjoying a weekend getaway or a lavish dinner party is their weight. A bathroom scale can inadvertently trigger negative thoughts or self-consciousness for your guests.
Do your visitors a favor and slide the bathroom scale under a linen closet shelf, behind the toilet, or better yet, move it into your master bedroom for the duration of their stay. Out of sight means out of mind, allowing your guests to fully relax and enjoy the hospitality you are providing.
7. Overflowing Trash Cans
This might seem like a no-brainer, but it is incredibly easy to overlook in the rush of party preparation. A trash can filled with used tissues, empty shampoo bottles, or makeup wipes is universally unappealing.
Always empty the bathroom wastebasket right before your guests are scheduled to arrive. To take it a step further, make sure your bathroom trash can has a lid to conceal whatever your guests might throw away, and always line it with a fresh, clean bag. This small attention to detail speaks volumes about your standard of cleanliness.
8. Intimate Clothing and Drying Laundry
Many of us use our bathrooms as makeshift drying rooms for delicate laundry items. Bras, underwear, swimsuits, or hand-washed sweaters draped over the shower rod or towel rack must be relocated before anyone comes over.
Walking into a bathroom and being greeted by someone’s dripping undergarments is an incredibly awkward experience for a guest. Relocate any drying laundry to a laundry room or a bedroom closet where it will not be seen.
9. Plungers and Toilet Cleaning Brushes
While these items are absolute necessities for any functional bathroom, they are not decorative pieces. Plungers and toilet brushes carry a certain “ick” factor, reminding people of bathroom chores and plumbing emergencies.
If possible, hide the plunger and toilet brush under the sink or behind the toilet so they are not the first things someone sees when they walk into the room. If your under-sink space is limited, consider purchasing a sleek, enclosed caddy that disguises the brush and plunger as a cohesive, modern bathroom accessory.
What to Add Once the Clutter is Gone
Now that you have successfully removed the unnecessary and overly personal items from your space, you can focus on the fun part: adding touches of luxury.
Start by stocking the bathroom with plenty of high-quality, plush towels. Ensure there is an abundance of toilet paper clearly visible so guests never have to awkwardly ask for a replacement roll. Add a gentle, universally appealing room spray or a subtly scented reed diffuser to keep the room smelling fresh without being overpowering. Finally, consider leaving a small basket of complimentary toiletries—such as travel-sized toothpaste, a spare toothbrush, and some luxurious hand lotion—to show your guests that you have anticipated their every need.
Conclusion: Creating a Welcoming Oasis
Preparing your home for visitors does not have to be a stressful endeavor, provided you know exactly where to direct your attention. The bathroom is a space of comfort and privacy, and ensuring it meets the highest standards of hospitality is key to being a gracious host. By actively considering the things to remove from your bathroom before guests arrive, you are clearing away the visual noise and personal clutter that can make visitors feel out of place.
Taking the time to hide away medications, personal grooming tools, and everyday clutter allows the natural cleanliness and style of your home to shine through. The result is a beautifully curated, spa-like environment that will leave a lasting positive impression on anyone who walks through your doors.