Blimey, you've hit on one of my favourite little hacks! Right, picture this: it's a Tuesday evening in my old flat in Islington, circa 2018. The bathroom was, well, a shoebox. I'm talking 'can't swing a cat' levels of cramped. I had towels stacked on the loo tank, toilet rolls threatening to tumble into the tub, and my skincare potions lined up on the windowsill getting all bleached by the sun. A proper mess.
Then it dawned on me—all that lovely, empty air above the toilet! It's like a forgotten frontier in most bathrooms, innit? Just sitting there, begging to be used. That's where the humble **above toilet cabinet** waltzes in. Not the most glamorous name, but trust me, it's a game-changer.
I remember trekking to a John Lewis warehouse sale out near Watford, determined to find one. The key, I learned the hard way, is to *go tall*. I'm not talking about a dinky little shelf. I mean a proper cabinet that stretches up towards the ceiling. The one I ended up with was this sleek, white laminate thing from a brand I'd never heard of (took a gamble!), and it nearly touched the cornice. Suddenly, I had layers. Oh, the glorious layers!
The top shelf, way up high? That became the 'guest zone' or the 'long-term storage'. Spare loo rolls in bulk, that fancy hand soap you save for visitors, maybe a few spare light bulbs. Stuff you need, but not every day. No more rummaging under the sink!
Then, the middle shelves—the sweet spot. At perfect eye-level, that's where my everyday essentials lived. Cotton pads, my daily moisturiser, a little basket for hair ties and bobby pins. I even used the inside of the cabinet door! Stuck on a clear, over-the-door organiser for things like toothpaste, floss, and my partner's razor heads. Cleared the countertop completely. The visual calm was… blissful.
But here's a tip I only got from a plumber mate, Dave, over a pint in Camden: *measure twice, mind the pipes!* Before you even think about drilling, you gotta know what's behind that wall. In my current place, the soil pipe runs right behind where I wanted to fix the cabinet. Would've been a disaster. A stud finder is your best friend here, seriously.
And don't just think 'shelves'. Think *hooks* on the side, *baskets* you can slide in, *small tension rods* inside to hang spray bottles from their triggers. I saw a brilliant idea once in a boutique hotel in Brighton—they used a tall, narrow **above toilet cabinet** with one door taken off and replaced with a little tension rod and a cute curtain. Hid the clutter but kept it airy. Genius!
The beauty of it is, it forces you to get creative with vertical real estate. It's not just about plonking a unit on the wall. It's about building a whole little ecosystem of storage in a spot that was just… dead space. My bathroom went from feeling chaotic and cluttered to actually quite serene. And the best part? All the nonsense was still there, just neatly tucked away out of sight, organised in a way that made my morning routine a doddle.
So yeah, don't overlook that vertical strip. It might just be the most useful square foot in your entire bathroom. Just make sure you get a good drill and some solid wall plugs! My first attempt in the Islington flat… let's just say there was a slight incident with a collapsing shelf and a very upset bottle of bath oil. Learned that lesson the messy way!
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