Keep Your Bathroom Vanity Clutter-Free With A Repurposed Kitchen Essential

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The last thing you want when you're hurrying to get out the door is to be stuck rummaging through a messy bathroom countertop, frantically searching for your favorite hair tie or some clean cotton face rounds. The solution is, of course, better bathroom organization. You probably think that means spending hours scrolling Pinterest for nifty (and typically expensive) storage products or putting together complicated DIYs using Dollar Store products. Instead, avoid these bathroom storage mistakes everyone makes and raid your kitchen cupboards. What you're looking for is low profile and boasts hollows that are surprisingly perfect for sorting and storing all those little items that quickly clutter a bathroom countertop if they're not contained. 

Yup, you guessed it, we're talking about a good ol' muffin pan. They're increasingly being employed in home organization — and for good reason. The deep individual cups, which were originally designed to ensure rising sweet dough forms a neat bubble as it bakes rather than spills all over the bottom of the oven, can be repurposed to stop necklaces from tangling, sort rolls of tape from thumb tacks in a desk drawer, and keep crafting beads together. In a bathroom setting, meanwhile, these pans will go the distance. 

They're heat and often, though not always, rust resistant with proper care; extremely durable (metal and silicone pans won't shatter if dropped); and lightweight enough (cast iron and some ceramic pans aside) to move or carry to wherever you need them. What's more, the hollows that keep both muffin batter and small items in their place also keep the sunscreen in that leaking bottle contained.

Metal muffin pans are arguably the most ubiquitous of this style of bakeware, with modern versions usually made from aluminum. You can also find pans crafted from different types of steel and cast iron (which, it's worth noting, is heavy). Vintage and antique metal muffin pans often boast a gorgeous patina, pretty carved patterns, or unusually shaped cups that you'll want to show off in your bathroom rather than hide, so utilize them for holding decorative scented candles or making a feature of your luxury perfume or jewelry collection. Quality ceramic and stoneware muffin pans would work well, too. This Pfaltzgraff Pink and Green 12-Inch Ceramic Muffin Tray, which retails for about $20, gives total cottagecore vibes.

Nowadays, silicone muffin pans are almost as common as metal pans, though they're arguably far less aesthetically pleasing. Conceal these durable, hygienic kitchen accessories that revolutionize bathroom storage in a vanity drawer and fill them with utilitarian beauty supplies like cotton buds, daily makeup, pedicure tools, hair ties and clips, and travel toiletry bottles. Individual metal or silicone muffin pans are handy for flexible vanity drawer storage or to declutter your countertop. Put tumblers inside each cup to store taller items, and keep dust away, or create portable countertop storage using a cupcake pan with a lid. It costs around $27 for two Spmarkt Blue 12-Cup Muffin Pans with Lid and Handle or just over $20 for a Nordic Ware Naturals 12 Cavity Muffin Pan with a High-Domed Lid.

The simplest way to decorate your muffin tin storage solution is to paint it. Go for a hue that matches your existing bathroom design palette, or choose something bright that adds a pop of color to more neutral decor. Cover the flat portions of the muffin tin with stick-on gems — you can get more than 2,000 Artistbeauty Self-Adhesive Clear Rhinestones and Pearls for less than $10 — or simply use water resistant Mod Podge Outdoor and patterned tissue to stylishly decoupage the entire pan. Fill each cup with glitter, shells, flowers, or paint a scene, then pour a thin layer of resin over the decorations to seal them in.

Attach a handle — be it a wire and wood bucket handle or a metal drawer pull — to your muffin pan so that you can move it around your bathroom easily, or even out into your bedroom or dressing room, or you could even repurpose a rotund vase or old wooden table leg into a stand to lift your organizer off the countertop. Once you've mastered a single muffin tin for bathroom vanity storage, consider branching out into other arrangements. 

Pair a large muffin tin with two mini pans to completely fill the top drawer in your vanity and vastly expand your storage options. Muffin pans marry up well with other repurposed bakeware storage too — the key is decorating everything in the same hues or in a similar style. You can, for example, keep bathroom countertops clutter-free with a simple breadbox DIY or attach wooden beads to a painted loaf pan to create a stylish countertop storage tub.