9 products that make a small bathroom bearable

Sharing a tiny 5x7 bathroom with your family is tricky. These help.

Introducing the Living Small 100.

My favorite everyday objects for living small and sustainably. 

One thing readers ask for again and again are product recommendations for small spaces and sustainable living. I always say that you don’t need to buy anything new, but people want to know what works, so I am sharing the tools, housekeeping tools, decor, and more that I have come to rely upon. I plan to publish chunks of the Living Small 100 in themed installments: Kitchen, Laundry, Lighting, and so on over the coming months, starting with my favorite items for the small bathrooms. 

These won’t be your typical product round-ups: There will be a mix of high and low, new and old, but always with an eye towards things that are both useful and attractive. When possible, I’ll include affiliate links to hopefully generate additional income to support the newsletter, but affiliate opportunities will never determine what makes the cut. I’ll tell you how long and in what ways I’ve used the item, so you can decide if it’s a good fit for you too. 

For now, each installment of the Living Small 100 one will be distributed to all LIVING SMALL readers as a free newsletter, but after they go out, they’ll move into a paywalled archive. If you are not a paid subscriber and want to refer back to a particular list save the email or consider upgrading to a paid subscription.

My waffle towels

My switch to waffle towels was born out of frustration back when I was schlepping my laundry to a laundromat. I realized that our big fluffy towels requiredus to do extra loads and spend more time on drying, which felt like both a waste of my time and natural resources. It took me a couple tries to find my ideal non-terry towel, but once I zeroed in on Gilden Tree’s classic waffle towels (top left) I never looked back. These towels are also a boon to a small space because they take up less space in your linen closet and dry quickly, which can be an issue in poorly ventilated apartment bathrooms. One thing to note: My white and cream towels still look great after almost a decade, but our gray ones faded to a weird pinky-gray hue (we still use them, but you’ve been warned).