The Affordable Thrift Store Item That Keeps Your Bathroom Towels Organized

We may receive a commission on purchases made from links.

Bath towels. They're so simply shaped and so supremely pliable – two factors that make it easy to leave them crumpled up in piles on the bathroom floor. Those traits also make it easy to organize them if you have enough space to do so and can roll the towels up tightly enough. Enter the oblong-shaped magazine rack that you just picked up from the local thrift store at a bargain price. It has just the right amount of interior space to declutter your bathroom by turning your crumpled-up towels into rolled-up works of art – once you give that affordable magazine rack a bit of a makeover, that is.

Magazine racks come in a couple of different styles, and not all of them will work for this DIY project. You want the kind of rack that's a bit oblong-shaped. Some of these styles look like a circle that's been flattened into the shape of a sausage. There are no sharp corners, but rather, lots of rounded parts, such as a rounded base, rounded dowels that make up the walls, and a rounded lip to keep the dowels in place. The other kind is also longer than it is wide, but it's more rectangular in shape. This will also work if you can't find the former, though the end product will be boxier in appearance. Finally, depending on what kind of material the rack is made of, you may also want some paint or stain that matches your bathroom decor and a few brushes. If it's made of wood and has started to look a little beat up, you may also need some sandpaper and a sander to smooth out the roughness.

Because you're buying a ready-made piece, getting it into shape isn't going to be a matter of construction, as it will be reconstruction. To that end, you'll begin making over this soon-to-be bathroom essential by sanding the rough spots out of the wood. This makes it look better and gives the paint something to stick to. That said, using something like Heirloom Traditions all-in-one paint, which includes primer and topcoat, can reduce your workload, and in some cases, make it unnecessary to sand the piece. And depending on the construction of the magazine rack, it's possible to embellish it's appearance with some Yanroom word stencils. Or, you can try some decoupage art instead if that decorative style fits your bathroom. Those steps make it look less like a magazine rack and more like it was something that was intended to hold bathroom towels.

Once the paint dries, you'll roll your towels up like Tootsie Rolls and stand them on end. Most of these racks will hold three or four towels if the towels are rolled up nice and tight. You can make room for matching washcloths, too, if you also have a small basket from the second-hand store. You can fasten this to the side of the rack with zip ties or small Navona S-Hooks to help you organize your bathroom even more.