Mini Gadgets For Your Bathroom That Are Pretty Useful

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Your bathroom does a lot for you every day. For most of us, it’s where we start the morning and end the night. And, especially if you’re a parent like me, it’s where you find those small moments of peace and solitude. The right accessories can make those moments and routines easier, more comfortable, and more enjoyable, even if you don’t have a lot of space.

Mini gadgets serve as a good starting point. My house, for example, has two bathrooms for four people, and neither of those water closets have much room. We have to get creative with the space we have, and large contraptions like towel warmers and spa tub mats could never be part of the plan. Instead, we focus on function in small packages. We’re selective about the bathroom tech we’ve purchased because we have to be. And we don’t want to spend a fortune on tech to upgrade the bathrooms. Here are 10 of my favorite mini gadgets for the bathroom that have proven to be pretty useful on a daily basis with an explanation about methodology at the end.

During the great toilet paper shortage of COVID, my brother-in-law purchased a toilet seat bidet for us. It was a gadget he swore by. Six years later, we’re still using it. It only took a few minutes to install, and it worked with the toilet seat we already had. On the side of the toilet were two controls: one for the water pressure and one for the self-cleaning feature. A nozzle with a built-in cover drops inside the toilet bowl and stays covered until you’re ready to use it, which helps to keep the attachment clean. It’s one of several bathroom gadgets that actually get used.

Considering that a standalone bidet costs upward of $300 or more, not including plumbing and installation costs, a $40 price tag for this bidet attachment seems like an obvious win. It also doesn’t take up any extra space in your bathroom, unlike a separate bidet fixture. There are minimal parts to clean, plus most of the bidet attachments have a self-cleaning feature. The Luxe Bidet Neo 120 has earned more than 102,000 reviews and an average 4.6 star rating. Different models in this series may have different price points and ratings.

I used to think colorful toilet lights were ridiculous. And then I had kids. These toilet lights are game changers if your children (or even yourself) get up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom. Overhead lights in the bathroom are too much at night, especially if you want to fall back asleep easily.

These toilet lights hang over the rim of the toilet bowl and shine just enough so you can see without having to turn on a brighter light. The lights work on motion detection, so they won’t keep you up all night. You can choose from eight different colors or a color cycle. I chose this style instead of the kind that sticks on the underside of the toilet lid. I didn’t want to risk the light falling off the lid and into the toilet. These lights stay in place on the rim, even when the seat is up, so there’s less risk of having a messy disaster. Customers have rated these lights an average of 4.3 stars over more than 40,000 reviews. They consistently mention how the lights give just enough light for midnight bathroom trips. You can get a two-pack of these toilet lights on Amazon for $9.89.

Trying to shave your legs and wash your feet at seven months pregnant felt like an Olympic sport, so I looked into getting a footrest that made my feet more accessible. I had considered an all-metal shower footrest that mounted to the wall and folded down when needed. But these typically required drilling, and I didn’t want to deal with that hassle. Instead, I chose a no-drill option made of plastic. It uses a suction cup to hold it in place. That also means I can move it to another bathroom if needed.

What I like about this shower footrest is its vacuum pump, which creates a secure connection between the footrest and the wall. The air pump gets rid of all the air and creates a vacuum-like seal to the wall. I felt better about using it and wasn’t too worried that the footrest might suddenly detach. I have smooth tile walls in my shower, which are ideal for this type of footrest. However, it’s not a good option if you have textured or uneven shower walls. This footrest retails for $22.99 on Amazon.

Bath water temperature is subjective. I like mine to feel like a literal hot tub. But when you’re running a bath for your small children, your personal preferences don’t matter much. What feels good to the touch might feel much different to a baby or toddler with delicate skin. When my kids were babies, we used an animal-shaped bath thermometer like this Rubber Duckie to find the right balance.

These bath thermometers are part bath toy, part parent helper. The digital display tells you the temperature of the water and alerts you if the water is too hot or too cold. The thermometer reads the water temperature every three seconds and will update the digital display when temperatures change. And if you’re not a fan of the duck, Amazon has tons of other animals to choose from, like sting rays, turtles, otters, alligators, and crabs. This rubber duck bath thermometer is available on Amazon for $16.99.

Touchless soap dispensers are everywhere in public nowadays (thank goodness!), but they’re also valuable for the home. When I first bought one, it felt like a small upgrade, one that maybe wasn’t necessary and whose difference would prove minimal. I was wrong, though. The thing that gets you clean actually stays cleaner when you don’t have a bunch of dirty hands touching it all over.

I chose this touchless soap dispenser for a few reasons. For starters, it’s clear, so I can see how much soap is left and when I need to refill it before it’s empty. I can also adjust how much soap comes out per use. It’s also a bit more compact than other options on Amazon, which works well for my small bathroom. The soap container is slender and flat, and it’s about as tall as a regular disposable bottle of hand soap. This one has earned a 4.2-star rating out of over 400 reviews. You can get it on Amazon for $19.99.

After a year of invisible braces for me and 18 months of traditional braces for my son, retainers came with new challenges, especially in terms of cleaning. Brushing only did part of the job, and it was a daily hands-on chore that felt time consuming. Also, the retainers never looked or felt fully clean, even after several minutes of scrubbing. When we started using an ultrasonic retainer cleaner, we both noticed an immediate difference.

Ultrasonic retainer cleaners are small gadgets that use high frequency ultrasound to reach into tiny crevices that a toothbrush misses. Use it for retainers, aligners, dentures, mouth guards, or similar appliances. I also use it to clean the toothbrush heads of my Oral B electric toothbrush. I love that I don’t have to use any special cleaner in the machine. I just fill it with water and let the vibrations and UV light work its magic. Along with various time duration, the machine also includes UV light to help kill bacteria. It’s quiet, lightweight, and portable. You can get the ultrasonic retainer cleaner for $49.99 on Amazon.

There’s always a lot of scrubbing going on in my bathrooms. Everything has to be cleaned at least once a week, from showers to toilets to sinks and more. Manual scrubbing is exhausting, especially when you have to multiply all that work by two bathrooms. I use the HOTO cordless spin scrubber to remove some of the grunt work, and it helps me clean faster and with less effort.

The HOTO cordless spin scrubber comes with various attachment heads, like large and small brushes, crevice brushes, and scouring discs. They attach via magnet so I can pop one off and another one on easily. The crevice brush is especially helpful in my tile shower because I can clean along the grout lines. The tool is a little larger than an electric toothbrush and gives a choice of two cleaning speeds. I keep the tool and all of its attachments in a bag under my bathroom sink, but there’s a handle on the tool if you prefer to hang it somewhere convenient. The HOTO cordless spin scrubber is on Amazon for $39.99.

A good lighted magnifying mirror is your best friend in self-care, helping you turn your bathroom into a spa sanctuary. It helps you tweeze your eyebrows, tackle in-grown hairs, apply your makeup more evenly, easily put in contact lenses, and handle plenty of other tasks. I wanted a mirror that offered 10x magnification, had a built-in light, and was adjustable and hands-free. Most of the ones I found were wall-mounted and hardwired, but I wanted something simpler.

This flexible lighted magnifying mirror checked every box. Aside from the magnification and lighting, it also sits on a movable stand and has a flexible neck. That way, I’m not limited to using it in just one area. I can move the mirror pretty much anywhere and adjust the positioning to work with my location. I can even stick it on a window or wall with the suction cup base. This option ended up being less expensive than a hard-wired, wall-mounted mirror of the same size, plus I can choose between natural, cool, or warm light. It’s completely cordless, and the mirror itself can rotate 360 degrees on its stand to give you the best angle for your purpose. You can get it on Amazon for $39.99.

Whether you only listen to music in the shower or also sing along is irrelevant. What matters is that you have a better option than your phone’s built-in speaker. This Bluetooth speaker is a favorite in our house. It pairs with your phone so you can leave your device on dry land (no more plastic baggie taped to the shower wall). The speaker’s round design gives off 360 degrees of sound. And since it’s waterproof, it can handle the demands of wet environments beyond the shower.

Most Bluetooth shower speakers have either a carabiner-type hook to hang the speaker or a suction cup so you can wall mount it. I chose this one because it has both. At home, I hook it to my shower caddy and start my day with my morning playlist. Hotel showers usually don’t have places to hook the speaker, but I can stick it on the wall and not have to skip my wake-up routine. It also works just as well stuck on swimming pool walls, propped up on coolers, clipped to a backpack, or dangling from boats or kayaks. You can get this Bluetooth shower speaker on Amazon for $32.99.

Sometimes, regular flossing isn’t enough. Neither is brushing. And neither are the two combined. One option our whole family uses is the Waterpik. It’s like a mini pressure washer for your teeth. The machine shoots a fine stream of water wherever you direct it, so you can blast those stubborn popcorn kernels and bits of steak that a toothbrush and floss leave behind.

The Waterpik comes with multiple specialty tips in various colors. Each person in our family has a different color so we know whose is whose. You can also set different levels of water pressure, on a scale of 1 to 10. At full capacity, the machine will run for 90 seconds. And if you didn’t get all the stuff out of your teeth by then, just refill the water bin and do it again. It can get a little messy at first, but it does get easier as you learn to use it. You can get the Waterpik on Amazon for $99.99.

I focused on gadgets that I have personally owned, used, and loved. These are items I currently use or used at one point in my daily routine. I also chose items that could work for most people, regardless of the size of your bathroom or how many bathrooms you have. I didn’t select gadgets that are more for show over function, but I did want to select items that make a bathroom feel luxurious.

Also, all gadgets had to be “mini.” In this case, mini isn’t necessarily pocket sized, but rather small enough that they could travel with you. They also needed to be small enough to make sense for any bathroom, including tiny bathrooms where space is extremely limited. For the items I own that are no longer available to purchase, I chose comparable gadgets that have at least a four-star rating on Amazon and more than 100 reviews.