The Only 3 Items You Need for a Beautiful Kitchen Sink Setup PLUS 2 Simple Swaps for the Bathroom

November 11, 2025

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I’ve spent the last eight years working with soap bottles, refilling soap, photographing bottles and how to fill them with soap and everything else that happens around a sink—both kitchen and bathroom.

Not because I set out to become the soap bottle lady, but because one small frustration in my own home turned into a full-time business serving thousands of others.

And in that time, I’ve learned exactly what makes a sink area feel beautiful… and what makes it feel chaotic.

I’ve tested every type of soap, every pump style, every bottle size, and every little accessory that seems helpful but secretly creates clutter.

So when I tell you there are only a handful of items you need to make your sink setup look intentional, elevated, and calming, I’m speaking from a whole lot of trial, error, and real-life experience.

Why A Beautiful Sink Setup Matters

If you’re reading this, I probably don’t have to tell you why your sink area matters, whether it’s your kitchen or your bathroom.

But there may be some reasons you haven’t thought of yet.

Or you knew the clutter bothered you, but you just couldn’t express why.

The kitchen sink is one of the most visible and used areas in your home, which means you see it—and interact with it—multiple times a day.

When you have three cleaning agents, two sponges, some lotion, a washcloth, and a scrub brush next to your sink, it starts to look like a bunch of unfinished projects and unclean spaces, whether it’s clean or not.

You will subconsciously notice and your brain screams “unfinished business!”

Have you ever seen the episode of The Big Bang Theory where Sheldon’s girlfriend tries to help him get over his need for closure?

Hint: It’s episode 21 of season six in case you want to go watch it.

We’re not all Sheldon.

But, we do all have a need for closure in varying degrees.

And when your brain sees things that cause your eyes to work too hard, it sends you a message that there is unfinished business.

That’s why you can only walk past the sink full of dirty dishes for so long before you have to do something about it.

It’s also why you feel like your job is never done when you finish up those dishes, dry the counter, put the towel back, just to turn around and see your kids have left their dinner cups on the table.

We know in our mind that cleaning is truly a never-ending chore.

But we still get pleasure and feel relief when it’s finished, for now.

Getting your kitchen sink tidy, and dare I say, pretty, is something you’ll thank yourself for every time you stand at the sink washing that last cup that didn’t make it into the dishwasher in time.

It makes everyday tasks quicker because everything has a place and a purpose.

And most importantly, it gives you a sense of calm every time you walk into the room.

Beauty and function working together is the whole point, reducing unfinished business.

The Only 3 Items You Need at the Kitchen Sink

1. Bottiful Home refillable liquid or foam soap bottles

You didn’t think I would create an entire list of things you need at your sink without including my refillable Hands & Dishes bottles or my foam soap bottles did you? I recommend having, at most, two bottles at your sink. Yes, it would be more convenient to have dish soap, hand soap, lotion and countertop cleaner all readily available. But the more you have in your visual space, the less attractive it’s going to look. Personally, I have a Dishes bottle for my liquid dish soap and a foam soap bottle for my foaming hand soap. Here’s the foam soap I use and love. Since I do like having some lotion nearby, I add a tiny tube of hand lotion behind my soap bottles, tucked out of view.

2. A tray or riser for your soap to sit on

It may not seem necessary, but once I started placing all my soap bottles on a small tray in the bathrooms or on an elevated cake plate in my kitchen, I noticed a difference in how I view the items on top of the riser. They now look like they belong. Like they’re part of the décor instead of a mess of unrelated items sitting out on the counter. (The cake plate I linked above is very similar to one I use. The most important feature is the base that flutes out at the bottom, making it more stable than ones where the base is straight and vertical.) These wood risers are also a nice stable option that give a similar visual appeal without raising the bottles too far off the counter.

3. A small faux or real plant

You may be thinking, “You want me to place an unnecessary plant next to my sink yet remove the lotion, cleanser and washcloth?” Yes. That’s exactly what I want you to do. This plant will serve the function of transforming your soap bottles and riser into actual décor. Not only that, but whether they’re faux or real, plants have a way of adding life, color and vitality to spaces. So keep the plant small enough to appropriately fit on your riser, but choose any real or faux plant you like, and you’ll see your kitchen sink space transform before your eyes. Here is a page on Amazon for a company that sells lots of small faux plants that all get great reviews. I was going to choose just one to show you, but I realized this company does such a nice job with all their faux plants and you may want to see all of them. If it’s too overwhelming to choose from all of them, just go with this set (pictured above) which has one for each of your sinks (kitchen and bathrooms) looks nice and tidy and isn’t too big. You can also repurpose a faux plant from another location in your home, of course.

If you keep your countertop clear of everything else, these three items will be your sink décor and your necessary soaps.

It doesn’t mean we don’t have other items close by, they’re just not visibly sitting on top of the counter.

For the sponges, scrubbies, magic erasers, and bottle and straw cleaners, I used a kit from Rev-A-Shelf to turn my unused sink cabinet facing into a flip out tray to store those items.

They’re easy to grab without getting underneath the sink, and they’re out of sight.

It’s one of my favorite inventions from Rev-A-Shelf.

And I use an over-the-door cabinet towel bar , flipped to the inside of the cabinet to hold my towel for drying my hands.

If you love the look of your towels, you can use it how it’s designed and keep the towel facing out, but I prefer mine to face toward the inside of the cabinet because it’s difficult to find pretty towels that also do a good job of drying hands.

I choose dry hands over pretty towels, so inside the cabinet they go.

Everything else is placed inside a cabinet and out of sight.

2 Simple Swaps for the Bathroom Sink

In the bathroom, you don’t need dish soap, or a big cake plate.

You can even get away with just a bottle of hand soap on the counter (in a beautiful bottle, of course).

But the bathroom can also benefit from a couple other well-placed items.

Swap the cake plate or riser with a smaller but sturdy tray. A beautiful marble or travertine tray goes a long way toward elevating the space while making your soap look like it belongs. And it makes the perfect place to add that faux plant from #3 in the kitchen sink items above.
If you want to swap out the faux plant with a beautiful and nicely scented candle, the bathroom is a great place to do that. While plants add life and vitality to a room, a candle is a very useful and beautiful piece of décor for a bathroom. Sitting next to your bottle of soap on that travertine tray, your candle will pull the whole thing together to create a decorative scene with ambience. This candle is my favorite scent from Bath & Body Works. It’s not floral and doesn’t smell like baked goods. While I love the smell of baked goods, it doesn’t seem like a great combo for the bathroom.

When you strip your sink area down to the pieces that actually matter, everything gets easier.

Your counter looks calmer.

Your eyes stop tripping over unfinished business.

And you stop spending so much time moving things around just to clean a six-inch circle of countertop.

A beautiful sink setup isn’t about perfection, and it isn’t about having the trendiest accessories.

It’s about choosing a few things that work hard, look good, and carry a sense of order with them.

Whether you use the kitchen setup exactly as I shared it, or make the two simple swaps for your bathroom, you’ll feel the difference the very next time you walk into the room.

Small changes really can change how you feel in your own home.

And your sink—where you start and end so many daily routines—is the perfect place to begin.

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