How to Make a Bathroom Safer

The bathroom combines everything that makes a room risky: hard surfaces, standing water, tight spaces, and surfaces that go from dry to slippery in seconds. It's also one of the easiest rooms to genuinely fix — most of what matters here is inexpensive, doesn't require a contractor, and can be done in an afternoon.

This guide follows everyday bathroom tasks: getting in and out of the shower or tub, standing at the sink, and using the toilet — plus the flooring and lighting around those areas. This is a practical walkthrough, not a ranking of where falls happen most often.

Start with the shower and tub

Start by considering how you enter, wash and leave the shower or tub. A non-slip mat or textured surface is one flooring option to consider; follow the manufacturer's placement and care instructions. A shower chair removes the need to stand for the whole shower, and a transfer bench removes the step-over motion entirely if that's the harder part. If you're weighing the two, see our Shower Chair vs. Transfer Bench comparison.

A handheld showerhead is a small change that makes a real difference too — it means you can wash while seated, without twisting or standing under a fixed showerhead.

Add grab bars where you actually need them

Grab bars work best when they're placed where your body naturally moves, not just wherever there's a convenient wall. Three spots cover most of what people need:

• Inside the shower or tub, at a height you can reach both standing and sitting
• Just outside the tub, to steady yourself during entry and exit
• Beside the toilet, to help with sitting down and standing up

A grab bar needs secure mounting into appropriate structural support or a manufacturer-specified mounting system — see our Best Bathroom Grab Bars guide for the full breakdown of types and mounting.

Make the toilet easier to use

A toilet that's too low can make sitting down and standing up more difficult than it needs to be. A raised toilet seat or a toilet safety frame with armrests both solve this without a plumbing change. If a full fixture swap is on the table, comfort-height toilets are built a few inches taller than standard models.

Fix the floor

Bathroom floors are dangerous because they're hard, often tiled, and regularly wet. A washable, securely backed non-slip bath mat outside the tub or shower catches most of the water that would otherwise pool on tile. Skip mats that bunch up, curl at the edges, or slide — those create a tripping hazard of their own.

Get the lighting right

A bathroom used at night needs enough light to see the floor and tub edge clearly without a jarring overhead light. A plug-in night light or a motion-sensor light strip near the floor gives just enough visibility for a middle-of-the-night trip, while a brighter, warmer main light helps during the day.

Consider bigger changes if you're planning ahead

If you're renovating or planning further out, a curbless walk-in shower removes the tub-wall step-over entirely. That's a remodeling project rather than a product change, so it requires more planning, but it's worth knowing about if a renovation is already on the table.

For a quick walkthrough of every room in the house, not just the bathroom, try our Room-by-Room Home Safety Checklist.