What about a couple niches in the wall? There are some prefab ones that don't take much time to install, so shouldn't add too much to your cost for the "upgrade."

Recess-it makes good niches to pop in, as weedy said.

If you really don't have the time/resource to get even a little fancy, you can do 1/4 round corner shelves that just get tiled in with the tile, and skip the soap dish altogether!

One can do the basic ceramic corner shelf- 2 on either inside corner that would give you 4 shelves, or you can pick up fake travertine ones at a big box store, or you can find pre-cut stone 1/4 rounds at a local tile shop that also get tiled in.

They also make metal clips that can hold glass 1/4 round shelves in the corners.

I would echo all the suggestions everyone else is making. Although it would be an "upgrade", if you could get a shower niche in there that would be good. You don't see it in bathrooms unless someone has upgraded their bathroom or it is newer construction. Our plans initially called for one 16 inches tall by 16 inches wide I think. Unfortunately where we would have put it didn't have true framing - just enough wood to attach drywall so we had to go with tall and narrow.

I noticed on the forum there are several people doing tall shower niches and putting in a shelf so you get two levels. Lots of times you would be charged per niche so having tall with a shelf would be more cost effective than two that are shorter.

The other option as people have mentioned are the corner ceramic shelves that are tiled into the wall. I have that in the master bath shower stall. The only thing I will say is it gets all gunky - I don't know if it is the way the shower head is aimed why it gets wet but the lip of the shelves seem to hold a bit of water and if the shelves aren't cleaned consistently they get an orange gunky thing that is on the bottom of the shelves and therefore the bottom of the bottles sitting on the shelves.

The other thing is you may have to have a one shampoo/one conditioner in the tub and maybe convince the guys to go with the combo shampoo conditioner. We are pretty good with the soaps and just go for Dove Sensative Skin and maybe a more guy soap like Irish Spring. If you go with body wash over soap, maybe more people can use the same thing. I think growing up with 3 girls and one bathroom to share - we had to take certain things out the bottom of the vanity when we needed to use them and had limited things we could keep in the shower.

Thanks for the suggestions.
Looking online I have seen 2 kinds of niches, one is made to be ready to tile and the other is plastic. Has anyone seen these in person? And if anyone knows about tiling, would it be a huge extra to tile inside one of these things? And.. do tile stores carry these items? I have a little time to shop because there was another leak and we'll have to dry out for longer.

-LJS

This is a well recommended tile-ready niche.

Noble also makes one.

Here is a link that might be useful: Recess-it

We've used Swanstone niches (don't know if that's what you're referring to when you say you've found plastic ones). They're solid, large, easy to clean, and work great.