“Red looks scary!” That’s the first thing my husband told me after I finished organizing our medicine cabinet. I couldn’t blame him, red does look scary! Looking at all the red containers lined up on the shelf reminds me of a report card with red marks for “fail”. But what can be scarier than having to find that cold and flu medicine in between sniffing and misery in a chaotic pile of bottles and supplies, only to find out that it is expired! Let’s face it, medicine cabinets are often forgotten. Unless you have a fever, cough, or runny nose, the medicine cabinet doesn’t come into mind. However, it is necessary that we make sure everything in our cabinet is current and easy to find. It should be cleaned out often as drugs expire or worse it might get into the wrong hands; i.e., curious toddler!
Like everything else in our house, I’ve rearranged our medicine cabinet a few times already as items start to pile up. So just recently, I decided to update and organize it again.
So here’s a few tips to help you get through it.
Materials:
- Containers from Dollar Tree
- Label maker
- tags and twine
- Scissors
1. Empty the cabinet
Just take them all out! You will see how much space is available for you that way. And you will be able to envision more clearly how you want your cabinet to look. And while you’re at it, don’t forget to spray down and scrub those shelves.
2. Sort and toss
The first time I ever organized our cabinet after moving in to our house, I found medicines that expired before I came to America, which was four years ago! So it’s important that we start a sorting and tossing session. Put similar products together; e.g. cough medicine together, cold medicine. And toss anything that is expired or questionable.
3. Categorize medicines, organize and label containers
I organized our medicines into eleven main categories. You can do it your way too.
- Dad’s medicines
- Mom’s medicines
- Kids’ medicines
- Cold/Flu/ Cough (because of lack of space, I had to put these three together)
- Fever/ Pain
- Ointment/Cream
- First Aid (Epipen, First aid booklet, hydrogen peroxide, alcohol etc.) Bonus: Efficascent Oil, the famous VICKS and other Filipino oil and balms you don’t wanna know. 😂
- Medicinal Tools
- Bandages
- Other Meds (Diarrhea, Sleep aids etc.)
- Extra items (Medical masks, gloves, hot and cold pack, extra medicines)
4. Arrange containers in the cabinet
I only had three things in mind when I arranged the containers in the cabinet. First, that Dad and Mom’s medicines should be within sight so we don’t forget to take them. Second, that the First Aid basket can be grabbed easily for emergencies. And third, that the kids’ medicines are out of reach especially if you have a ninja toddler in the house. As for the other containers, they can go wherever, as long as they fit, they’re good.
We dedicated one cabinet in our kitchen as our medicine cabinet. Our main thing is that it needs to be available for everybody when they need it but at the same time not too accessible that young children like our toddler can abuse it. If you know what I mean. Organizing medicine cabinets or any area in the house for that matter can be overwhelming. However, working on one small area at a time, always works for me. It also helps when we try to commit on maintaining the cleanliness in our house. Maybe make it a habit to inspect our medicine cabinet once a month to ensure that it’s still in good shape? Or making sure that we all put things back in it’s dedicated space after using them? Remember, change doesn’t happen overnight. Goodluck!
How do you organize your medicine cabinet? I would love to hear from you! 😊
KC & a truckload of hugs and kisses💋
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what a great tip! i think this does not only apply to med cabinet but also to kitchen and garage! thanks!
Oh thank you Patricia. You’re right we can use the same principles! 🙂
My medicine cabinet isn’t that deep, so I have to make due. I try to organize the shelves for medicine, facial care, and dental items. It works…but I wish I had more space like you!
Whatever works for us! 🙂
I actually just cleaned out my medicine cabinet the other day. It was sadly embarrassing. There was stuff in there that was WELL expired that I had forgotten about… needless to say they went in the trash.
I’m glad you found time to clean up. Medicine cabinets are almost always forgotten. 🙂
great ideas, Love it. My medicine cabinet is overflowing, I’ll use some of these tips. Thanks
Thank you Tina!
Haha, this article made me laugh – the way you’ve written it, it’s not like a boring “how to” tips article ☺️ Now your cabinet is all tidy and organised, you’ll be able to find whatever medicines you need in a hurry, and you don’t have to worry about the ninja toddler getting their hands on anything they shouldn’t! X
I’m glad you were entertained hehe 🙂 … it’s definitely easier to find what we need now… thank goodness!
These are great organization tips. I don’t have a medicine cabinet but maybe I should try this with my desk drawer.
Thank you Dee. Yes you can use the same techniques. 🙂
I really like how organized your cabinet looks. So neat. I’ve all kinds of medicines tugged nicely in my vanity drawers. I like to keep the box packaging so that I can read the descriptions.
Thank you dear. I actually kept the packaging too with the label and instructions… I cut them out and tucked them inside the clear bags in the containers. 🙂
It is a huge medicines cabinet…I have a medium sized medicine box which I try to de-clutter every six months. These are quite helpful organizing tips that I should try 🙂
Yes I’m lucky I have space in the kitchen for our medicines. Decluttering regularly makes a lot of difference. 🙂
Wow what a difference that makes! I might have to use this idea for my makeup!
It does make a lot of difference! 🙂
These tips are amazingly helpful. I was just telling my husband about our messy kitchen drawers, I’ll show him this post when he comes back. Thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome and thank you for being here. 🙂
The red looks good to me! It feels so good to be organized. Thanks for these tips!
I’m glad you said that I love red! 🙂 You’re welcome and thank you for being here! 🙂
Wow that looks amazing! So clean and tidy and I bet it makes it so much easier to find things too
It is easier! 🙂 Thank you! 🙂
Thank you for these tips. I NEED to do this. Our medicine cabinet is scary. As in things fall on you when you open it scary!
We just have to find time to declutter and organize every now and then. Good luck! 🙂
Sadly, my current medicine cabinet is in the kitchen and it a mess. I definitely need a label maker and containers to sort my medications.
I definitely am way overdue for organizing my medicine cabinet. I need to get better at the “toss” part. I am so bad about keeping things that I no longer need. I love the idea of separating them into categories. That’s a great way to keep things more organized. I shall start this project this weekend!
These are some great tips on organizing. I don’t have a traditional medicine cabinet in my bathroom so everything gets shoved under the sink cabinet. Will definitely be using your tips!
Such a lovely way to organize your medicine cabinet. It’s so important to be able to locate items quickly, especially first aid items. Equally important is to clear out the expired things so that you don’t accidentally cause yourself more harm.
I love an organized anything and I think labels and containers definitely make stuff look neat and clean! Love how you organized your medicine cabinet, not everything is in order and you also know where to find the things that you need.
My medicine cabinet is horrible! I could really use these tips to make it more organized and easier to find things. I loved the red containers.
XOXO
Elizabeth
http://www.akeenesenseofstyle.com
I had to organize my moms medicine cabinet last year. She had so much old medicine prescription so I did a huge trash haul and that was important to the cleaning process.
Smart to put it in the kitchen up and out of the way of little hands. I like that you’ve labeled everything too.
organizing cupboards and cabinet is a nightmare of mine! My place is so messy but weirdly, I still find everything… These are great tips though and I shall take inspo from you
Nice idea. I could do this for my parents cabinet!
Love this! My medicine cabinet is so tiny, I can only fit some Advil and ginger tablets!
These are some great tips for organizing the medicine cabinet. I love when our medicine cabinet is nice and neat but my guys usually have a different idea.
The thing I really need to do is to get those kind of small containers where I can sort through things and keep those things together. Far to often the things go loose into storage areas and just get so messy so quickly
omg, I needed this read! This has motivated me and given me some great organizing ideas
This is a great idea, I’m glad I got the chance to read this. Thanks for sharing, medicine cabinets can get messy pretty quickly!
I am glad I am not the only one that has a cabinet in my kitchen for medications. I have to do this for mine, what huge difference it makes! Great idea!
I am going to use these tips and organize my cabinet today itself. It so much needs organizing and I can really use these tips. Thanks so much for the post!
hi awesome posts and site thanks for this
I like that it’s best to sort your medicines so you can keep the same types of medicines together such as cough medicines. My husband and I find our medicine cabinet messy and disorganized. There are medicine bottles that don’t have caps. We wanted to make it easy for us to find medicines that we need, so we’ll follow all your tips and shop for medication bottle caps.