Health and Wellness

How to Organize a Medicine Cabinet

As a family of 7, it is essential for our home to have a functional, stocked and up-to-date medicine cabinet. From band-aids and ice packs to vitamins, nasal sprays and flu medicine, I’ve ensured that we’re fully stocked and organized. Here are the 4 steps I took to organize my medicine cabinet:

Clean and Inventory

To begin this process, I emptied the entire cabinet, and let me tell you, it was A LOT! As you can see from the picture above, I had numerous products, and they were kind of all over the place (please don’t judge me). Once everything was taken out and on my counter, I wiped down all the drawers to ensure clean surfaces. Then, I spent a couple of hours going through every product, deciding what to keep and what I needed to purchase.

Something very important I learned during this step is how to properly dispose of expired or unwanted medication.

First, start by checking the disposal information on the bottle itself. Some medicines must be disposed of in a certain way, so be sure to check your bottle for any important instructions.

If your bottle does not have disposal instructions, check online to see if you have any local resources for disposal. Many communities or pharmacies have their own medicine take-back programs.

If neither of the options above is available to you, then here is what you can do to dispose of it in your own home. Start by removing all personal information, including your prescription number by scratching or marking it out. Next, take your medicine, whether pills or liquid, and mix it with any other undesirable trash, such as coffee grounds, cat litter, or dirt. You can also pour the medication into another container to prevent leaks or make the medicine less appealing to someone going through the trash.

It is very important to be aware of how you dispose of your medication because you wouldn’t want to harm yourself, loved ones, or the environment.

Sort

Now that I have all the products I am keeping, it’s time to sort and categorize. I have several drawers within my cabinet, so I wanted to ensure that every drawer had its designated category.

Organizers

The organizers I used were essential to completing this home project. I needed organizers that would enhance the limited space within each drawer and the open cabinet space. My favorite organizers were the Lazy Susans and this Pull-and-Rotate Organizers. Check out all the organizers I used below:

Arrange

I personally prefer to organize as I work, but if you prefer planning ahead, sketching out a game plan for arrangement is a good idea. It doesn’t have to be anything too fancy; just grab a piece of paper and a pencil and create a mock-up of the order you want.

I arranged the cabinet from bottom to top, ensuring that my most frequently used items were easily accessible at eye level for quick access.

Maintain

With everything now placed within my cabinet and arranged to our needs, the most important step of all is to maintain it! This project took me a few hours from start to finish, so I want to be sure I can keep it organized. I like to check in on this cabinet every other week and make sure it is staying stocked and organized as possible.

I really hope these steps can help you achieve the medicine cabinet of your dreams! What home project should I organize next?