Today’s Project: Simplify Your Medicine Cabinet

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This is a series in which we challenge you to simplify a different area of your home each month.

We keep it pretty …simple.

If you’re like me, your medical supplies are cluttered and unorganized. I found myself rummaging around and having difficulty finding what I needed.

My inspiration for this project came after some late-night heartburn. I got up, searched extensively for something to help, concluded with had nothing of the sort on hand, and went back to bed.

Days later I found the Tums, which had been thoughtlessly stuck to one side of our medicine cabinet when it wouldn’t fit in its appropriate spot.

Later, during this simplification project, I also found the Maalox, once again unthinkingly placed due to limited space.

Despite my previous efforts at organization, my system was clearly not working well. I needed to streamline and simplify, remove clutter and create space to see what I had.

When I think about it, there are only a few supplies that my family uses with any regularity. Those are what you will now find in the prime location I call my medicine cabinet.

How to Simplify and Organize Your Medical Supplies

1. Find some sort of organizer. This can be shoe boxes or bins or anything really. I bought these bins at Target for only a few dollars each.
2. Spread all your medical supplies out on the floor.
3. Identify what needs to be thrown out. For me these were things like expired medicine, out-dated sunscreen, a thermometer that no longer works, leftover children’s Tylenol syringes, random bits that came home from the hospital with us after childbirth, etc.
4. Sort the rest of what you have into categories. For us, the categories that made the most sense were Kids Meds, Adult Meds and Wound Care.
5. Simplify the contents of each category bin by removing duplicates and little used supplies. Place them to the side.
6. These “extra supplies” should go into a separate box or bin labeled as such.
7. Label the remaining bins.

The time you put into simplifying your medicine cabinet will more than pay off later with the time saved accessing them.

No longer will I do without because I mistakenly think I don’t have something. No longer will I root and hunt in frustration as a baby wails on my hip.

And it looks nice.

I’m pleased.

Does your medicine cabinet need some simplification? How do you keep it under control?

 

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