Small Space Decluttering - the Medicine Cabinet

by Susan McCarthy

​Everyday practice: Most spaces can get decluttered twice a year to maintain order.

Do you have so many things in your medicine cabinet that items tumble out when you open the door? Can you never find what you’re looking for, go out and purchase the item, only to find that, yes indeed, you did have it squeezed onto the shelves of your medicine cabinet?

This is a fairly quick task that can create moments of calm in the morning and evening when you open the medicine cabinet. And, finding what you want in the cabinet can bolster your feeling of being an organized person.

How to Declutter the Medicine Cabinet

1. Take everything out of the cabinet.
2. Sort and group similar types of items together. (You can do this as you remove items from the cabinet.) For example, dental care, skin care, first aid supplies, etc.
3. Wipe down the inside of the cabinet.
4. Consider how you will return items to the cabinet. Will individuals who share the bathroom get their own shelf (or part of a shelf) for personal items with another shelf dedicated to shared items?
5. Check expiration dates as you return items to their home space. Before putting an expired item on your shopping list, consider if you really need and use it. If you live close to a pharmacy, could you hold off purchasing an item until you need it? (For example, cough syrup.)
6. Find another place for medications and vitamins that could get affected by the humidity in a bathroom. (Unless, of course, this would adversely affect you remembering to take your medicine.) Also, move pain medications away from children, teens, and curious guests.

When You Need Other Options

If your medicine cabinet is still burgeoning with items that you need to keep in the bathroom, do you have space under the sink or in a corner of the room where you could keep caddies or drawers for each individual who used the bathroom? Limit the medicine cabinet to shared items like first aid supplies.

Another option could be to keep first aid supplies on a shelf in a kitchen cabinet (what I do) or in a case or bin stored in the linen closet. Make certain that everyone in the home knows where the items have been moved!

Key to decluttering and organizing your medicine cabinet is to consider what your expectation is for this small space. Limiting this space to essentials will make it easier to locate items (and can reduce your stress level when you need a bandage, aspirin, or eye drops).

Creating an organized medicine cabinet isn’t about straightening the items in the cabinet. It’s about helping you and others who store items in this small space to have a calmer experience at times of day when you and they may feel rushed, tired, or stressed. It’s about becoming organized.

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