52 Weeks to a More Organized Home | #1 The Medicine Cabinet

Welcome!  I have decided that 2016  is my year to get my house in order for real.  I’ve created a week-by-week guide focusing on one area at a time.  Yes, I realize a year is a long time.  But I believe it’s the time line needed to make the thorough and permanent changes.  No more surface organizing – we’re getting down and dirty!

This works well for the 2016 Clean Out  Challenge where we are tossing out 2,016 items in 2016!  I’m sure I can easily find my items to toss for the next few days just from cleaning out the medicine cabinet!

So let’s get started!

52 Weeks to a More Organized Home | #1 The Medicine Cabinet

Ok, we’re going to start with something easy.  Clean out your medicine cabinet/pantry/shelf/drawer.  Wherever you store your medicines.  Clean it out.  And organize it.  If your medicines are currently scattered across multiple places, consolidate them into one location….or two.  I have a shelf in my bathroom pantry for most of them.  And a basket under the bathroom sink where we keep cold medicines.

Get rid of any out of date medicines.  Here are the FDA suggestions for disposing of unused medications and additional info (and the same disposal steps) from the EPA.

ORGANIZE your medications.  Use baskets, bins or small drawer organizers to group like items together.  LABEL them so everyone in the family can find what they are looking for and return them to their place when they are done with them.   I have a three drawer organizer like this under my bathroom sink – two drawers are for cold and allergy medicines and the other holds spare toothbrushes and floss.  Then I have a smaller three drawer organizer in my pantry that holds bandaids and first aid ointments, itch-relief products and eye drops and extra contact lenses and cases.   For the rest of the shelf space, I use a shelf organizer and two small baskets.

If you’re a couponer/stockpiler – these steps will help you see what you need to add to your stockpile (and what you don’t) so you know what to watch for on sale.

Additional things to do during the first week of the 52 weeks:

Gather a few boxes.  I like to have a yard sale every summer (yay for extra cash!)  I keep a box in the basement that I toss yard sale worthy things in as I come across them.  When it gets full, I add it to the yard sale boxes in the corner and start another one.  I also keep a box (or trash bag or large shopping bag) for donate items.  Items I want gone NOW – that I’m not saving for a yard sale.  When this gets full or almost full if I’m ready to get it out of the way, it goes to the Goodwill donation box at the service station down the road.

If you’re not a yard sale/donate person, you can just trash things you no longer need.  But I would encourage you to get at least get one box and keep in an inconspicuous place for items that are good enough to donate.  Let some good come to others from your efforts to clean out!

This box system will come in handy as we go along.

Your challenges this week:

• Go in your living room/den/family room and find at least THREE things to add to your yard sale/donate boxes or put in the trash.
• Find FIVE things that are misplaced in the house and return them to their places. 
• If you’re doing the 2016 Clean Out  Challenge you’ll need to toss out 42 items this week.  If cleaning out the medicine cabinet and tossing 3 things from the den doesn’t get you to 42 items then you need to find more stuff to toss this week!

Are you going to join me in having a more organized home?  Comment below!  Leave your tips, questions and suggestions!  Let us know how your week went.  Also, tell me about problem areas in your house – everyone’s home is different and I want to make sure we cover all areas during our 52 weeks!

And don’t forget to come back next week!