Organizing the Medicine Cabinet / Drawer / Shelf

I don't actually have a medicine cabinet. Well, I have one but I don't use it for medicine. I have a drawer, a very large drawer. Its not that we need that much medicine, its that I hate to throw stuff away.  After all, I may need that Dulcolax one day!! Right?? 

Recently I had to go in said drawer and I was appalled. Although I tried to keep it organized....Cold and allergy meds together, prescription meds together, bandages...you get the idea. But it kept getting "messed up". Mysterious occurrence that happens here from time to time. Actually I hate using a drawer and wish I had a shelf somewhere I could use for this.

I actually considered just turning the whole drawer upside down in the garbage but I was sure I wouldn't go through with it. So I decided to cut it down by at least 50%. Yes half of it must go. And the other half had to be organized in a better way. I'm thinking labeled boxes.


First step is to remove everything from the drawer.
Next I need to look at expiration dates and toss any expired items.
Now I need to put like items together
Seriously...its not expired but when would I really use that? Toss it....
Now I am looking at how much stuff I have in each group and how much more I need to get rid of.


Now that I am down to less than half of what I started with I can see how big my containers need to be for each group. I am printing labels for each container so that when someone needs say cold medicine...they just remove the container marked "Cold & Allergy" and find what they need. Saves rifling through the whole drawer looking for the Sudafed!

All finished!

I got my Better Homes and Gardens free printable storage labels here....

Free Printable Storage Labels

I would still love to be able to move these to a large linen closet shelf or bathroom shelf and put the label on the end of the box. It would work so much better I think. Oh well, its still a big improvement and I'm satisfied.