Thursday, October 22, 2009

Organize A Deep Medicine Closet

Place taller bottles behind short ones.


Old medications and half-empty bottles of makeup can get lost in a medicine cabinet, especially if it is deep enough for bottles, jars and other items to hide behind each other. The best way to deal with such a large storage space is to keep it cleaned out and organized by product. Set aside one day a year to sort through your medicine cabinet, tossing out expired beauty products and properly disposing of any outdated or unneeded medicines. Does this Spark an idea?


Instructions


1. Take everything out of your medicine cabinet. Divide it into piles: one for cosmetics, one for prescription drugs, one for over-the-counter medicines and one for skin and hair care items.


2. Sort through each pile. Toss any cosmetics or skin and hair care products that are more than a year old. Some products, such as sunscreen, start to lose their effectiveness once opened. Check expiration dates on products that have them. Makeup products can harbor bacteria, especially if they are more than few months old.


3. Set any out-dated medications aside, whether they are prescription or over-the-counter. Your drugstore may take them back for recycling or safe disposal, or you may be able to bring them to a hazardous waste drop-off center. If neither option is available to you, pour a bit of water into pill bottles and mix sand or rocks into liquid medications so that no one can dig them out of the trash and ingest them. Seal the packages with sturdy tape, then place inside a larger, opaque package and tape that package. You can safely place the package in the trash.


4. Wipe down the shelves of your medicine cabinet with soap and water. Clean off any bottles you are keeping as well.


5. Divide your cabinet into sections, one for medicines, one for cosmetics and another for beauty products. Arrange your medicines and other products in the cabinet, placing taller bottles in the back if you have room to arrange them two or three deep. Consider getting small tiered shelf organizers, so that you can clearly see any bottles in the back, or baskets or other containers for beauty products not used daily. If you have multiples of the same product, place the newer one behind the older one.

Tags: medicine cabinet, beauty products, your medicine, your medicine cabinet, bottles back