Today I am back with another “Organizing Life” project. If you aren’t familiar with this series you can read about it more HERE. Basically, last year I realized that organizing small components of my life would create a greater sense of calm in the larger parts of my life. This is one of those projects–not earth-shaking by any means, but one that checks the “place for everything” box and ensures we have what we need when we need it, and can access it quickly and easily.
So, for awhile now I needed to do something about our first aid and medicines. Despite having a medicine cabinet upstairs, all this has gravitated to a kitchen cabinet and became a total mess. While my kids have gone from infant medicines to children’s formulas to now in some cases, adult medicine, I still had all sorts of things tucked away in small plastic crates that had long-since passed their prime. Once I admitted to myself that even if one of my children suddenly developed an ear infection in the middle of the night, using the five -year old medicine I’d hoarded “just in case” was probably a bad idea. Please tell me I am not the only one who thinks that way?!? So I started by tossing anything old, expired {or just too generally sticky to keep} in the trash.
I spent some time looking around at various containers and options for this project, but as soon as I saw the Smart Store System at The Container Store I knew I had hit on exactly what I needed. I can also say, there will be more of these great totes put to use in my home, they are awesome!
Basically the system uses larger “Smart Store” containers, with trays and inserts to hold smaller things. The totes, trays inserts come in all shapes and sizes and even colors, so you can configure them for whatever small items you are storing. The trays that fit inside and have a handle so they pull out easily, giving you twice as much storage space. Perfect for my OCD self 🙂
For this project, I ordered 2 large totes, 2 insert trays and some smaller inserts to hold smaller first aid items. It worked perfectly.
So, still reading? I know this is pretty exciting stuff! But, still its one of those small projects that was gratifying. Oh, and by the way this is not a sponsored post by The Container Store {but if they are listening, I am a very good customer!}, I just think this is very pretty nifty product.
To get this situation under control, I first cleaned everything out of the cabinet and as I said threw out anything old, expired or yucky. Then divided it all up by use–either for first aid or medicine purposes. It was easy to organize everything by size into the compartments. I had tons of extra space when it was all said and done, thanks to the double-layered trays, as you can see, the top part lifts out so you can store more underneath.
So here is how it all looked once everything was organized into the boxes.
The medicine had to go in a single layer thanks to the tall bottles, but I still had plenty of space. Another benefit of these totes is that the tops snap on very securely. I am sure they wouldn’t qualify as ‘childproof’ but you can bet my kids wouldn’t be able to open them, so I think they would be safe around small children.
AND–another benefit, we have since realized {obviously some of us are pretty accident prone around here!} is that the containers are portable. We pull it out, and bring everything right to the “victim”. It’s also been nice at night to bring our entire medicine cabinet closer to the patient this flu season, saving those late night searches for cough medicine or fever reducers.
Once they were all assembled, we popped them back in the cabinet–So much better now. {Please ignore the lovely oak cabinet, as I mentioned we’re moving very soon!}
Oh, and on the bottom left, we had an extra tray that we didn’t use {as the medicines were too tall} in it I store various vitamins and things that we pull out all the time. All in all, I made a very small investment in time {this project was 30 minutes, max} and a bit more in the costs for the supplies but I think with the quality and function this is a permanent storage fix. Which, in the long-run is far better than buying multiple cheaper items and continually replacing them, just my personal view.
Should you decide to tackle this project, here is the label printable I used. I simply printed on white label paper and backed it with some pattern scrapbook paper. A little double-sided tape worked nicely to adhere it to the outside of the tote.
{Click HERE to download label: printable first aid medicine label}
Still here? Thanks for hanging in there. I have been tackling a few projects like these over the last few weeks, have you organized anything small that has made a big difference, do tell! We are always looking for project ideas.
Thanks for stopping by~
This is great and interesting story.
Thank you.
I love the organizing suggestions and steps to get there. We are in the process of building a new home and I would like to put some of these wonderful ideas to work before we get in. Thanks for the ideas. Love your website. Diana
I did the same thing for ours! Only my first aid is also organized based on people or animal since we have a mini farm.
😉
~ Honey
wow. Great informations.
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