Let’s be honest: most medicine cabinets are where expired cough syrup and half-empty bottles of vitamins go to retire.
It’s often the most cluttered spot in the bathroom because we only look at it when we’re already feeling under the weather or running late.
So it’s high time to tackle this space and some easy medicine cabinet organization ideas will help you quickly streamline your medicine bottles, vitamins and supplements in this storage area.
As a recovering attorney, I love a good system.
After fifteen years of organizing homes in Cleveland, I’ve seen dozens of medicine cabinets that are a hot mess and in need of some attention.
What I’ve learned is that you don’t need a Pinterest-perfect pharmacy; you just need to be able to find a Band-Aid without an avalanche of aspirin hitting the floor.
So let’s get right into the bathroom organizing ideas!
Built In or Wall Mounted Medicine Cabinet Organization Ideas
Some bathrooms have a traditional built-in medicine cabinet, while others have a wall mounted version.
Treat both similarly because these spaces are small and come with a few different challenges for maintaining the organization.
Namely, it’s common for medicine cabinets to become forgotten dumping grounds for unused bathroom toiletries and expired bottles of medicine.
Quick Medicine Cabinet Organization Method
Before you buy a single bin, take everything out of the medicine cabinet, one section at a time. Check the dates.
If that allergy medication expired in 2021, it’s time for it to go.
Grouping is your best friend here. Keep “daily” items like vitamins separate from “as-needed” items like cold medicine or first aid.
This simple division saves you from digging through the entire stash every single morning.
Organizing the Traditional Wall-Mounted Medicine Cabinet
These shallow cabinets are notorious for being a “black hole” for small bottles, tubes and toiletries. Because space is tight, verticality is your biggest asset.
If the shelves in the medicine cabinet aren’t adjustable or aren’t present at all, you’ll need to add some internal structure to organize the space.
Add shelves. If the shelves have long since broken or there aren’t enough to serve your needs, see if you can order replacement shelf pieces.
Your local home improvement store may have something that’ll work if you can’t order from the original cabinet manufacturer.
You’ll want to look for tempered glass shelving to decrease the possibility of the glass shattering into a million little pieces and causing injury.
Use tiered risers. If your cabinet is deep enough, a small spice-style riser allows you to see the labels on the back row of vitamins without knocking over the front row.
Utilize the door. If your cabinet has a metal interior, magnetic hooks or small magnetic tins can hold tiny items like tweezers, nail clippers or bottles of nail polish, freeing up shelf space for those bulkier items.
The bonus of having smaller items like tweezers stored on the door makes the tweezers easier to access and prevents them from getting shoved out of sight behind a larger item.
What Not to Store in the Medicine Cabinet
Consider storing medicine, vitamins and other supplements outside of the bathroom altogether.
That’s because heat and humidity affect these products and contribute to them being less effective or going bad earlier than they’re designed to.
A hallway linen closet or kitchen cabinet are good alternatives.
We’ll get into how to organize those spaces for medicine storage in a bit.
But first, let’s talk about what you should store in a medicine cabinet.
Good candidates to consider storing in a medicine cabinet is used on a daily or semi-daily basis:
- Dental care items like your toohbrush, toothpaste, floss, etc.
- Hair styling products like hari gels and pastes, setting sprays and hairbrushes or combs.
- Shaving supplies like aftershave and extra razor refills.
- Facial cleansers, make up removers and moisturizers.
- Nail care supplies like cuticle oils, emery boards and a select few bottles of nail polish.
The key to keeping the medicine cabinet space organized is to not overcrowd the cabinet with all of your toiletries.
Pare it down to the essentials.
Store the balance of your personal care products and toiletry supplies elsewhere.
Organizing a Medicine Drawer
If your “medicine cabinet” is actually a deep bathroom drawer, the strategy shifts.
Looking down at the tops of white caps tells you absolutely nothing about what’s inside the bottle
If storing medicine bottles makes the most sense for the space, grab a sharpie or a label maker and put the name of the supplement or medication right on the cap.
This allows you to identify what you need at a glance without lifting every single bottle.
Consider using shallow bins or acrylic dividers to break up the drawer into sections to keep everythng organized.
Don’t use just any bin.
Instead, use long, narrow bins to create “zones” within the drawer.
Measure your drawer and then find bins that’ll fit the space if you don’t already have something that’ll work.
Here are some of my favorite storage bins that I regularly use in my clients’ homes.
With a container in hand, it’s time to create the designated zones.
One zone for pain relief, one for digestion, and one for daily vitamins.
This prevents the bottles from sliding around and becoming a jumbled mess every time you shut the drawer.
And you won’t have to search the whole space to find what you need.
You’ll know exactly what part of the drawer to find what you’re looking for.
Using a Standard Cabinet for Storage
If you are using a linen closet or a deep vanity cabinet to store your supplies, you have more room, but also more opportunity for chaos.
The “Bin and Pull” method. Treat your deep cabinets like drawers.
Use clear, handled bins that you can pull out completely.
When you need the first aid kit, you pull out the “First Aid” bin, take what you need, and slide it back in.
This method works well to use the full depth of the cabinet space and avoids having to dig through everything on the shelf to find what you need.
Turntables for the win. A Lazy Susan is the undisputed champion of deep cabinets.
Put your tallest vitamin and supplement bottles on a turntable so you can spin your way to the right bottle instead of reaching into the dark depths of the cupboard.
Before we remodeled our bathroom to add more storage options, our linen closet served as the storage space for our medicine and most toiletries.
I grouped like with like and positioned them on the turntable accordingly.
I labeled the different sections of the double decker turntable to make it plain to see where to find items.
Setting Up a Kitchen Medicine Storage Cabinet
Carving out space for medicine in a kitchen cabinet is a smart idea, especially when positioned away from the oven or cooktop.
Incredible heat and humidity are generated from cooking elements, so be mindful of this in the kitchen space too.
I use two lazy susan organizers in an upper kitchen cabinet to store medicine, vitamins and supplements.
This works well for my household since I take the vitamins and supplements in the morning, usually at the same time I eat breakfast.
So it makes a lot of sense to have everything stored in the same general area.
The supplements I take daily are in repurposed kitchen food storage containers.
Why buy something when you already have something on hand that’ll work?
It doesn’t look pretty, but House Beautiful isn’t coming for a visit anytime soon.
And something being pretty or aesthetically pleasing does not mean it’s a better organizational system.
It just means your eye likes it!
An upper shelf serves to hold the big bottles of vitamins, medicine and supplements.
I refill the containers about every 10 days, so the bigger bottles are tucked out of the way until needed.
Organizing Medicine for Multiple Household Members
Another consideration when organizing medicine in a cabinet or drawer is how to handle medications for different members of your family.
You definitely don’t want to intermix the medications because that will increase the odds of a dosing error.
Separate each person’s medications either in separate handled bins or a labeled section of a Lazy Susan organizer.
Some organizers have separate comportments, so you can make use of the divided sections to divvy up the medicines.
Maintaining an Organized Medicine Storage System
The key to keeping your medicine cabinet or medicine storage area organized isn’t just the containers; it’s the routine maintenance that’ll keep everything in check.
Every few months, do a quick scan and toss of anything expired or empty bottles to keep the clutter at bay.
You can do this when you’re brushing your teeth—it’s the perfect opportunity for a little multi-tasking!
How to Properly Dispose of Medication
Don’t just toss expired medication or pills that you don’t need.
Call your city hall to see if they have a collection program.
My city hall has a collection box that’s in the foyer to safely and responsibly discard prescription medication.
This is a great program to securely get rid of unneeded pills without them polluting waterways or getting into the hands of others.
Over to You
Now you have some fabulous ideas for how to organize medicine in your home, whether it be in a traditional medicine cabinet, in a drawer, linen closet or kitchen cabinet.
Taking the time to organize your medicine cabinet efficiently means you’ll always be able to find what you need when you need it!
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