Organized Chaos: Medicine Cabinet
Medicine Cabinet
The medicine cabinet is in the kitchen. The items that don’t fit in the medicine and first aid tackle box are placed on the bottom shelf in baskets to keep everything organized. The cabinet is high enough that the little kids cannot reach it, but is accessible for adults. We have been using this method for awhile now and it works really well for our family.
There are 3 different Medicine baskets on the bottom shelf (from left to right):
- Miscellaneous
- Fever & Miscellaneous
- Cold & Allergy
Medicine organized in baskets on the bottom shelf
Organized Chaos: Medicine & First Aid Tackle Box
Our Medicine & First Aid Tackle Box
I like tackle boxes, but probably not for the same reason as most people. Some people like them to store their fishing supplies, I like them because they make great storage containers. We have had this medicine and first aid tackle box for many years. It has worked very well in storing basic medicine and first aid items. The medicine and first aid tackle box is stored in our medicine cabinet in the kitchen. It is within easy reach if you need something, yet not at a level young children can get access to it.
The top of our medicine and first aid tackle box contains items we only use once in awhile like wrapping, bigger bandaids, poison control items, burn gel, spare thermometers, and a few more items. The 3 containers with the white stickers is the section we access the most often which we go into further details about what they contain below. The front right side of the tackle box contains our thermometer and an otoscope (we had kids with a lot of ear infections and this tool has been a huge help for our family). If you have a kid that gets frequent ear infections an otoscope is well worth the investment!
Items in our Head & Stomach Medicine Container:
- Tylenol 8 Hour
- Excedrin Tension Headache
- Naproxin
- Tylenol Extra Strength
- Excedrin Migraine
- Ibuprofin
- Children’s Tylenol
- Children’s Ibuprofin
- Gas X
- Anti-Diarrhea
- Draminine
- Tums
Items in our First Aid Container:
- Eye Drops
- Antibacterial Cream
- Drawing Sauve
- Nexcare Clear Waterproof Bandaids
- Advanced Healing Bandaids
- Fun “Kid” Bandaids
- Small Bandaids
- Sheer Bandaids
- Medical Tape
- Antibiotic Bandaids
- Large Bandaids
- Antibiotic Ointment
- Gauze
Items in our Cold & Allergy Container:
- Cough Drops
- 4 Hour
- 12 Hour
- Kids Cold Medicine
- Adult Cold Medicine
- Kids Allergy Medicine
- Adult Allergy Medicine
- Decongestion
- Mucinex
- Day Time Cold Medicine
- Night Time Cold Medicine
All 3 containers placed in the Medicine and First Aid Tackle Box
You can see all 3 containers are labeled – Head & Stomach, First Aid, and Cold & Allergy
The containers are in the Medicine and First Aid Tackle Box and ready for when they are needed.
The Medicine and First Aid Tackle Box are on the middle shelf of our Medicine Cabinet.
Organized Chaos: Storing Our Vitamins
Organized Family Vitamins
We store our family vitamins on the top shelf of our medicine cabinet in the kitchen. Each basket contains vitamins for our family members. Jake and I have our own baskets, but Brina and Karlie share a basket containing all their vitamins.
Once a week I get the vitamins down and refill everyone’s individual vitamin containers for the entire week. This system has worked pretty well for our family over the past couple of years. Plus it keeps all the vitamins organized and in one location. I picked up the baskets on clearance at Staples (they were sold in packs of 3 or more and were a $1 or less). If you cannot find them at Staples I have seen them around at other stores as well.
Our medicine cabinet with the vitamins on the top shelf.
Organized Chaos: Health & Beauty Supplies
Health & Beauty Supplies
We have a tall narrow closet in the master bedroom where we store regularly used Healthy & Beauty Supplies. When we find something that it is on sale and we know we will use in the next 1 to 6 months we pick it up and put it in the appropriate container. The containers hold plenty for our family for the next few months so we never get more than what the container can hold. If the container is empty or running low we put that item on our shopping list for the next trip to the store.
As the kids get older I have noticed they are starting to go through more of the Health & Beauty items. Since we try to get these items when they are at a good price we haven’t noticed too much of an increase in use. I anticipate as they get older the use will continue to go up and they may start getting more specific about what they like (or don’t like), but for now they are content with just pulling out something from the container that we have on hand.
It helps having everything organized and available so when an object is needed already we have it. There are a couple items that technically are not Health & Beauty that we keep stored in this area as well such as the Air Fresheners and Small Gifts, otherwise it is all health and beauty items.
Once again you can see that I used the small clear containers with a white lid from the Dollar Tree. These fit perfectly in so many of our smaller closets and help us keep supplies in order. They are easy to see into, pull out, open up, and refill. Anyone in the family can easily get the items they need without assistance. We have not replaced the original wooden closet shelves in this closet because it is such a different sized closet the wooden shelves work for it. The closet is not wide enough to fit 2 of the plastic containers side-by-side so I used a narrow box to slide in next to the containers which contains some of the slightly bigger items we try to keep on hand.
Top Shelf of the Health & Beauty Closet Contains:
- Air Fresheners & Refills
- New Make Up
- Q-Tips & Cotton Balls
- Box of Small Gifts (I try to have a handful of small gifts on hand for last minute parties, teacher gifts, hostess gifts, or something else. Couple examples of what I keep in this box are candles, decorative hand soaps, and more. These items have come in handy when we don’t have time to run to the store, but need something to give someone.)
Middle Shelf of the Health & Beauty Closet Contains:
- Female Deodorant (which now we have 3 people in our household using)
- Male Deodorant (we always have at least 2 of his deodorants out at a time – 1 for everyday home use and 1 packed in a toiletry bag for when my husband travels for work. There have been times when he has had to leave at the last minute so having this already packed and ready helps us make sure he has everything he needs to travel and allows us to get him out the door more quickly.)
- Chapstick / Lipstick
- Box of Toothpaste, Tooth Brushes, & Mouthwash (since these are typically longer or taller in size they fit better in the box on the shelf)
Bottom Shelf of the Health & Beauty Closet Contains:
- Hand Sanitizer & Sunblock
- Dental Floss
- Toothbrushes
- Box of Lotion & Face Wash
All the Health & Beauty items are organized and ready to be used!
Organized Chaos: Household & Party Supplies
Household and Party / Gift Supplies
There are certain items our household tends to need or go through on a regular basis. Since these are items our family uses regularly we try to keep them organized, accessible, and stocked so that when they are needed we can get them quickly. Also, there are certain party or gift supplies that we keep on hand and organized to use for a variety of different events that we participate in as a family.
In order to organize our Household and Party Supplies efficiently in our storage room we used these clear small containers with white lids, you can find them for a $1 at Dollar Tree. We were able to fit all our household and party supplies on one shelf. Once the items are placed in containers, we put the lid on, and labeled them. We picked up the wire shelving several years ago at Sam’s Club, but you can find it at a number of stores including Walmart, Target, Home Depot, and more. We have used this system for several years now and it works really well for our family.
Household & Party Supply labels:
- Vacuum Attachments
- New Sponges
- AAA Batteries
- AA Batteries
- D Batteries
- C & Miscellaneous Batteries
- Curling Ribbons & Yarn
- Gift Bag Ribbons
- Paper Bags (White & Brown)
- Crepe Paper
- Ribbons
When the kids were little it felt like almost every toy had a battery, not sure if we go through any less batteries now that they are older. Although, they do have more stuff that charges using a wall outlet now!
The household and party supplies are located on the bottom rack in this picture! Easy to see, reach, and use when needed!
Organized Chaos: Picnic & Travel Supplies
Our Picnic and Travel Supplies Organized
Our family loves to be outside and travel! We keep some of the travel supplies we use regularly on hand for these occasions so that we are prepared. We don’t always need all these items for each trip or when we go outside, but when it is necessary it is easy to locate so we can use them.
These small containers with lids that we used for the picnic and travel supplies, you can find for a $1 at Dollar Tree, have been useful in helping our family get and stay organized! Once the items are placed in containers, we put the lid on, and labeled them. We picked up the shelving a long time ago at Sam’s Club, but you can find it at a number of stores including Walmart, Target, Home Depot, and more.
Picnic & Travel Supply label ideas to get you started:
- Sunblock
- Bug Repellent Bands
- Hand Sanitizer / Wet Wipes
- Disposable Forks
- Disposable Spoons
- Disposable Knives
- Disposable Utensil Sets
- Decorative Tape
- Candy Gifts
Most of these items probably make sense to you, except maybe the Decorative Tape and the Candy Gifts. Well, let me explain why those are in this section as well and on the shelf with the other travel items. The decorative tape is used usually before we travel to make or decorate a special surprise for the kids (especially if it is a long trip). Sometimes we have actually brought a roll with us as we travel for various fun activities during the travel. We do use the decorative tape for other occasions as well, but for the most part it used before traveling adventures. The candy gifts are in the travel section because when we go on long road trips, usually 5 hours or longer, we try to pack special treats for the kids to enjoy along the way. This helps break up the trip for them. I usually get the treats a various times throughout the year as I find great deals and put them into the container. As we prepare to leave for an upcoming trip I pull out a couple items and we are good to go.
Disposable utensils, decorative tape, and candy gifts! Ready for the next road trip adventure!
The Picnic & Travel Supplies are organized on the middle shelf in this picture!
Organized Chaos: Organizing Our Arts & Crafts Supplies
General Craft Supplies
Our kids love to do crafts! In the summer months, on the weekends, or evenings when the kids have some extra free time they like to do crafts. Throughout the school year they have to do various projects for school so our art and craft supplies come in handy for those tasks as well.
The general arts and crafts supplies are stored in our storage closet on one of our shelves in individual containers labeled with what is inside each one. Whenever the kids want to do a craft or need something specific all they have to do is get the container out, use whatever item they need, and put the container back once they are finished. If they use up all of one particular item they write that item on the grocery / shopping list (or tell us if we are nearby so we can add it).
When the kids were younger we had a lot more containers of art and crafts supplies. Now we have narrowed it down to the supplies they use the most and will fit on one shelf in the storage room. We still have a couple drawers and other containers on the very bottom shelf for specialty or specific items that do not fit into these categories, but they are easy to access when they need them as well. Also, the girls have crafts that were give to them in their own rooms, Organized Chaos: Kids Crafts & Activities.
These small containers with lids that we used for the arts and crafts supplies, you can find for a $1 at Dollar Tree, have been very useful in helping our family get organized! Once the items are placed in containers, we put the lid on, and label them. We picked up the shelving a long time ago at Sam’s Club, but you can find it at a number of stores including Walmart, KMart, Target, Home Depot, Lowe’s, and more.
Here are some of the container labels we used for our arts and crafts supplies to get you started:
- Stencils
- Small Crafts
- Glitter
- Craft Sticks
- Modeling Clay
- Crayons
- Google Eyes
- Beads & Necklaces
- Fuzzy Sticks (pipe cleaners)
- Water Color Paint / Paint Brushes
- Finger Paints
- Stamps
- Pom Poms
Our organized storage room – the top shelf in this picture is where the arts & crafts supplies are located!
Organized Chaos: Cleaning the Top of Kid’s Dressers
Messy dresser top
There comes a point when certain areas start to accumulate too many random items that they need to be cleaned. For some reason in our house any available flat surface becomes possible game for these types of items – from the kitchen counter tops, dresser tops, table tops, the floor, and more. I am hoping this is somewhat normal for most houses and if anyone finds an airtight solution to this problem please let me know. After awhile the little things piling up on flat surfaces really starts to bother me whether it is in the kitchen, bedroom, or somewhere else in the house. Honestly, I lose track of how many times a week (or a day) I clean off the kitchen counter tops and other places.
In the bedrooms the big spot for these types of items to accumulate is on the kids dressers. I want them to be able to keep their treasures, decorate, or show off special items, but at some point it needs to be cleaned and organized. Sometimes a lot of the clutter items are just things that are not put away in their proper place. Instead of putting them away they just lay on the dresser top for awhile. Other times it is some fun trinkets they got at a party, won, or received. No matter what it is or why it is there the chore of keeping the dresser tops clean, organized, and dusted pops up quite frequently around our house.
While the kids room is the one I am talking about today I have to admit our dresser tends to get hit with these items as well. Jake and I are as guilty as the kids in loading up the dresser top with items that do not belong on it. Even though this area tends to get messy more quickly if you clean it off regularly it won’t take very long before it is looking good again.
Cleaning off the dresser is quick, easy, and makes the room look so much cleaner:
- Take everything off the dresser
- Dust the dresser off
- Put away the items that did not belong on the dresser
- Straightened up the special treasures you decide to keep or that belong on the top of the dresser
Looking good Karlie! It always makes me smile to see what special items they specifically choose to keep on top of their dressers.
Organized Chaos: Kid’s Bookshelves
Kids bookshelf
Our family loves books! It has always been something we have done together. When the girls were little we would read to them everyday. Now we read more chapter books, library books, and special books together as a family. We do a rotation on who gets to pick out the next chapter book we will read as a family. Sometimes if Jake is traveling he may miss a chapter or two otherwise we usually do this activity together.
When the girls were little we barely had any kids books. We started collecting them, the kids got some as gifts, and they have also bought some with their spending money. Over the years these books have accumulated. For one of their gifts a couple years ago Jake made the girls a bookshelf for their room. They LOVE it! For the most part they do keep it pretty neat, but every once in awhile it needs a little cleaning and organizing.
As you can see from the picture above they have books piled on top of the books on the shelf, books leaning all directions, random items that are not books on the bookshelf, and various books out of place. Since they keep it in decent order it doesn’t take long to freshen up the book shelf, put books away, dust, and we had it looking better in no time.
We have their books arranged in specific order. On the top are the kids classics and chapter book series. The 2nd shelf down we have more chapter books or series. On the 3rd shelf from the top we have the Golden Classics and soft cover books. The 4th shelf from the top contains all the kids reference and educational books. On the 5th shelf from the top we have hard cover books. The very bottom shelf contains more hard cover books, including some series.
Bookshelf is all dusted and organized!
The next big bookshelf project I need to do is to go through all the younger kids books. Our kids have outgrown a lot of the smaller books so I need to decide which ones to keep, donate, sell, etc…. I have slowly been starting to do this by giving some of the younger kid books to kids who I know enjoy those types of books. I love looking into the kids rooms and seeing them reading books either on their own or together. It makes my heart happy. The learning to read fluently has been a journey for our family. Part of my hesitation in going through and getting rid of some of their smaller books means I have to admit my little babies are growing up and to a Momma’s heart it kind of makes me sad. Not sure if I will ever be truly ready, but I will eventually go through the books and eliminate some more kids ones so that it will make more room for their more advanced reading books, just not today…
Organized Chaos: 3 Simple Steps When Cleaning Out the Kids Toy Cabinet
White Toy Cabinet
The white toy cabinet may look clean on the outside…however, that is not the case when you open it up and look inside of it. It has items placed randomly all around and is in a bit of a disarray. Today we are going to talk about organizing the toy cabinets. Our kids love playing, but for some reason the items they play with do not always find the correct homes when it is time for them to be put away. Despite the fact that most toys have a specific location where they call home. Whether it is that they are in a hurry, don’t want to take the time, or are not sure where to put it, who knows. Every once in awhile the white toy cabinet, like everything else in the house, needs a good cleaning.
Sometimes when you are cleaning out the kids stuff you find little treasures that the kids have kept for a variety of bizarre reasons, a candy wrapper from a friend, a 1 inch scrap of paper they are saving to do a craft, a piece of ribbon, or some other item that they stuffed in the cabinet for later use. There are times when the cabinet is so full of items and disorganized that it cannot even completely shut. I often wonder why these instances don’t trigger some thought process that says “Hey time to clean me out, please”! Maybe it does, but they don’t want to do it at that particular moment in time! Thankfully, as the kids are getting older I am starting notice more occasions were they will voluntarily notice a mess and clean it up by themselves. These precious moments makes my heart happy!
It’s a mess, not sure where some of that stuff came from in the toy cabinet
Here are 3 Simple Steps I use when cleaning out the kids toy cabinet:
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If it is broken – throw it away
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If they no longer play with it – give it away
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If it is out of place – put it away
Much better! Now they can actually find the toys and items they are looking for in the toy cabinet!
After going through the cabinet and applying the three simple principles as well as wiping down the inside and outside of the cabinet it is pretty much done. Sometimes there are a handful of items I am not sure about or want the kids to make the choice about what they want to do with them, but otherwise it is done.
While these steps sound really easy there have been times especially when the kids were younger and watching me clean out the toy cabinet I hesitated on some items. They may not have played with it this month, but maybe they will again next month. In those cases I usually held onto the toy for a little bit longer and if they hadn’t played with it by the time I cleaned the toy cabinet out again it was time for it to find another home.
I am a sentimental person so I like to keep special items. The problem is no one has a house large enough to keep everything so while I may hang onto things longer than some people eventually I have to admit when it’s time to let it go.
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