I'm completely caught up with Project Life. I still have to post last week's spread but I am caught up! Feels so good. But now what? I've been working on that for the past month in my spare time and so it took me a few days to figure out what the next big project should be. I started cleaning out a few things around the house and was just getting the organizing bug back and then our friends asked if we wanted some shelving and cabinets for our garage that they no longer needed. And Project Organize 2012 was underway!
Here's the first project I tackled before the garage - our medicine cabinet.
It was absolutely full because three of us are on long-term meds, plus the dog is on a bunch of allergy meds, and it has to hold all the normal supplies found in a medicine cabinet - bandages, pain relievers, cough drops, etc... We keep everything in a top kitchen cabinet over my desk and here's the before pic.
It was horrendous - old meds, dog meds mixed in with people meds, boxes everywhere, and things falling all over the place. There were three or four half-used tubes of Neosporin, three kinds of Ibuprofen, loose band-aids, tons of prescription meds, baggies full of meds Emily had taken to D.C., insect repellent, meds from Sawyer's surgery over two years ago, and lots of random stuff. It was just a mess. I actually shuddered at the dates on some of the meds. Prescription cough syrup from 2007, anyone? Shiver. Ugh.
And here's the after.
The first thing I did was take everything out and wash down the shelves. Then I made piles of meds according to person and animal and then by purpose - pain relief, first aid, cold meds, skin care, and miscellaneous. And then I threw out anything that was old or expired or that was questionable. (Actually I haven't thrown out the meds because I don't want them in the water systems or landfills, so they are boxed up waiting for proper disposal.)
I would love to have beautiful new matchy-matchy bins for everything but I didn't want to spend a lot of money. And while shopping for new organizing do-dads can be addictive and fun, sometimes it's so fun that obsessing over all the cool organizing bins at Target pulls me away from my goal - which is to get organized, not shop for fun accessories. I'm sure all of my Target-addicted friends can relate. That place is heaven. And evil. All at the same time. I actually made it out of there with only spending $6 on this project. That must be an all-time low for me.
So, instead of spending a lot of money, I used some plastic food storage bins (minus the lids) and just wrote on the ends with a Sharpie and then re-used some of the baskets and bowls that were already in there. My categories were first aid, pain & fever relief, Emily, Libby, dog meds, sunscreen & bug spray, diabetes meds (we still have to check Emily once in a while), cold meds and miscellaneous.
And it feels sooooooo good to open the cabinet now and see everything neatly arranged instead of slowly pulling on the cabinet door and peering around the edge so that you could catch whatever fell out every time the door opened.
Next up, the garage. EEK!
