Reorganizing the Bathroom Closet

I've been taking some time off from blogging to concentrate on some work issues and also household issues.

One of those household issues is my closets. They are out of control. The worst offender, was the bathroom closet. My bathroom closet serves multiple purposes. It is the linen closet (bath ,bed and table), my medicine cabinet, where my stockpile of toiletries are kept and also just a home for odds and ends. My stockpile had taken over the whole closet and it was assured that you would be hit by some falling object each time you opened the door. So here's how I organized:

1.) I took inventory of my toiletries. Wow! I had a huge amount of stuff, so much that I didn't even know what I had. So, I sorted and donated alot of it so that I could fit it all onto one shelf in the closet. Don't worry, I still will not run out of any shampoo, bodywash or deodorant for at least 6 months or more.

I have found that putting things in baskets or some kind of container helps keep them organized and prevents things from falling over on one another or getting shuffled around. I designated a basket for the following categories:
- Kid/Baby toiletries
- Dental & deodorant (yea, those 2 things don't really go together, but they all fit nicely into the basket)
- Skin (bodywash, lotion, etc)
- Hair (shampoo, conditioner, hairspray, etc)
- Paper products (TP, feminine products, wet wipes, etc) - because of the size, this actually ended up on the floor of the closet - but it's nice and neat now.

* Frugal Note: for inexpensive storage containers, check the thriftstore. I find plastic baskets for as little as .25 cents and the wicker and lined baskets for about a dollar. Way less than some specialty store or even WalMart or Target. They don't match, but if they're just going to be in your closet where no one but you sees them, who cares!

2.) I re-purposed some spice racks and hung them on the inside wall of the closet and one on the inside of the door for medicines and medical supplies. These shelves are all high enough so that even if little hands managed to get through the locked door, they could not reach the meds. I organized as such:
- Dog/Cat Meds (yep, my animals have their own shelf of meds)
- Cold/Allergy meds
- Pain relievers
- Prescription meds
- Vitamins/all natural meds
- First Aid supplies
- Band Aids

3.) The next issue was the bedsheets. We have tons of bedsheets, and actually only use 3 sets on a regular basis. I got rid of some (still probably not enough). To keep the sets together, I folded the flat sheet and fitted sheet cases and placed them inside one of matching pillow cases. When I change my bed, I can just grab the pillow case and everything I need should be inside.

4.) My breakdown of the closet shelves are now the following:
- 1 shelf for bed linens
- 2 shelves for bath linens
- 1 shelf for toiletries
- 1 shelf for odds and ends that need a home (beach towels, heating pads, table linens)

It feels so much better to be able to open my bathroom closet and not get struck by a UFO! Have you got a tip for organizing closets or stockpiles? Let me know, I have several other areas I want to tackle.

This post is part of Works for Me Wednesday at We are That Family!