Extra personal items and stock piles

Hey all! So I have done a post in the past about my bathroom and reorganizing it's drawers and under the cabinet. Check out that post HERE. Now, I love my bathroom and how it's set up but you really can't have EVERYTHING in your drawers and under the sink. (If you thought the items you see in the post are all I had, you are terribly mistaken. Really?! You thought that was all I had. Oh that's funny) I needed a place to put all the excess items.

I love a good deal and often times it means maybe buying things in multiple quantities to get that deal. No, I have not become one of those people that store enough extra items in my basement that could sustain my family for 400 years or the entire world for 6 months (aka Hoarders, Extreme Couponers, Doomsday crazies-- but man I would love to organize their stock pile....oh! and label it!.....and maybe organize it again.....ok i'm done). I do however have a small amount of excess items that needed to go somewhere. That somewhere ended up being my laundry room. I have an extra white cabinet with some shelves in it that serves as a perfect area for many things.

I have everything from personal care items, travel items, paper towels, TP, soaps, etc in this cabinet. It's nice to have all this in one spot-- cuts down on having to search!
So how did I cram everything in there? I used some pretty containers, a little adjusting and some creativeness.

Here is what the entire cabinet looks like: Notice the containers on the top and right- I'll explain those in a minute. I also use this cabinet for the over-flow I was talking about above. I currently have TP, paper towels, Kleenex, Lysol wipes, etc in the cabinet. It's super easy to run over to the laundry room when we are low on an item. I know not all houses or apartments will have the room to have a stock pile like this but sometimes you can get pretty creative with storage. Try out some options and see what works for you.

 

 

So, like I said, I have some cute containers with chevron print to help keeps the smaller like items together.
Some of the containers I have are for:
Pain Relief: ibuprofen, advil, etc.
Hair Care: Shampoos, Conditioners, hair sprays, etc
Hair Removal: Shaving cream, razors, etc
First Aid: Bandaids, peroxide, creams, etc.



 

To label these containers I used see-through washi tape and my label maker. Now it's easy to see what items the bins have and easily find which one I need to open. Another bonus of these containers is that they are clear on the bottom so I can see in them without opening them.

 

Remember that once the items are in the containers it doesn't mean you are completely done organizing. You might be happy with your organizing  at that point but you can always do the next step- organizing the individual containers! (I see that eye-roll you are giving because you are thinking I'm crazy- but let me explain.) (BTW- didn't your mother teach you that eye rolls are not polite? Rude!)

 Take my travel container as a perfect example. When I had all my travel items all together in the container, they were just kind of thrown about. I would have to go through and find which ones were shampoo or which ones were conditioner. Took longer than I had patience and when I am in the middle of packing I usually have my mind on 30 different other things at the same time. So to fix this little problem I used a simple solution- sandwich bags! I separated out the different types of travel items I had and wrote what they were on the bags.

 

So much easier to find items quickly! Plus it's been great with reminding me what items I need to bring so I don't leave behind body wash or toothbrushes.

Now go buy in bulk and rejoice! You now have the tools to have your own stock pile! Just don't call me if you end up on an episode of Doomsday Preppers or Hoarders. If you are on one of those shows then we don't know each other......seriously- don't use me as your phone a friend. :)