bathroom organization Archives •

Do you open up your medicine cabinet and stuff just topples out? Here are a few easy steps on how to organize your medicine cabinet beautifully and keep it that way.

Medicine cabinets are little niches in our bathrooms perfect for living small. They tuck in between the walls where you can hide all kinds of goodies out of sight. But, that right there is the problem (out of sight). “Just stick it in the medicine cabinet” until one day, that little tube of chapstick makes the whole thing fall down in an avalanche of itsy bitsy bathroom crap.

After everything lands all over your bathroom counter, you have two choices. You can do some stacking and rearranging to make it all fit back in the cabinet until the next fall-out or you can organize it like a boss and keep it that way. Honestly, I have no idea that after you follow my steps to organizing your medicine cabinet you will actually keep it that way. But, what I do know is that if the inside of your medicine cabinet is beautiful, you are more likely to “want” to keep it that way.

Remove Everything

Take everything out of the cabinet. Everything including the shelves.

Clean the Cabinet

Get in there and give everything a nice scrubbing. Get in those nooks and crannies and clean up all that broken eyeshadow stuck in the corner.

Throw Stuff Out

Discard:

Items that have expired
That you haven’t used for 3 months or longer
Anything that is broken
Duplicates
The eyeliner you used once and hated how it worked – I know it’s new but toss it! I give you permission
Anything else you don’t need

This post includes some affiliate links. If you click on these and make a purchase, I earn an itsy bitsy commission but it doesn’t cost you any extra.

Add an Inspirational Verse or Quote

I love this verse, but for some hard-headed reason, I need to be constantly reminded of its message. Therefore, it is my daily reminder. Choose a verse or quote you love and motivates you. My verse is adhesive vinyl and I made it on my Silhouette Portrait machine. You can purchase the Jeremiah 29:11 cut file download in my shop for just a few dollars.

If you want to change up your quotes more often, chalkboard contact paper is the bomb diggity. I used it inside the pantry in my Airstream trailer for our menu board.

Decorate the Back

If your medicine cabinet is pretty, psychologically you are more likely to keep it organized! Begin by decorating the back of the cabinet with a pop of color or something pretty. You can paint it an accent color of your bathroom decor, use contact paper, or use wrapping paper. I just used four pieces of black cardstock that I found in my craft supplies.

Adjust the Shelves

Adjust the shelves to fit tall items and short items. You may even want to add an extra shelf to maximize your storage potential.

Categorize Small Things in Jars

I love mason jars and use them all over the house. They are versatile and cheap so it is no surprise, that I chose 8-ounce jelly jars for organizing my medicine cabinet. I just grabbed a bunch from my stash and started categorizing. I have jars for:

Lips
Nails
Scrunchies
Hairbands
Bobby pins
Small tubes
Essential oil roll-ons
Teeth

Make matching bottle labels

Make pretty labels for all your bottles. Don’t stop at this step! This is the final step in organizing your medicine cabinet like a boss. These labels can easily be made with a printer and a glue stick. Custom bottle labels are the icing on the cake in your medicine cabinet! If you have an inkjet printer like me, put a piece of clear shipping tape over the printed titles of your label and it will prevent it from smearing if your hands are damp when you reach for your hair mousse.

I designed my custom bottle labels as .svg cut files so I can quickly print and cut a new label with my Silhouette Portrait machine when something runs out.

Now that you’ve got the steps to organize your own medicine cabinet – like a boss, comment below on your best take away and your plans to organize your medicine cabinet like a boss. Also, I love connecting with you on Instagram. Snap a picture of your medicine cabinet after you finish and tag me @urbancottageliving.

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When you have one bathroom, you need to maximize space and style. For now, a full renovation was not in the cards for us. I wanted to make a big impact with as little money as possible. I think you are really going to like our bathroom’s fresh new look and the much-needed storage I added.

Before Pictures + The Plan

The Problem: The paint color and the lack of any cohesive design.

The Plan: Paint the walls and ceiling light gray and the indented wall on the right a dark gray as an accent wall.

The Problem: An old yucky vanity with goopy painted hinges.

The Plan: Paint it the same dark gray as the accent wall and add all new hardware.

The Problem: Four different metal finishes. Oh, my!

The Plan: Accent with chrome and white hardware keeping with the era of a 1940’s home. Try and make it feel original even though the bathroom was updated in the 1980’s.

The Problem: Very little storage.

The Plan: Build a new shelf above the toilet and a shelf across the wall above the door to match. Build them to seem as if they have always been there. Paint them the same dark gray as the vanity and the accent wall.

The Problem: An outdated light fixture with yellow shades.

The Plan: Spray paint the light fixture dark gray to match the accent wall and the vanity. Add new glass shades that are white with a style that fits the era of a 1930’s bathroom.

The Problem: Medicine Cabinets. I really don’t like them and there we have two! However, I need to keep them for the storage.

The Plan: Add lots of trim to both of them. Try to make them look as much alike as possible.

The Renovation

Here is a peek at the new towel shelf above the toilet and the holes in the wall patched.

You can see the new gray color here and the beginning of trimming out the medicine cabinet mirrors. John used his router to make custom trim to match the existing medicine cabinet as close as possible. I think he did a darn good job!

Our little house only has three drawers in the hallway and no closets except for one in each bedroom. Here is a look at the shelf above the bathroom door. This will help with much-needed storage!

The Reveal

Welcome – come on in! About the little restroom sign. There are three doors in our hall. The left door is my room, the middle door is the restroom, and the right door is our daughter’s room. We throw lots of parties and I didn’t want our guests accidentally walking into our daughter’s room when she is hiding out in there. Thus, the need for the little restroom sign.

Here you can see the new wall color, the custom shelf above the toilet for our towels, and the new mirror trim.

The shelf was built using wood brackets from Lowe’s. I have a full “shop the look” section at the bottom of this article.

I think the chunky trim around the mirrors makes all the difference in here! It makes the two different medicine cabinets look the same and adds character.

The light fixture was spray painted dark gray similar to the vanity cabinet and the accent wall. New white globes were added. I can’t believe how much better it looks!

Painting an accent wall a darker gray gave this boring wall a little punch. It is the same color as the vanity and the shelves. I found the antique mirror at the Habitat Restore for $10 and gave it a little tender loving care.

The most practical part of the bathroom renovation was adding this shelf above the bathroom door. Just the same as the towel shelf, it was made with wooden brackets and painted the same color as the vanity. The boxes store things like extra bars of soap, the neti pot, band-aids, and other bathroom stuff.