Dude, meet our disaster drawer. You may have seen a sneak peek of it yesterday, but this drawer deserves its own dramatic soundtrack. It looked like a wild animal had been rooting around in there. Since we’re in the middle of organization week (and for the sake of general sanity), it was high time we fixed it.
We don’t have a medicine cabinet because there’s a window above the sink, which means our bathroom storage is limited. The drawer in front of the sink is just a false front, so we can’t use that for extra storage. The cabinet under the sink holds bulky items like the hairdryer and our travel toiletry bag, so all the small essentials ended up crammed into one narrow drawer: floss, toothpaste, contact supplies, medicines, deodorant, hair care, nail tools and everything else that would normally be spread across a few drawers, a medicine cabinet, or a linen closet.
Even so, I knew this drawer could be tamed. We’re pretty minimalist with these items—my entire makeup collection fits in a tiny travel pouch of fewer than eight items that I keep in the car or my purse, and we don’t wear perfume or keep scrubs and bath salts around. Once you remove a few exceptions like Clara’s diaper cream and the shower essentials, this drawer really contained most of our small personal-care items in the house.
First step: empty the drawer and take inventory. Laying everything out made it obvious what belonged and what didn’t, so I tossed expired medicines and empty or half-used bottles that were cluttering the space. Getting rid of trash and duplicates immediately made the task feel manageable.
Next, I picked up two divided trays from TJ Maxx for about $9 total. They’re likely intended for office supplies or jewelry, but they were the right height for our sink drawer. The goal was to create zones so items wouldn’t slide together every time the drawer opened. I combined those trays with an old wooden toothbrush and toothpaste box we already had, and placed them in the drawer to form a simple organization system.
It was a tight fit, but everything that belonged in the drawer fit back in—no expired meds, no empty containers. I grouped like with like so everything is easy to find. Nail polish is at the back right, razors at the front right, contact supplies on the left, and oral care items are neatly contained in the toothpaste box (toothpaste, mouthwash, toothbrushes and a pack of floss). Extra floss and a few other small items are tucked near the nail polish. The back left holds medication and a small box of feminine products.
Some compartments are organized by owner. One cubby holds my items—an extra concealer and mascara that were part of a set (I only keep one in my travel pouch), hair-cutting scissors, a nail file, and similar small tools. The middle cubby contains John’s hair products, his razor and contact case—basically his morning routine supplies. The next cubby holds his shaving cream and aftershave. Keeping our things separated by owner should make it easier to maintain the system: his items won’t interfere with mine and vice versa.
Medication safety update: All medications are kept in childproof containers, and the razor blades snap into protective cases that Clara cannot open. At 23 months, she can’t open non-childproof bottles or even tupperware, and we keep our bedroom door closed so she’s never unattended in there. We also enforce a no-Clara-in-the-bedroom rule unless an adult is present.
Here’s another shot of the drawer from a different angle—some random bathroom items arranged just so. It’s oddly satisfying.
So yay—mission accomplished. The drawer survived one evening and one morning routine without derailing, which gives me some hope. I gave John a stern look and asked him to respect the cubbies, and so far he’s been great about it. I’ll take another photo in six months to report back, honest either way: still tidy or hilariously chaotic.
One downside of organizing is that it highlights other things that need attention: now that the inside of the drawer looks neat, the dinged cabinet lip and scuffed drawer faces are glaringly obvious. That’s a future project—painting the cabinets inside and out—but it will wait until we can tackle it properly.
I also snapped a quick photo of the cabinet under the sink to show how minimal we are with bulk items. There’s an old box of a few John things, our travel toiletry bag in the middle, and a basket holding a hairdryer, brush and curling iron. The cabinet has a few dings and smudges that I noticed while cleaning—more projects to add to the list someday, but not right away.
For now I’m content with being able to glance in the drawer and see if we need floss or razors, and to grab deodorant without wrestling other items out of the way. It’s the little improvements that make a daily routine easier.
Tomorrow we’ll share a detailed rundown of the grooming and cleaning products we use—many are multitaskers so we don’t have to store a hundred different bottles under the sink. What organizing projects are you tackling lately? Have dividers or cubbies helped you make a shallow drawer more functional? Who’s planning to tackle a bathroom drawer tonight? Also, not weird at all—I brushed and flossed after organizing this drawer, partly to test the new system and partly because it just felt right.