|WINTER ORGANIZING SERIES| MOM'S CORNER/MEDICINE CABINET
The kitchen in many homes is often the spot where many non-kitchen related essentials of your family's life ends up. It is where you spend a lot of time as a family and often the passageway in and out of your home. Stuff just seems to LAND and it is helpful to have a system in place!
When my kids started school, I found the kitchen was the spot where we finished getting ready in the mornings. The kids would dress in their rooms and head to the kitchen to eat breakfast. After plating their food, I would go to the pantry to get out their vitamins. Then, I would run back to my daughter's room to get her hair brush/hair ties and shoot across the hall to my son's room to get his hair gel. As they ate breakfast, I would style their hair for school. After breakfast, I would run back to their rooms to get the toothbrushes and toothpaste. It was just easier to do everything together in one spot. After running the morning marathon, we would be heading out the door for school and one of them would need a band-aid. So I would run back into the house all the way to my bathroom where I housed the bandaids. In the evenings I would come home to find vitamin bottles and hair brushes left on the counter. Toothbrushes and toothpaste would be by the sink. I would go around collecting everything to put away, only to get it back out again the next day. I felt like I was stuck in the Groundhog's Day movie - something had to give!
Enter the Mom's corner! I decided to designate a spot in our kitchen for this exact function and put a system in place for that "stuff." It is literally in the corner of our kitchen, right by our laundry room, which leads to our mudroom area, and then out to the garage.
One main feature I love about every element of this area is that it can be easily taken out by section to be portable around the house (if needed), and then easily placed back. Most have handles, are see-through and are clearly labeled.
Here’s a breakdown of each area:
|THE BOTTOM SHELF|
The bottom shelf consists of our daily vitamins/medications, hair caddy and basket of face masks. We start and end each day with the bottom shelf of this cabinet because of our morning/night medicines and vitamins.
My favorite is the hair caddy! I pull it down and put it on the counter while the kids eat their breakfast. Everything I need for hair is is one spot. I also included a spot for extra toothbrushes/toothpaste so they can brush their teeth right in the kitchen versus going back to the ones they keep in their bathrooms. This caddy really helps out on school mornings when we are in a hurry.
|THE TOP SHELF|
The top shelf consists of the first aid caddy, cold medicine caddy, pain/prescription medicines and itch medicines. I like that this shelf is on top and out of the kids' reach.
The first aid caddy has come in real handy! I pull it down whenever the kids need a band-aid, need their temperature checked or an injury that requires an ointment.
So that’s it! As a mom, you don't have just your needs - you have to take care of your family. This little corner of the kitchen has saved me over and over again especially when time is tight! Everything is placed so that I can easily find it and take it around the house as needed, then put it right back where it belongs! No more mom marathons in the morning!
Link for caddy found on Amazon:
