Banish Clutter In Your Medicine Cabinet With This Affordable Space-Saving Solution

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Logically speaking, you know it shouldn't take your medicine chest projectile vomiting the Q-Tips box into the sink for the 17th time for you to decide to deal with the clutter problem in the cabinet. Unfortunately, the combination of mental inertia and working within a cupboard's space constraints can stall your efforts to organize. If that's where you're at, then you'll appreciate this unorthodox fix. Use L-shaped bookends to make risers and floating shelves inside the cabinet. You'll additionally create metal back-plates from the accessories, on which you'll hang magnetic hooks and containers. Best of all, this hack is affordable. It'll set you back just about $10 for the bookends and the few button magnets you'll need to put everything together.

One of the disadvantages of medicine cabinets is that most of them are only between 4 and 5 inches deep. Because of this limitation, look for bookends that have a short foot. ("Foot," in this case, is fancy DIY-speak for the bottom piece of the L-shaped bookend.) Something like the pindda Metal Bookends would work because the feet are only 3.5 inches. You'll need at least one set for this project, though depending on your organizational challenges, more than one pair might be necessary. You'll also need some button magnets, magnetic hooks, containers, and towel bars for this DIY.

First, slide the bookend behind the medicine cabinet shelf, so the shorter panel rests on the ledge and the longer panel is visible underneath. Then you can say goodbye to bathroom clutter by attaching accessories like magnetic containers, hooks, and towel bars to the visible side of the bookend. On the hooks, hang items like nail scissors. In the boxes, stash small items like cotton balls or bandages. If you can't find magnetic lidded boxes, glue button magnets onto the bottoms of some ZORRITA Small Plastic Storage Containers With Hinged Lids to make what you need. Creating storage space between shelves with the metal bookends leaves room on the shelves for items such as medicine and perfume bottles, which need to stand upright.

To make the most of this hack, you might want to create sections in the medicine cabinet so that like items can be stored together. For example, make a separate section for cotton balls and make-up applicators, nail scissors and clippers, and another still for your hair ties and clips. Keep in mind, too, that many of the L-shaped bookends come in different colors. Buying bookends of different hues allows you to color-code the cabinet. For example, attach some hooks onto a tan bookend, and hang your nail scissors and toenail clippers on the hooks. You can also attach a button magnet directly to smaller nail clippers or your metal file, and attach those tools directly to the bookends. No magnetic hooks or boxes required.

You may find that even after storing items on hooks or in containers, you still have a lack of shelf space. With the help of a few magnets, the L-shaped bookends can be turned into risers that can be placed on existing cabinet shelves. In this set-up, the feet of the bookends become the legs of the riser and the backs turn into its tabletop. On one bookend, attach heavy-duty magnets to the underside of the long panel. Then connect it to the back of the other bookend, adjusting the new tabletop to your desired width.

If there is space between the shelves inside your medicine cabinet, this bookend organization hack also works for that, too, creating mini floating shelves. First, you'll want to clean the cabinet out, and then take stock of the interior of the medicine chest. Is it made of metal? Wood? Something else? If it's made of metal, then you just need to attach some button magnets to the back of the bookends, and then hang each one on the hind wall of the cabinet to create the mini floating ledge. 

If the cupboard is made of a non-magnetic material, attach a strip of magnetic tape to the back of the cupboard. Then hang the bookends on the tape. Place items, like pill bottles or night creams, on the foot of the pieces to set up ledges where you can stash your stuff. This helps you to create a more organized medicine cabinet without much effort.