There are probably almost as many ways of organizing first aid supplies as there are people.  What we were doing before was working…okay, but not great.  This is what we had going on.  It seems semi-organized.  The problem is, this cabinet is above the refrigerator, and I’m barely over 5 feet tall.  It’s difficult to shuffle all the items around to find what I need, while they’re still inside this cupboard.  Plus, even the things that are in baskets are so packed in that they are hard to dig through.

Solution for Organizing First Aid Supplies — a Toolbox

My solution rested on turning my first aid supplies into a first aid kit — with a toolbox.

I’m not sure if the exact toolbox I purchased is still available; I don’t seem to see it anywhere.  But I looked for several characteristics that you might want to keep in mind if you decide to go the same route for organizing your own first aid supplies.

Our particular toolbox is 23 or 24 inches long.  That might be too big for some people, but it worked well with the depth of the cupboard we keep it in (sideways).  I definitely wanted a couple easy-access compartments on top, so I could keep a few adhesive bandages and salve accessible without pulling the whole toolbox down.

It also has a tray that sits inside, so other frequently-accessed items can be kept there, separating them from the less-frequently-used items.  I like that the length of this box and the shorter tray leaves an “open” space on the end, so bulky items will fit.

Organizing the First Aid Supplies

The lighting in my house is terrible, so these photos are less focused than I would like, but hopefully you can get an idea of how we arranged our items.  Most of the common supplies are in the top tray, so they’re easy to grab when we open the box.

This includes things like thermometers, arnica gel (I would actually keep that in the outside compartment if it were small enough), extra salves, less common styles of Band-Aids (like butterfly bandages), etc.

In the open section, we keep bulky items like our blood pressure cuff (that’s what’s in the white case — a wrist cuff) and otoscope.  It also would normally contain our red washcloths, which I think were in the wash when I took this photo.  It can also hold larger boxes of bandages that are “overflow” from the exterior compartment (shown in a moment).

Underneath the tray are bulkier items that are used less often.  This is things like cold/heat packs, gauze, stretch/wrap bandages, medicine spoons/cups, pill cutter, etc., and allergy medicine.  Other meds have their own place (not with the first stuff), but allergy meds tend to need grabbing in a hurry.

I would also keep activated charcoal in here, but our activated charcoal is with our supplements, so it’s already accessible.

The outside compartment on one end holds our teething tablets and teething gel.  This is not really necessary, but there was an “extra” compartment, and it’s handy having the baby stuff separate from everything else.

The other exterior compartment is the one that faces the front of the cupboard when the toolbox is away, so I can reach up and grab things out of it without necessarily having to take the whole toolbox out.  It contains a smallish assortment of adhesive bandages (what we most often need the kit for), and a couple small containers of salve.

If you have a more conventional first aid kit, you might have triple antibiotic ointment here where I have salve.

The remaining items in that cupboard were then organized into baskets or buckets.  All the “bottled” things (peroxide, rubbing alcohol, etc.) in a basket, all the cold & flu-type meds in a basket, and all of any other kinds of meds in a basket.  (We don’t have much by way of OTC meds, so a couple small baskets is plenty.)

The net result is that, while all the same things are in that cupboard, things are not loose to have to be rearranged in the cupboard every time we need to find something.  And nothing gets lost in the back where I can’t reach.

(The white basket is all of the bottled liquids.  Behind that is another basket containing my encapsulators and empty capsules — bulky, but I don’t need them frequently.  The blue basket is cold/flu meds.  Behind that is another container with other OTC meds.  And then on the right is the toolbox, which extends pretty much to the back of the cupboard.  And that narrow blue basket that’s perched atop the liquids is some oddball essential oil-related things that haven’t yet found their places with the other essential oils.)