Tips On Getting the House Organized

Getting Rid of the Mess

Medicine Cabinet

If like mine, it is like touring the museum of "The History of Medicine" some of the stuff is so old. Recently I collected all the jars of vitamin C that I had around the house and it totaled six jars, and not one had an expiration date within the last two years! Plus, maybe, out of the 100 pills originally in the bottle, probably 80 were left.

What did I learn from this experience? If I must buy Vitamin C, buy smaller quantities. As far as all the prescription pills that I found, out of the 15 various bottles in the cabinet, one was still good. Cough medicine? We will not even go there! Plus I found an interesting collection of topless salves.

To clean it up:

Throw out the old medicines and vitamins and unusable salves along with left over toothpaste and other questionable toiletries.

Put loose items and small similar products in baggies. If you can see what you have, you'll use it.

Clean the containers of things you want to keep. Fresh looking toiletries are more appealing to use.

Makeup

Your makeup area is one of the most difficult "toss it" areas to go through. We all have leftover foundation that we bought to help blend with our summer tans, or that glitter powder that looked good on the cosmetician but looked strange on us. But makeup goes bad and can damage your skin and eyes. Here is the scoop on the lifetime of your makeup:

Foundation, cleansers, moisturizers: 1 year.

Lipstick: 1 to 2 years

Mascara: 3 to 4 months

Face Powder and eyeliner: 6 months

Eye Shadow and eye cream: 2 years

Blush: 2 years
If it is time to throw something out then do so. Replace it on a "need it" basis. As far as your cream based products, you can store them in the refrigerator to help extend their life by 6 months.

Now, don't you feel better?