Organizing the Medicine Cabinets

Summer is in the air along with allergens, sun burns, insect bites and scraped up knees! Now is a great time to for you add a few necessary supplies to your medicine cabinet for spring’s medical needs. “Clearing the Clutter” in this one aspect of you of your home will get rid of outdated medicines so you are prepared for what ever comes your way this summer.

Let’s start by gathering all the medicine in your house to one location so that you can go through all of it together. As you are checking expiration dates on the bottles or boxes start categorizing your medicine. Example: Children’s medicine and adult medicine, from there make sub-categories; allergies, cold, flu, upset stomach, antibacterial ointment and so on. Keep in mind that expired medicines lose their effectiveness and nearly empty bottles create clutter and may not even have enough medicine left for a full dose.

As for the disposal of your medicine, some people like to throw it into the trash others prefer to flush it down the toilet. We now know that medicine can actually get into our soil, creating an environmental hazard. Another option is to contact your local pharmacy. Many pharmacies now have drug recycling programs in place. Some take it back at any time, others hold periodic drives to collect expired medicine.

Now that all of your medicine is thoroughly checked and categorized look to see what duplicates of items you may have that you can store in two places. I would suggest keeping adult medicine in your master bathroom, including any prescriptions that you have currently. In your kitchen you might want to keep vitamins, children’s Motrin or Tylenol, or any medicine that you need to administer daily/frequently (allergy medicine, current antibiotic or cold medicine). You may want to consider having some medicine in your upstairs bathroom. If your child wakes up in the middle of the night coughing or crying from an ear infection, it is nice to have their medicine handy rather then running back downstairs to get the medicine. I also like to keep a Ziploc bag of Neosporin, antiseptic foam wash, band-aids, sunscreen and children’s chewable Motrin tablets in the glove box of my car for any collisions the boys may have while playing at the park.

Some things you may want to make sure to add to your medicine cabinet this spring are sunscreen with the right amount of SPF protection, Aloe Vera to threat burns, insect repellent, insect bite relief and make sure you have a heating or cooling pack for sprains.

If storage is an issue in your bathroom, try Sterlite’s three-drawer units. They are great for organizing your medicine. Again you can categorize each drawer. One for pain reliever, cough and cold, and bandage drawer. They are around $20 at Target or Wal-Mart and are deep enough to hold a full-size bottle of pain reliever, cough syrup, or an bandage box. Each drawer can be fully removed so you can take the entire “cold” drawer to your child’s bed to take their temperature and administer medicine or take the “bandage” drawer to the child with the scraped up knee.

Once you have organized your medicine cabinet you will be surprised how much faster you can find what you are looking and not have to worry weather it is still “good” to use.

Author Michelle Lehman of Organizing Solutions “Clear the Clutter” Michelle is a Professional Organizer in the Tulsa area. Her articles have been featured in the Tulsa World, The Oklahoman, and The Chicago Post-Tribune & Chicago Sun-Times. Michelle appears on Newson6 KOTV and Fox23 News This Morning giving organizing tips and recommendations.
Photo Credit © Cammeraydave | Dreamstime.com