Organize Your Medicine Box

Tuesday, October 21, 2008

When I was growing up, my parents kept our emergency medication (paracetamol, antihistamine, loperamide, etc.) in a small Tupperware container. Everything was dumped inside. Our medicine wonder-box was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get.

My husband, on the other hand, is very organized in this area. Good thing he brought with him his own medicine box when we got married.




Here's are some handy tips on organizing your own medicine box.

1. Spread it. Take it all out of its container and see what medicines you currently have.

2. Sort it. Remember the Sesame Street song, "Which of these things go together... which of these things do not..."? Sort it in a manner that makes sense to you.

3. Check it. Check for expiration dates. If there is none and you have no idea how old it is, toss it out. It's not worth the risk.






4. Store it. Decide on a container. We use a crafts box to keep the medicines neatly sorted. Some keep theirs in small envelopes inside an index card box

5. Label it. Label every medicine with it's corresponding expiration date. If it comes in a blister pack and you're planning on cutting it up, make sure you note down the expiration date first. I made the mistake of cutting before checking and I ended up piecing it all together like a jigsaw puzzle just to see the date.

6. Hide it. Keep away from reach of children. Hide it in a cool, dry, and preferably dark place. It should be accessible to you but not your children. But don't even think of keeping it in your bathroom. Storing medication in a humid bacteria-infested place is not a good idea. Remember, aerosol effect.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

While I was growing up, my dad always had a small plastic cabinet with drawers (the kind that they have in the hardware stores where they put in the screws or nails) as our medicine box. It had more than 20 little drawers and all were labled with brands and generic names of the medicines. He used a dymo (circa 80s) to label the drawers. From time to time, he would find a plastic cabinet with more drawers and the medicine box would get bigger! This, I guess, destroyed me for life! I will not survive with just three kids of analgesics in the house... it is also not enough to just have one brand of paracetamol or ibuprofen.

Anonymous said...

OMG! did not proof read... can i edit my post... last sentence should read as three KINDS of ANALGESIC... lol!

Mrs. G said...

@Mrs. P - I remember your dad always having the latest edition of PIMS. Hahaha!

Anonymous said...

That's a great way to organize your medicines. I have a similar first aid box that I keep in a drawer.

Sushi said...

Woof! Will tell my Mama to do the same, the medicine cabinet here has a lot of expired medicine, which is good( nobody needed it!)
Wanna see some pictures of your "children" please!

Anonymous said...

Excellent advice! I'm appalled at some of the things you find in people's medicine cabinets. Keep up with what drugs you keep in your house!

A.F. said...

Wow, thanks for the great organization tips. Our medicines are thrown into a basket in the linen closet and is a mess. You have to dig to find anything, and there are so many duplicates...

I tagged you in my blog today:
http://artsyfartsyfooladi.blogspot.com

Mai da Paypay said...

wow!!! very organized! ours is like your parents' they're all scattered in a small tupperware.

i'm hoping to get an herbal medicine kit though. I'm still learning how to make one :-)

hippos toes said...

These are some very good tips! It's so easy to overlook this things. I will have to get to organizing.

Anonymous said...

Your medicine box is sooo organized. This reminds me to organize ours, hehe.
I'm loving your blog btw. Love the home-making tips. :)

Anonymous said...

wow, this is a great tip for organizing medicine ;-)

Unknown said...

mrs g,
the medicine box /organizer is a great idea. i used this when i was younger, but i used it for storing bullets.

timi boy's barber

 
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