Declutter and Organize Your Medicine Cabinet
In my household managing season allergies is a part-time job.
I always start my allergy medication after the symptoms develop and then I mostly take the medication on the really “bad” days which means I’m always chasing the problem rather than preventing it. Something my sister who is an RN is always advising me against.
Well, since this year I decided to make health a priority, I decided to organize my medicine cabinet.
I started by removing all the items in the cabinet and then checking the labels for expiry dates and removing all the expired ones. Here are some resources to help with disposing of medications:
DisposeMyMeds.org — a locator for independent pharmacies that take medication disposals
How to Dispose of Medicines Properly — a guide from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
Disposal of Unused Medicines: What You Should Know — information from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
Drug Disposal Locator Tool — a resource from the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP)
Then, added some risers to get more storage on each shelf, so as to separate medicines from other regular items like tweezers, razors, shaving creams, makeup remover, and toiletries.
Poured the moisturizers, face wash, toners, sunscreens into small travel-sized bottles with cute chalkboard stickers to make more room and then stashed the larger bottles under the sink.
Added a couple of “His” and “Her” makeup caddy. Mine will hold my mascara, lip tint, razors, tweezers, contact lens, case, and solution. My husband’s will hold his razor and shaving cream. Hmmm.. I think I’m going to be using my husband’s caddy too. :)
So, now I have one section for all the daily essentials like face wash, toners, moisturizers, dental floss, and mouthwash. Then the next section has the caddies.
Last, but not least I have one shelf space for my allergy medicine and my first aid kit. I covered a couple of square old cardboard box with gift wrapping paper and neatly labeled my allergy medicines into antihistamines, decongestants, nasal sprays. I also made list of the other medications, so as to restock them in time, because running out of aspirin is not something I want. The other medications include : pain reliever/fever reducer; antibiotic ointment; hydrogen peroxide; anti-itch cream; cough medicine/throat lozenges.
If you need help in understanding more about the medications available for allergies. Go Here
If you are allergic to pollen, then there are websites like pollen.com that will let you know the amount of pollen is in your area.
With cleaning out medicine cabinet tasks being added to my cleaning schedule. Here are the tasks that would need to be done :
- Check the labels in the medicine cabinet every three to siz months and purge anything that has expired.
- Recycle containers as soon as they are empty.
- Replinensh my daily essentials weekly and restock medications as required.
Did you know National Clean Out Your Medicine Cabinet Day, which falls on the 3rd Friday in April each year and was founded in 2019.
It is time to get your bathroom medicine cabinet sorted.