When was the last time you cleaned out your medicine cabinet? Do you even know what’s in there? I hadn’t done an inventory of ours since I stuck some bandages in there the day we moved into our current home. That was mistake number one.
Mistake number two occurred about two weeks ago when my husband severely injured his arm. I panicked and scrambled like a mad woman looking for something, anything, to treat his wound. The problem is my 2-year-old daughter loves to play “doctor” and she uses all my band-aids on her stuffed “patients,” so when it was time for an actual human to make use of them there wasn’t a single one to be found.
The aforementioned mistakes prompted me to clean out, reorganize and restock the medicine cabinets in both our bathrooms. I highly recommend you do the same; if for no other reason than to avoid dealing with a situation similar to mine. Once you get motivated here are a few tips to keep in mind:
Gut the entire cabinet. Take everything out and lay it out on the bathroom counter.
If you are keeping medication in your cabinet, consider moving it to another location (out of the reach of children). While you would assume that a medicine cabinet is the perfect place to store medicine, believe it or not, the bathroom is one of the worst locations to keep your prescriptions. The reason is that showers and baths cause wide temperature and humidity variations that can affect the potency of medication. Take your pills out of the bathroom and place them in a cool, dry environment.
Before you do, check the expiration dates on all prescription medications. Prescription medication that has expired should not be thrown out. Instead, it should be dropped off at your local Waste Treatment Center. Here’s why: by doing so you will prevent the medicines from entering local streams or being stolen and misused. Don’t ever pour prescription drugs down the drain or dump them in your toilet. Recent studies have shown that many lakes and streams are contaminated with drugs… unbeknownst to the people swimming and fishing in them. Some treatment plants are not designed to remove pharmaceutical chemicals. So, it’s no surprise that environmental scientists have found prescription drugs like antidepressants and pain relievers in local lakes and streams. The long-term impact of the flushed drugs on fish and humans is still unknown.
Also, don’t throw your prescription drugs in the trash can. Medicines that are pitched into the garbage can leak in landfills. If you absolutely have no way to get to a local Waste Treatment Center and you need to put your medications in the trash, keep them in their original childproof and watertight containers. Leave the label on, but scratch out your name to protect privacy. Add some water to pills, and put some flour in liquids. Conceal the vials by putting them in empty margarine tubs or paper bags before throwing them out.
Once you have cleared out the cabinet and addressed the issue of medications, wipe the cabinet with a dry cloth. Next, restock it with certain items that should be stapes, like pain relievers, antiseptics, antibiotic ointments, gauze, tape, and, of course, bandages. Other items you should consider placing in your medicine cabinet include, analgesics, medications for diarrhea, nausea, and constipation, and sunscreen.
Don’t get caught off guard (like I did). By taking a few minutes to clean out and restock your medicine cabinet you will be well prepared in the event a medical emergency strikes your family.