60 You Asked: Dedication to Medication

Happy Friday!  I have a little weekend project for everyone to consider!  Ready?

It all sparked from the following question from a reader, "Do you know how or where to dispose of prescription medications?"

It was wonderful timing really!  I also had just learned from another reader some extremely useful medication storage information.  I combined the question with the great facts from the reader, and asked my new Pharmacist friend, Mellissa, to guest post today!  Then, I will show you some of our medication storage that we implemented based on the great information I received! 

So now I am turning this post over to Mellissa:

Medicine Cabinets are NOT for Medicine

"Hello from New England, I heart organizing readers; I too am a huge fan of Jen’s awesome blog.  My name is Mellissa and I am a mom {of a beautiful 2 year old boy}, organizing freak, and also a pharmacist.   I have a doctor of pharmacy degree from a large university in New England and I have worked in retail pharmacy for several years as both an intern and a pharmacist.  My areas of interest are pediatrics, medication adherence, and women’s health; but through my course of practice I have seen it all.  I love being a pharmacist and I really enjoy passing my knowledge on to others.  So one day when I was reading a blog entry of Jen’s and my pharmacist alarm went off, I had to write in and give her heads up.  She had never heard what I shared with her so she asked me if she could share it with her readers and now here I am writing a guest blog!

What set off my pharmacist alarm………Jen was storing her medication in her bathroom.  Now I’m not picking on Jen because millions of people do it too, I mean where is your medicine cabinet?  It’s not in the kitchen!!!  Unfortunately medicine cabinets are not meant to store medicine!!!  I know, they are sized just right for those prescription bottles, so why wouldn’t you keep all of your medication together all nice and neat in your cabinet that is designed to hold medicine?  Because drugs need to be stored in an area where there is low humidity and stable temperature {room temp, never above 77 F} and I don’t know about you, but when I get out of the shower my mirror is foggy.  I wouldn’t even trust the fan in the bathroom.  Drugs will degrade over time and this is going to make them less effective, but storing them properly is key to getting them to keep their effectiveness until the expiration date on the bottle.  Storing them in the bathroom is like putting them through an accelerated degradation process and who wants to take a Tylenol that is only half effective? 

Now where should you store your medication?  I recommend either your bedroom or your kitchen (but not in cabinets around the stove or the refrigerator because of the heat generated by these appliances).  If you have young children I would store them in your kitchen if your bedroom does not have an area where you can be certain your kids can’t get to them.  I keep mine in a plastic bin in our pantry, but I also keep a small bin in my closet because we have our bedrooms on a different floor.  In my bedroom I keep Tylenol for both adults and kids and some antacids, who wants to run downstairs at 2 am when your little one has a fever?  One thing to be aware of, its not just what you get in pill form that is in this category; anything with a panel on the side of it that says Drug Facts and Information and lists an active ingredient as a drug substance needs to be stored properly.  Things like Neosporin, Clearasil, Retin-A, etc. have an active ingredient that needs to protected from moisture, light, and temperature fluctuations, however I draw the line at toothpaste because I think that would result in a decrease in the amount people brush their teeth, but toothpaste is a drug.  Please, go into your bathroom, empty out the medicine cabinet and store your medications under proper conditions.

Now let’s spring clean our “medicine” cabinet.  Every 6 months you should look at the labels on your drugs and get rid of everything that is expired.  A green way to dispose of your medication to keep it out of our water supply is too get a Ziploc bag and fill it with either kitty litter or your old coffee grounds.  Take your pills out of their original container and mix them in with the kitty litter/coffee grounds and seal the bag, then throw away.  {If you use kitty litter moisten it with water}.  This will deter someone who goes through your garbage from stealing your old meds.  Never throw them away in the original bottle.  Also while you are cleaning out the expired stuff, toss any leftover antibiotics you have whether they are expired or not!  Next time you don’t finish your course of antibiotics throw them away, don’t hang on to them.  It is never a good idea to take a couple of pills of an old antibiotic because you aren’t feeling well.  This is one of the ways we have gotten antibiotic resistance, which is a big problem and will continue to be one if we don’t take it seriously.  Moms, make sure you are tossing what is leftover of the medications that your pharmacist adds water to.  Those types of medications are typically only good for 10-21 days and after that they start to go bad.  NEVER save your child’s liquid amoxicillin and give it to them 6 months later.  Don’t laugh, it definitely happens, people save it for years. 

Ok, we cleaned out our expired stuff and know where to put it away, but what should we have on hand.  The most important things to have are ibuprofen, acetaminophen {both of these in adult and child form}, thermometer, band aids, first aid ointment {I like triple antibiotic ointment i.e. Neosporin}, oral rehydrating solution, Allegra or Zyrtec, liquid Benadryl, and an antacid.  I keep Allegra and Benadryl, even though they are both antihistamines because Allegra is what I would use for seasonal allergies, but if someone where having an allergic reaction I would give them liquid Benadryl {liquid works faster}.  These supplies will get you through most at home scenarios.  And save yourself some money, buy the store brands.  I always buy generic drugs and then I have extra money so I don’t have to buy generic purses and shoes.  Generics really do work as well as the brand name. 

So thanks for reading my first ever blog post, I hope it was informative and fun!

xoxo,

Mellissa C, PharmD"

Such incredible information!  I have been unknowingly storing ALL of our medications or first aid supplies in a bathroom cabinet.  Never thought twice about it!

So, I took my new found information and put it to good use.  And I must say, it feels incredible having all my meds organized and know that they are also being stored correctly!

I started out with all of our prescriptions, tylenols and vitamins.  I decided they would find a new home in a kitchen cabinet.  Top shelf.

We placed all of our meds into two tin boxes {similar to these here}, which I just added pretty paper and ribbon to.  One for the kiddo's, one for the adults.

They are the perfect solution for medication sized bottles!  And they are all concealed and up high, out of sight from the little ones.

We also transferred all of our vitamins into a utensil caddy, which is easy to bring down to counter level:

I used an infamous mini white vase to corral all those awkward medicine dispensers, nose suckers and a thermometer:

Next I moved onto all of our first aid supplies.  Most of them were combined to fit in an old first aid kit I had picked up awhile back:

We definitely don't have a shortage on band-aids!

Then, I used a larger box {a leftover box that I found at Target filled with greeting cards eons ago}, to corral the rest of the first aid supplies.  This included ice packs/bags, ointments and cotton/q-tips.

All of the first aid items are tucked on the top shelf of a little linen closet right outside all of our bedrooms. 

I used a leftover wipe container to toss in all those sinus medications....

However, it won't be much longer until they make their way into a medication safe in our bedroom.

You may also recall from this post that I tuck away some extra ibuprofen/tylenol for ourselves and the kiddos, next to the bed for late night emergencies {in a leftover dishwashing tabs bin}:

So far all of the caps are pretty "child proof", but I am absolutely investing in something like this in the very near future:

So there you have it!  Information overload?  All incredibly great though!  Who else is surprised?  Who else is pulling meds out of the bathroom as we speak?  I am SO grateful Mellissa contacted me to share such great information!  And it was SO much fun to have a guest here on the blog as well!  Endless THANKS to her for stopping by!

Mellissa has been awesome enough to offer of a little Q&A due to the information she provided.  Feel free to comment with any additional questions that may have sparked, and we will update the post accordingly!