Medicine Cabinet Clean-Out Challenge
When the folks over American Recall Center contacted me about taking on the Medicine Cabinet Clean-Out Challenge, I was all over it. I love a good cleanout challenge. I try to keep the house and closets uncluttered, organized, and well-stocked. Of course, the closets and cabinets are often the first thing to fall away from this plan as it is so easy to throw items in it and forget about them. I’m certainly guilty of this with the medicine cabinet!
I should first say that one of my first problems is that I do not have a medicine cabinet. Our tiny house has a tiny bathroom with no storage options. We have solved this issue with a small, free-standing cabinet and then using our hall closet adjacent to the bathroom for storage of all medicine, towels, toiletries, and so on. A few years ago, I purchased this clear hanging shoe door storage for organization of our medicines, makeups, and so on. Smartest thing ever for organization and finding things when you need them, but worst idea in being proactive about cleaning it out.
In the spirit of spring cleaning, I was game for the challenge not only because I’m slightly obsessed with purging/organizing, but also because I can’t recall the last time this closet and medicine organizer was looked at for anything other than grabbing the Tums. Additionally, the Medicine Cabinet Clean-Out Challenge has three important goals: Know your medications (do you take them as prescribed, including knowing the possible side effects?); Secure your medications ( this was definitely on my mind as Little Man can definitely get into the closet, so wanted to make sure anything he shouldn’t get a hold of was way out of his reach); Dispose your medications ( what to do with expired or unused medications? Have any of them been recalled?)
Here’s what I discovered from my Clean Out Challenge:
– I have a lot of free sample sized, over the counter medication- particularly allergy, vitamin, and antacid related. All of them were still well within their good to use dates, but I took them out of the closet and put a few in my purse, others in an easy to find spot so we can actually use them.
– All of our medications were good to use, but a few of them had been separated from their packaging and the all important dosage/direction information. I’m glad I was able to reunite them, especially for some cold/allergy medication that had drowsy information and dosage requirements.
– I’d been holding on to some unopened, but long expired medicated creams, mosquito repellent, and sunscreen.
– I moved some of the lesser used OTC medications like Bonine and Pepto to a higher spot out of the reach of Little Man. We don’t use these things often, but enough in a year that we need to keep them in stock.
The finished product ( well the left side anyway– don’t judge the mess on the right– it’s one of my only closets and desperately needs reorganization!)
Life By Kristen 