Tips for an organized medicine cupboard
Find your medicine easily and quickly
Tips for an Organized Medicine Cupboard – An organized medicine cabinet saves time and makes finding the right medications easy, in addition to improving the quality of home medical care.
Firstly, the medicine cabinet can be a chaotic territory, old prescriptions you never use or pills you last took years ago that no longer fit into your medicine regimen or are far past their expiration date. If the following sounds familiar to you, you should change something: You suffer from a headache and are looking for an ibuprofen, rummage in the tablet box to find the right box but it is nowhere to be seen? Or you need to fix your pills for the new week but you are missing one package and can’t find it? This can become very stressful and can quickly put an elderly person under stress. It is important to sort and organize this area. If this is too much work or too stressful for you, ask your children, grandchildren, etc. for help. I’m sure they will be happy to assist you.
Here’s how to organize your medicine cabinet:
Take everything out and check the date
The most important thing to start with. First of all throw away the pills and boxes which are already expired and thus should not be used anymore. You will be surprised at how many medications you have that have been expired for years or even decades.
To safely dispose of unwanted medicines, visit the Return Unwanted Medicines website (or the RUM project). To clarify RUM is one of the first initiatives to provide a free and easy way to dispose of expired and unwanted medications. “Anyone can drop off their medications at any community pharmacy at any time for safe pickup and disposal.” Most importantly they safely dispose of these medications through high temperature incineration. Especially regarding children and elders suffering from dementia or Alzheimer’s disease, it is important to organize pills well.
Sort into categories that work for you
At this point, everyone needs to find the appropriate categories, sizes, etc. for themselves. Possible categories would be:
- Daily tablets: These are tablets and medications such as prescription drugs, necessary daily tablets, multivitamin, fish oil, etc.
- Cold + Flu: For things like cold and flu tablets, decongestants, lozenges, immune support tablets, etc.
- Pain Relief: A category for all kinds of pain relievers for headaches or other pain-related problems; acetaminophen, ibuprofen
- Scripts: A tub where all prescriptions are stored. This is a great place to look if you are not quite sure of the type of medication, dosage, etc. This way you can prevent losing them all the time.
- Ointments: Here you can store all the ointments you have for different applications and always have the right one handy.
- Gastrointestinal: Many people and especially older have problems with their digestion. There exist countless medicines that can help in certain situations. Create such a category and always have the right remedy at hand, depending on your needs.
- Other categories: If you suffer from a certain disease such as arthritis, high blood pressure, etc. then it is advisable to keep these tablets and other aids for it such as a blood pressure monitor, together. Then you always have everything together and do not have to search when you urgently need something for it.
Storage solutions
This depends on the size of your closet. If you have a larger area, you can use tubs, baskets and boxes. For smaller sizes, think about using plastic drawers or smaller bins. Below are some perfect storage options and inspirations:
REMEDIC 7 Day Pill Box Organizer
For your daily medications, it’s worth buying a 7-day pill box. With the Remedic Pill Box Organizer, you have seven compact compartments – one for each day of the week. Medications for all days of the week can be neatly organized and stored in each layer, making it easy to see what you need to take and when.
To clarify each of the pill dispenser’s daily pill cases has four compartments for morning, noon, afternoon, and evening, and users can easily slide each compartment out to access the specific area. The trays are designed so that only one tray is accessible at a time. However, this ensures that pills in other compartments do not get dropped or lost. This makes it one of the best pill organizers for the elderly and patients with dexterity issues.
Find the Remedic 7 Day Pill Box Organiser here https://remedic.co/product/remedic-7-day-pill-organizer-for-medicines-and-supplements-pill-box/
Create a functional space
When it comes to the space itself, make sure the items you use regularly are within easy reach. You don’t always want to have to reach up to get your daily tablets when you can have them at eye level. Of course, with younger children or those with special needs, it’s important that you keep all medications and hazardous substances out of reach.
Label, label, label.
The final step, of course, is LABEL, LABEL , LABEL. This ensures that everyone knows where to find things and where to put them back. Once you have a system in place, there is absolutely no maintenance involved and you are less likely to buy things you already have.
Here’s a handy list of labels you can use in your medicine cabinet:
- Allergies
- Cough
- Asthma
- Daily medicines
- Cold + Flu
- First Aid
- Sore throat
- Digestion
- Creams + Ointments
- Outdoor
- Pain relief
- Vitamins
- Wellness
- Bandages + dressings
Remember, a more organized life is an easier and therefore less stressful life. Do it once and you will enjoy the organisation and simplicity every time. These where our: Tips for an organised medicine cupboard!
Sources:
https://neatmethod.com/blogs/journal/
check out our practical helpers on https://remedic.co