Does Your Household Medicine Need an Annual Checkup?

I like to keep a year’s supply of medicine our family regularly uses at home in a tote in the hall closet. My year’s supply and yours will look totally different. We have been very blessed, so it won’t look like much. Yesterday I took my permanent marker and wrote the expiration date on the top of the bottles in the tote. I can hardly see the expiration dates that manufacturers stamp on the bottles. Can you see above how easy it is to see the dates now? This will make it easier to discard medicine during our annual checkup. As I was going through the medicine tote, I found some expired bottles and realized I no longer have a year’s supply.

I wanted to add some medicine to our tackle box first aid kit (see my April 20th post), but the bottles wouldn’t fit. So I went to my friendly neighborhood pharmacist and he gave me some childproof prescription bottles for free. I transferred a small supply of medicine into each smaller bottle, then I put an address label on the container and wrote information about the contents, dosage, and an expiration date. It is recommended that you keep medicine in its original container, but I needed a smaller supply and this works for me.

I also keep my personal meds in my purse in these childproof containers because I don’t want my small daughter to accidently open the medicine. Some medicine is sold in small tube containers, but after examining the shelves at my pharmacy I found out that there is a limited selection. Cost of this project: $0.00. I already had everything!