Did you know the main place most people store their medicine is one of the worst places you can keep it? Let me show you the best way to organize medicine in your home!
Table of Contents
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Where is the best place to store your medicine?
Not in a bathroom medicine cabinet!!!
Medicine should not be stored near heat sources, humidity, and sunny windows.
Bathrooms are the most humid rooms in our homes and not a good place to keep medicine.
Instead, store it near the area where you take it.
Consider using a kitchen cabinet (away from the oven), a drawer, the pantry, or a linen closet.
Remember to keep all medicine out of reach of children.
How should I sort my medicine?
This will be different for every household.
There is no right way to sort your medicine.
You need to determine the best place for your family!
Here are some suggestions to help guide you.
- Store medications you regularly take in a different place from medication you only take when you’re sick.
- Use a pill box to organize your daily medicine
- Store prescription meds separately from non-prescription meds
- Keep children’s meds in a different container than adult meds
- Organize by type of medication: Cold/flu/cough, pain relief, first aid, allergies, vitamins/supplements, miscellaneous
How should I dispose of medicine?
We all have expired medicine in our homes. I also have several medications I no longer take.
It’s so easy to throw it in the trash, but it can be dangerous to throw medication away!!
The best way to dispose of most medicines is to drop them off at a drug take-back location. Click the link to see what your options are!
If you can’t get to a drug take-back location promptly, or there is none near you, and your medicine is:
- on the FDA flush list, your next best option is to flush it down the toilet immediately.
- not on the flush list, follow these instructions to discard the medicine in your trash.
use the 6/P Strategy to organize medicine
Now it’s time for you to organize the medicine in your home!
Use my six-step strategy to get the job done quickly.
Prep
- Grab a trash bag and a cardboard box
- Gather your medicine and first aid supplies and put them on a table or counter in similar categories.
Purge
- Remove any expired items and medicines you no longer use. Dispose of them using the guidelines above.
- Remove newly purchased items from their box so they won’t take up so much room.
Polish
Clean the interior of your cabinet, the shelves in a closet, or your bins.
Personalize
- Determine how you will contain your medicine.
- Measure your space and purchase or make bins to contain everything.
- Label your containers.
Place
- Put your medicine into the container you chose.
- Put containers into the storage space.
- Dispose of expired and unwanted meds properly.
Put Back
Now all of your medicine and vitamins have a home. Put them back in their designated space as soon as you finish with them.
How we organized our medicine
Like many people, I was storing our medication in the bathroom. We don’t have a medicine cabinet but I do have the bins in the bathroom closet.
choosing a new location
But, now that I know better, I will move it out of the bathroom and into the butler’s pantry.
Rich and I use weekly pill containers. We take our medicine in the kitchen.
This setup will work much better because I won’t have to walk to the bathroom to get my vitamin bin to fill my weekly pill container!
If one of the boys needs meds during the night, they won’t be coming into our bedroom/bathroom and waking us up!
Why didn’t I think of this sooner??
Is it too weird that I’m storing my medication next to huge obnoxious margarita glasses??
Oh well, we’ll give this a try, if it doesn’t work, we’ll tweak it next year!
I’m glad the containers fit inside the cabinet and I don’t have to purchase new ones!
There is one minor problem, now you can’t see the labels.
That means I’m going to have to make some new ones!
Label containers
I decided to make vinyl labels with my Cricut cutting machine!
I’m so happy with them! I think they’re super cute!
What’s in each container
Large container
The large container stores medicine we use occasionally or need when we are sick.
First aid container
This cute little container holds first aid items like bandages, antibiotic ointment, insect bite/itch relief creams, a thermometer, and ibuprofen/acetaminophen.
Smaller containers
Our two smaller bins hold the vitamins/medicine Rich and I take daily.
On Sunday, I refill our weekly pill containers from these bins.
I was storing our weekly pill containers in our junk drawer, but now they can stay in the cabinet with all the other medications!
It’s nice to have everything in one spot!
I hope my tips and ideas will help you determine the best way to organize medicine in your home!
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Blessings, Donna and Rich
More home organization inspiration
- Emergency Preparedness Organization Tips
- Organized Amusement Park Bag
- Pool Bag Organization
- Start an Organized Morning Routine
- Purge, Organize, and Store Your Clothes
Items to help you organize your medicine
Here are some items we found to help you organize your medicine!
Click the links below the picture to get info on each item!
Vintage First Aid Box / Clear Storage Bin Box Organizer / Beige Bins & Lids
Plastic Stacking Drawers / 7-day Pill Case for mornings and evenings
Weekly Pill Organizer / Pill Cutter
save it for later
No time to organize your medicine now?
No problem, save this post to Pinterest and revisit it when you have time!
**Some of the links in this post are affiliate links. This means if you click on the link and purchase the item, we will receive an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. We appreciate your support. (disclosure policy)
This post is helpful, Donna! I LOVE the container labels you made, they’re super cute. I had no idea there was a flush list. We don’t take many medications but have a few left over from accidents and back injuries so I can’t wait to check out this list. Thanks so much for creating posts that help to make our lives easier. Hugs, CoCo
So glad to hear the post was helpful to you! I love learning new things and the FDA sight is very helpful! Those are my favorite labels I’ve created so far! Hugs, Donna
Very helpful information, Donna! I keep mine in our kitchen. It helps me remember to take it in the morning when I have my coffee.
Thank you Kim! The older I get, the more reminders I need to take mine, lol!! Happy day!
Great tips! I have so many meds, having a terminal illness seems to stack them up lol. When we bought our new house in May I ha so, so many to flush since they switch my meds up so much. These are tips I could use. I’ll have to create adorable bins like yours! Thanks for sharing on Crafty Creators!
Hey Niki, glad you enjoyed the post! I have an auto-immune disorder so I can relate to your issues with meds!! Blessings, Donna
Adding this to my, To Do list Donna. Super cute way to store medicine and also smart to keep it close at hand to where you eat, so it works into the daily schedule. We do this with our vitamins.
Thanks Maria! This set-up is working great for us! I wish I would have moved my medicine to the kitchen years ago! Blessings, Donna
Wow, so organized! Thanks for the helpful tips and taking so much care to ensure proper disposal and storage of medications.
You are welcome! I’m glad you found it helpful! Thanks and have a great day!