Tips for Tuesday
Keeping your medicine cabinet stocked is important to your well-being. Just as important is keeping an eye on the contents. If your medicine is out-dated, it can be life-threatening rather than life-saving. Perform the following checks on your medicine cabinet every six months.
- Discard expired medications. Take them to your city's hazardous waste
collection or ask your local pharmacy if they accept expired meds.
Never put them in the garbage or down the sink.
- If you
can't find an expiration date, but you've had the medicine for at least
two years, discard it. Chemical changes over time can change the
effectiveness of medications.
- Discard any prescription medications you have not taken in over a year. These also have a limited shelf life and can undergo chemical changes.
- Discard any medication without a label.
- Discard old toothbrushes
- Discard rusty nail clippers, tweezers, etc.
- Place often-used items near the bottom of the
cabinet, and less-used items at the top.
- Place bottles and boxes with labels facing outward
so you can easily locate what you need.
- If more than one person uses the medicine cabinet,
store each person's prescription items on a different shelf. With
prescription bottles from the same pharmacy all looking the same, one can
easily grab the wrong bottle in the middle of the night and take the wrong
tablets if they look similar to their own.
- Call your pharmacy for refills of prescription
items when you notice you are down to about five pills. The pharmacy
will have it ready for you on time, even if they have to order it from
their supplier or call your physician for refills. Never wait until
you take the last pill. Something may come up that day which will
prevent you from picking up your prescription when you need it.
- Use plastic cups or containers to hold small
items such as ointment tubes, cotton swabs and nail clippers.
- Store like items together--hair care, skin
care, etc.
- Discard any cosmetics over a year old.
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