Spring Cleaning Your Medicine Cabinet

Spring is in the air! Time to open up your windows, break out the broom and start cleaning and refreshing your home for the new season.

As moms, the cleaning bug tends to invade our minds when the weather starts to warm up around us. But as important as it is to keep our homes in order, the same goes for our medicine cabinets as well. It’s important to check the expiration date on all your OTC medicines. Because once they expire, they may not be able to provide the treatment you need.

Spring Cleaning Your Medicine Cabinet

If you’ve been following my blog and Instagram, you would know that I’ve been slowly decluttering and freshening up my home since the beginning of the year using the #Konmari method. I’m doing the same with the over-the-counter medicines and supplements in my medicine cabinet and disposing unwanted and expired items.

Once you’ve purged your cabinet of all those expired labels, it’s time to dispose of them properly. But how?

According to Harris Poll research conducted on behalf of the CHPA’s Educational Foundation, 62% of adults have never inquired as to how to properly dispose of expired OTC’s. More often than not, they just dispose of them in the trash.

This is not the proper way to dispose of them and can be unsafe or harmful to those handling their disposal.

How To Safely Dispose Of Medication

Luckily, you are not alone. the FDA provides simple guidelines to follow as to how to safely throw away old, expired OTC’s and prescription medications:

1. Mix medicines (without crushing pills or tablets) with an unpalatable substance, like kitty litter or coffee grounds.
2. Put the mixture in a sealable bag.
3. Throw the bag in your household trash.
4. Black out any personal identifying information that may be on the labels of your disposed medication.

Most pharmacies have in-store medication disposals for any unwanted or expired medication – including OTCs and prescription drugs. You can see if there is a local collection drop off near you.

The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, commonly called the Drug Enforcement Agency or DEA, also hosts National Prescription Take-Back events through the year. The next National Prescription Drug Take Back Day is coming up on Saturday, April 27th.

Will you be doing some spring cleaning and organizing this time of year? If so, don’t forget to spring clean your medicine cabinet this season. Keep your family protected from unwanted and expired medication!

For more information about safe disposal of over the counter medicines, visit my partner Health In Hand’s page.