What's aging in your medicine cabinet?

14 January 2013

I have a cold. I’m happy to say that I don’t succumb to colds often, but when I do, I seek relief from the over-the-counter medications. I store my supply in a bin labeled “cold/cough” in my bathroom closet.

When I came down with this cold, I pulled out that bin to see what symptoms could be relieved. I had a wide variety of remedies in there, addressing various symptoms in various forms. To my dismay, all but two of the OTC medications were expired.

That’s the problem with not getting sick very often! It’s cold out and I don’t feel like going to the store. I don’t know how truly relevant the expiration dates are and I’ve been known to down some expired cough syrup. But I would have been much happier to have found more current medications.

This experience leads me to suggest you take four steps to avoid this problem:

Check the expiration dates of your over-the-counter (and prescription, for that matter) medications
Dispose of those that are expired. (See this post for instructions on proper disposal of medications.)
Replenish your stock with current medications.
Repeat once or twice a year.

Do it now, while you feel healthy! Because I’m telling you, it’s a bummer to seek relief in your medicine cabinet and find out that everything’s expired.

Tagged with: bathrooms, medications, planning