This is the scene around the house the last two weeks. First Nico, now Mikey. He’s older, so he bounces back faster, but he has cold induced asthma so if we don’t hop on it right away he can go down for the count. That was our Monday and Tuesday. By evening he was doing much better, thank goodness, but I still took it as a sign to clean out and organize our medicine boxes.
This is one of my favorite and most effective projects. It’s great to have everything grouped together according to user, especially when it’s the middle of the night and you’re short enough to need a stool to reach the upper cabinets. No more losing medicine to the back of the cabinet!
The before and after pictures don’t show much, but that’s okay. I can tell the difference and since I’m the one who uses it, I suppose I’m the target audience. Before we had a few doubles and four expired items. Removing them cleared up room for me to put in our ear thermometer (couldn’t fit it before) as well as all our medicine dispensers and a large bottle of Ibuprofen. Speaking of which, the boys can swallow allergy pills, so I suppose it’s time for them to try pain/fever reliever in pill form, too. Their age and weight means I have to buy the large liquid bottles to avoid running out too soon, and they take up a lot of room in my box.
Kids have it so easy with their liquid medicine these days. Who else had a mom who would crush aspirin in a teaspoon and mix it with sugar and water? Gag, gag, gag. Some studies now say that adding sugar makes antibiotic treatments more effective, but my mom was operating from a “get it down” angle.
Get outta here, Mary Poppins with your teaspoon of sugar. Lies!
(I couldn’t resist; I had to watch the scene after I wrote that last sentence. Here it is for old times’ sake.)
I like grouping it by user! Smart. I will copy you :) I laughed at your “crushing in a teaspoon” reference…I had forgotten all about that. My mother used to mix our crushed up pills with orange juice….still gag ….
Thanks for sharing the clip! cheeky! :D
I need to organize our medicines – they’re currently in a big box on the floor of our linen closet. Not exactly the best set up. Which reminds me, I need to re-organize the whole linen closet. agh!
In other news, I had a horrible time swallowing pills as a kid and yes, I was one of those that got the crushed aspirin with sugar and water. I have to say, I kinda liked it. I think my Mom had a heavy hand with the sugar. The real misery was when we went to the pharmacy and requested that whatever antibiotic I had been prescribed be made into a liquid. The pharmacist always looked at us like we were the most demanding customers he’d ever encountered.
I always felt terribly guilty – until I worked at a private pharmacy when I was in college. It was then that I found out that most antibiotics also came as liquids (aka, suspensions)! Thanks for being a jerk, crabby old pharmacist of my childhood!
What a great idea! We have a small drawer in our hall-closet organizer that holds our meds. One of the best things about having a contained space is that you can’t afford the real estate for the expired junk, so I do clean it out pretty often. I love the separate user idea for children. We only have adults and animals in our house (at least, so far), so sorting is pretty easy. If the animals need a med, it’s for such a short duration (at least, so far) that it just stays on the kitchen counter for the week or so it is in our lives (except their flea and tick stuff, which stays in the cabinet with the leashes and grooming stuff).
I spent part of Sunday going through my cupboard of meds and took a page out of your book and grouped the cold meds together in a box similar to yours. Now when the hubs or son need something, I can just tell them to check the box. Now I’m looking for a way to organize sandwich baggies …I have 3 different sizes and keep them in the same cupboard. Thinking another box like that?
My mom used strawberry jam. :) Also – sports bottles make it easier to swallow pills, I think.
Hope everyone stays healthy!
I was sick a lot as a kid, and my mom would always sing the line from the Mary Poppins song to me. Not that she actually gave me any sugar, though. :-/
I love this idea for a colds medicine box! You always have ingenious solutions that work around the home.
Mmmm. Sugary medicines. I ask for everything in a suspension, even iron supplements. Why swallow a pill, when you can drink something instead? No seriously, why?? I HATE PILLS.
I loved this one when you did it, and copied it using Ikea metal boxes (that don’t seem to be available anymore, but are awesome). But I have to ask do drugs really expire? Really? I like to think not. Here’s one study that back me up…because one study is enough to sway me these days (haha, in a sad and ashamed sort of way).
http://www.health.harvard.edu/fhg/updates/update1103a.shtml
Most drugs will gradually become less effective the older they get, but there are a couple that will become actively dangerous (tetracycline is the one usually cited).
My youngest is the only one still taking painkillers as a suspension and as she rarely needs it there have been occasions where she’s had, erm, elderly analgesia… It’s still worked; whether that’s the benefits of a placebo effect or whether the drug is still as potent I don’t know, but it didn’t do any harm.
I SO enjoy reading your blog. Your thoughts and pictures entertain and inspire. Thanks for the regular doses of good humor and great ideas. :-)
Ha, my husband is currently recovering from surgery (tonsillectomy + septoplasty + turbinectomy), and I’ve been crushing his pills and mixing them with applesauce. They intentionally gave him tiny pain pills, which he can swallow okay, but the antibiotics are HUGE. I would have trouble swallowing them, and I didn’t just have THROAT SURGERY. The applesauce works pretty well, though.
Making antibiotic tx more effective…reminds me of the recycling man (his business was recycling) who explained that he had to find a market for something before he could take it on, like metal cans, etc. He discovered that horse owners would buy shredded phone books for him. Seems that when horses on are medicine they get less food (starved might be too harsh a term, but in that direction) in order to let the meds get to work faster. Horses would then turn to eating the straw off the floor of their stalls, which meant owners had to fork over (sorry about the pun) more cash for more meds. Substituting shredded phone books for the straw meant that the horses didn’t eat it and the medication regime was shorter and cheaper. I’m just positive you wanted to know that…