Does your bathroom medicine cabinet have expired or nearly empty medicine bottles? You would likely be surprised if you went to look since a study found that nearly two-thirds of American households have expired or almost empty medicine bottles in their bathroom medicine cabinets. This is why it is important to perform a check up on your bathroom medicine cabinet every season so that you are equipped to handle any type of illness or ailment that your family may have.

It was also found that people are more likely to throw out expired produce rather than medications. Although checking through your bathroom medicine cabinet seasonally is just as important as changing the batteries in your smoke alarm regularly. Even if you don’t clean out your medicine cabinet it is important to make sure you are familiar with your medications and that they are properly stored. There is nothing worse than finding out you don’t have the essential products at the time when you really need them.

The Check Up Process

There are three main things you need to do when it comes to checking your bathroom medicine cabinet. First you need to read the labels and expiration dates on all of your medicines. If you are going to use the medicines it is important that you follow the directions exactly so you can have accurate administration and increase the effectiveness of the medication.

Second you should remove any medicine from your bathroom medicine cabinet that is expired. You may also want to throw out any nearly empty medicine bottles that are close to expiring if you don’t plan on using them. After removing expired or nearly expired medicines from your bathroom medicine cabinet you need to do the third step which is to restock your medicine and any essential items that you will need at some time.

Preparation

When it comes to preparing your bathroom medicine cabinet you need to make sure you keep all medicine in its original packaging so you can easily find the expiration date and accurate administration instructions. You can lose important information if you refill the small travel size bottles or combine medications. It is also important to keep all your medicines together. Many people keep their medicines in at least two separate areas of their house.

During the cold and flu season you should prepare your bathroom medicine cabinet and make sure it is stocked with the things you may need. It is a good idea to have pain relief, allergy medications, sinus relief, cold and flu medicines, digestive health aides and nighttime products on hand during this period of the year. If you have children in your household you will also want to have children’s strength medicine on hand in addition to the adult medicine.