Stocked up and organised

I have always believed in having the basic medical supplies at home.  Since we had Kai though those "basics" have grown to a significant amount of medicine.  Also with all the colds, flu, chest issues, and other little bugs that have attacked the poor kid since his been going to creche we have tons of little left overs all over.

I had medicine in my kitchen cabinet, just stashed in there from when he or us healed or gotten better, he had a medicine chest filled with "stuff" and in my room we had our medicine chest which has overflown in the last couple of months with bits from Kai and from us (winter colds and flu)...

Honestly it was a mess and we needed a system that worked.  I found myself buying extra nasal spray / cold and flu stuff and fever meds always thinking we had run out, but then later would find myself with 2 or even 3 open packets or bottles. It was not only a mess but costing us money, and causing waste.

So on Saturday I rounded up all the medicine in the house, cleaned out all the cupboards, the medicine chests and packed it all out.  I first sorted it into different categories.

Colds Flu Chest
Fever Pain Muscle relaxants
Emergencies
Vitamins for Kai
Vitamins for Mom and Dad

I then sorted out all the expired stuff.  Looked at expiry dates of doubles we had and added them together in the same box or bottle. The meds where we had more than one bottle I clearly marked the open one with a "use me first" label. Also makes it easier to just grab and go.

Then started packing my medicine chests.  I chose to add our meds together with Kai's as it made more sense to me.

I printed out some nice labels stuck them on and TaDa, the results:

Our Daily vitamins are still stored in the kitchen so its is conveniently at hand in the morning rush.

The rest of the medicine is in the spare room cupboard .  (Yep the insides of the cupboards are on the list of things to fix in the house!) 

The big one holds all our cold and flu and chest meds. This includes a spot for the thermometer.   The little blue bag is the nebulizer, which I use often. (:( )

On the shelf above is the two smaller containers, the bigger of the two hold our pain and fever meds as well as goodies to settle upset tummies. (The purple one holds some of my shewing supplies - nope I do not sew much, but a needle and some thread comes in handy to fix a fallen off button here and there - This will be moved to my study once I have sorted that out better).

The smallest one is the emergency kit, which contains gloves, plasters, Anti septic cream and liquid, burn shield etc. 

There are two metal boxes with plasters too 

So glad I de-cluttered this mess. I feel better, and I am sure this system will not only save us money but also ensure that I do not end up with expired medicine or scrambling around at night to find the goodies needed to heal an eina. 

The detailed labelling will ensure that if I send hubby on a medicine hunt, he knows which one to grab and not have to sort through a whole lot of "stuff" before getting what we need. 

And the medicine chest itself is really nice as it has little dividers on top to keep the smaller items together.  It is really easy to carry too :)