I've recently begun to second guess my decision to keep our medications (everything from Adult Tylenol and Motrin, Probiotics like Culturelle and Florastor, homeopathic cough medicine Chestal, and other immune boosters, like Sumbocol, which are VERY expensive) in our bathroom. According to the insert, it says they should be kept in a cool dark place where the temp is 68 to 77 degrees, which is our bathroom on most occassions, accept when we take a shower, or give our soon a bath and the bathroom gets steamy. I'm concerned that this may damage the integrity of the medicine. Where do you keep your meds?
Thanks to all who responded. We started out by keeping many of the meds in the kitchen, far away from our little one. However, I cook and when I cook it gets pretty warm in the kitchen, particularly if the stove is on. Doesn't that impact the meds as well? I'm thinking about moving them to the basement, where it's consistently cool or to our bedroom closet and keeping them there in a couple of tupper wear like containers.
In the bedroom, in my top dresser drawer. I take sooo many vitamins I use one of those days of the week holders. So much easier to deal with.
I keep mine in the kitchen cabinet. No matter where I stored them in my house, there would be times when the temp would rise over 77 in the summer.
My friend keeps them in a large plastic container in a hallway closet just outside of the kitchen.
I used to keep them in a cabinet in the kitchen. But as we got older and accumulated more stuff (multiple boxes of bandaids, gauze for pulling teeth or after oral surgery, advil, tylenol cold, cough medicine, kid's cough medicine, Mucinex, ear wax drops, neosporin, benadryl cream for bug bites, allergy meds, regular aspirin, throat strips, extra inhalers, etc etc etc) the box just kept getting bigger and bigger. (I bought a plastic shoe box to keep it all in- so I can see through the box for things). Now I keep it on the top shelf of the pantry in the kitchen. When someone needs something, I just take the entire box down so I can find what I need, then put it back. It's easier than digging through a cabinet and stuff falling on my head. :)
I keep mine in the kitchen in a cabinet by the sink.
yeah, the bathroom is the worst place to keep them due to heat/humidity. i keep mine in a medicine box(it's childproof, bought it at www.onestepahead.com several years ago) in an upper cabinet in the kitchen.
We keep ours in the kitchen cabinet over the sink. Kids can't reach, but easy access for the adults. And since you are at the sink, it's easy access to water.
Regarding the heat/humidity situation, whether in the kitchen or bathroom, these times are only short term & generally not enough to affect the meds. Only if it is consistant & 24/7.
Looked in the cabinet in the bathroom.
I keep it on the highest shelf in the pantry in a "lock box" since the pantry light gets left on sometimes. My pantry is NOT IN the kitchen it is just off the kitchen.
I keep all medications in a kitchen cabinet for the reasons you described in your bathroom (we have the same problem). Things we don't use on a daily basis is in a drawer in a closet. Neither of these places are accessible to the kids, and I don't have to worry about the meds going bad from our awful bathroom!
Keep mine in the kitchen cupboard by the fridge.
You aren't supposed to keep them in the bathroom - despite the presence of what has always been called a "medicine cabinet"! The humidity can degrade the meds. We don't really use any medications or painkillers or cough medicines anymore since we are never sick after changing our nutrition, but I would keep things out of children's reach and out of the bathroom. I put a wire rack on the door of the linen closet to hold extra toothpaste, shampoo, etc. If I used medication, I would put it on the top shelf of a wire rack like that. Usually it's close to the bathroom so you could take it with some water. Another option is the kitchen in a high cabinet away from kids. We use immune boosters but a comprehensive product, not a series of separate ones. It's a powder that is mixed in water, so it doesn't degrade under normal temperature conditions. There's not enough heat in the kitchen to affect it, and there's not enough moisture from the dishwasher (even though we open it to let things air dry) to affect anything. We keep them in the kitchen on the opposite side of the room from the dishwasher but still right near the cups & faucet. Pre-mixed products can degrade easily so those need to be protected. Pills and capsules are not highly absorbed anyway and are only 20-30% effective so they absolutely should not be near any humidity or heat at all.
I keep them on the top shelf in the kitchen pantry in open plastic baskets, so I can easily see whats in them. :)
In my kitchen in a high cabinet that my daughter cannot access.
Otherwise I keep some in my powder room bc there is not a fluctuation of temperature there and no moisture as there is no shower there.
I use a plastic tub to put all of the meds in and put it on the top shelf of my mug cabinet in the kitchen. It is not near the stove, and I think it is just fine in there as far as the temp. goes.
In a box in the shelve on top the washer.
I keep them in the top cabinet in the kitchen, at the back of the cabinet. It is the furthest from the stove. Another option is to keep them in a locked safety box if you have little hands that like to explore. The bathroom is actually the worst place for any meds because the humidity-even if you never turned on a light-can cause the medication to lose its effectiveness.
A friend of mine keeps them on a little spice rack type shelf she had put in her closet-it has a bar that keeps them from falling off.
We keep them in the linen closet or in the bathroom.
If you're worried, buy a Rubbermaid type clear plastic box and put it in another closet and label it "Medications". That's what we do with the ones we keep outside of the bathrooms.
i had never even thought about humidity! i am going to get some rubbermaid tubs and move all my medications!
thanks for asking this question, and thanks for all the great answers. this site rocks.
khairete
S.
In the kitchen way up high.
