How To Store Medicine Without A Medicine Cabinet

Maintaining an organized home can be tricky when you don’t have a lot of storage solutions. But luckily, with a bit of creativity and helpful tips, you can keep your things neat and tidy. Storing medicine without a medicine cabinet is easy, but you need to do it properly.

Store medicine in a dry, cool place like a cabinet, drawer, or pantry. Keep the medication away from heat sources, so avoid storing it above the stove or near the shower. If you have kids in the home, a lockable medication storage box is worth considering. Lazy Susans, spice racks, and bins are other medication storage options.

How you store your medication depends on how much you have and how often you take it. You’ll likely store medicine you only need once in a while differently from daily medications.

If you take certain medications every day, you want to keep them easily accessible. A medicine cabinet is a popular place to keep medication out of reach of children yet quick to grab. But it’s not actually a great place to keep your medicine.

Medicine loses its potency when exposed to lots of moisture and heat. Additionally, too much heat and other negative factors can cause certain medications to act differently.

Medicine cabinets are typically located right above a bathroom sink and potentially close to a hot shower. These features make them less than ideal places to store medication. Plus, not everyone has a medicine cabinet.

Keeping daily medications on the counter undoubtedly makes it easy to remember to take them. But a bunch of bottles haphazardly strewn about the counter looks messy and disorganized.

If you need to keep your medication on the counter, you have a couple of options to do so neatly. You can use a pill sorter to prep your medicine for the week. Keep the bottles up in a cabinet, and you’ll only have your sorter on the counter.

Pill sorters come in different styles and sizes, so find one that will fit your medications. However, if you have young children in the home, you won’t want any medication easily accessible.

According to the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), roughly 9 out of 10 unintentional poisonings happen in the home. Therefore, if you have young children at home, a locked medication box is a good idea.

A cabinet is a popular place to keep medication when you don’t have a medicine cabinet. You can store bottles on tiered organizing shelves or inside stackable drawers. Choose an upper cabinet that is away from any immediate heat sources, like a toaster, stove, or steamy shower.

The advantage of a cabinet is it keeps medication out of sight, which can help things look tidier. Plus, kids who don’t see medication are less likely to be curious and accidentally ingest it.

A kitchen or bathroom cabinet is basically as close to a medicine cabinet as you can get. If choosing one over the other, the kitchen cabinet is often a better option. Your kitchen likely doesn’t get as steamy and humid as your bathroom.

If you want to store medication in a specific area that doesn’t have any cabinetry, consider installing shelving. Floating shelves look clean and crisp and can hold several bottles. This look might work better in a bathroom if you don’t mind having your medication on display.

If you don’t have young kids in the home and are working with a small space, this could be an excellent option for you. It keeps your medications within easy reach without taking up valuable counter space.

Another popular location for medication is inside a dresser or nightstand drawer. These spots are especially convenient places for medication you take before bed or first thing in the morning.

Your nightstand is also great for any medicine you end up needing to take in the middle of the night. (Like when you wake up at 2 am with a splitting headache or upset stomach.)

These types of drawers are also typically in a cool, dry place, which is ideal for medicine storage. If you keep your medication in a drawer, make sure to keep it in its original container with childproof caps.

You can separate and sort your medication into bins by type, frequency, urgency, etc. This can make it easier to get the medicine you need when you need it. Keep the containers on an upper closet shelf or inside of a cabinet.

You can grab the particular bin you need without having to sift through all of your medication. You can also organize by person if you have different medicines for different people in the home. Try out several organizing methods to see which way works best for you.

You could also use a safe if you have lots of medication in the house. You can keep medicine and other items in it to ensure they remain out of harm’s way. Plus, a safe provides a cool, dry place.

A safe is similar to a locking medication storage box, but many safes might be more permanent. So, if you want to take your medicine on the go, a lock box could work better.

But for medications that remain in the home, a safe works well. When traveling, you can always transfer the necessary dosages into a lock box or other travel medication storage option.

You have alternatives if you don’t have a medicine cabinet or don’t want to keep your medication in such a steamy environment. You can utilize storage drawers or bins inside of a cabinet or up on a shelf.

Another possibility is to organize your medication into a locking storage box, which is ideal for households with children. If you like to keep medicine easily accessible on the counter, a pill sorter is an option. However, don’t use this method if young kids are around.

Whether you choose to keep medicine in a dresser or nightstand drawer, inside a cabinet, or on your counter, do so safely. Make sure kids can’t easily access the medication and keep it away from excessive heat and moisture. As long as it’s safe and works for you, then it’s an ideal way to store your medicine.