What to Watch Out for When You Store Extra Medication

Blog

If you've ordered a supply of medication online, be it from an online pharmacy or your own pharmacy's mail order service, you need to store the medication properly to ensure it stays effective. Medication can take a little abuse, but overall, it doesn't last that long when not stored in proper conditions. While you might know to store refrigerated meds in the refrigerator and other meds in a cabinet, there are additional pitfalls that can make storing medications more complicated.

Humidity

Keep medications out of humid areas like the bathroom. The medicine cabinet is actually not a good place because humidity that collects in the room when you take a shower can also seep into bottles and ruin medication. That moisture leads to an accelerated breakdown of pills and lozenges. Remove medications from bathrooms and place them in cabinets elsewhere in the house.

Ambient Temperature

The cabinets you place them in have to be in a moderate temperature range. If you don't have air conditioning and live in an area that still gets rather hot, move the medications to a closed box that you can place in a closet. The more you can separate the medications from hot air, the better.

Added Heat

One thing to look out for is added heat from sources near the storage place. If you place the medications in a cabinet near the dishwasher, for example, the heat from any hot water used in the dishwasher can heat up adjacent cabinets. Also avoid storage areas near the stove and oven, and also be careful of storing medications too close to the refrigerator's exterior because the motor can give off some heat as well. Also be sure the medication isn't in the direct path of warm air blown out of heater vents, and keep it out of direct sunlight.

Expiration Dates

For medication that you don't use daily, be sure you check the expiration dates. Technically, you should get medications that have expiration dates well into the future. However, should you get something that might expire before you have a chance to use it up (since it's extra, it will sit for a long time), mark the dates on a calendar so you know when you have to use the medication up.

If you have questions about storing a particular medication, contact your pharmacy, doctor, or prescription delivery services like On Time Delivery. You have those medicines for a reason, so try to store them as properly as possible.

Share

31 March 2017

Lowering Your Shipping Costs

When I started going through our books to see where we were losing money, I was astonished to see how much we were losing on shipping. We were spending a boatload on shipping, and I knew that it needed to stop. I met with our shipping department, and they talked about some of the issues they had been facing, including trying to find small enough boxes and using packing tape that just didn't work well. We started trying to figure out how to lower these costs, and we figured things out pretty quickly. This blog is all about eliminating waste and speeding up your shipping procedures.