Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Medicine/Spice cabinet memo board

I got a great idea from Angie at Echoes of Laughter - she has so many of them!  She made a kitchen recipe board inside of a cabinet.  I had all the things needed to create one of my own - so I made one in the small cabinet of spices and OTC meds that is to the left of my stovetop.  I don't worry the spices will age before their time - I use them everyday so I am cycling through them often.  If I need just a little of an unusual spice I don't often use,  I buy it in the bulk section at Central Market.
A few months ago I made an index card with pertinent info for the meds in the basket on the top shelf - Hubby thought Advil, Motrin, and ibuprofen were three different things...I was worried there would be a dosing error so I made a cheat sheet!  I thought the inside of the cabinet would be a good place to post it.
I already had the cork tiles leftover from the Girl's dorm room.
 I measured the recess on the inside of the cabinet,
 then cut the cork board to fit.  It's a pretty fat cork board - all the better to stick push pins into!
It fit as is without glue or tape, but I will probably glue the pieces where they meet end-on-end.
I marked a cut line and used a kitchen knife to cut.  The utility blade was too flimsy for this, and the scissors did not cut a straight edge through the thickness.
 After scoring it, I folded it  and cut along the fold line.  Easy peasy.
 
 
 Here is the meds basket.  I keep it up on the top shelf to discourage the kids from dosing themselves.  I have harped on them about this so many years - they know to ASK FIRST.  I always try to use generic medicine names when discussing meds with them all - the generic name will always be the same, whereas the brand might be different.  I encourage them to always READ THE LABEL.
 I cut the tops off the boxes so I could easily see what we are running low on.  Then I marked the expiration date on each box.  I am a BIG believer in expiration dates.  I also think that names should be written across the tops of prescription drugs.  Yes, I have accidentally taken Bubbie's med thinking it was my thyroid pill.  So dumb, I know, but in the mornings sometime, I feel like I am still half asleep...
Then I pinned notes on the cork, which I can amend whenever I need to.
During the course of this project I found several expired items - yikes.  Medicine cabinets, just like first aid kits and smoke alarm batteries should be checked often!  What about you - where do you keep your over-the-counter meds?





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2 comments:

Maury @ Life on Mars said...

What a great idea! I have a pantry door that would be a good place for this!

Nina said...

Nice job on the cork board...Your meds basket looks just like mine, although until now, I never thought about writing the Exp dates on the pkgs so that they can be clearly seen...good thinking.