Many medicines has a BEST USED BY DATE. this is not the expiration date. If you use it before that date you get all the benefits that the medicine can provide. (However if your like me- and don't have a lot of extra money) many of these can be used months and even years before you don't get any benefit from them.
Many can goods have the same label. Best used by. which means it is guaranteed until that date provided it is stored properly. Many of those are good months after the listing. I was able to get a list from the food pantry because it can provide many canned products for a while have that date.

The medicines I do not use on a regular basis I keep in my linen closet. My maintenance prescriptions and my everyday supplements I keep on a shelf in the kitchen. close to a glass to have a drink of water with them. - 6/28/2012   1:17:26 PM

Thanks for that very interesting information. I don't take any medications - just nutritional supplements. I keep those on my kitchen counter - I had liquid ones that I keep in the refrigerator. I have always kept apirin and other types of OTC pain meds in a high cabinet where my children were not able to get to them, now when I do have them in house I keep them there as well so my grandchildren cannot easily reach them..... - 6/26/2011   9:48:56 AM

Thank-you for the informative tips both from the blog entry & comments. A few more: where I live (NJ) by law a pharmacy cannot take back a bottle of medications once it leaves the store. Check the bag before leaving your pharmacy to be sure you are leaving with the medication you came for. If it is not, since the bottle of medication(s) hasn't left the store a correction can be made & the wrong medication stays with the pharmacy. If the medication is still sealed via blister pack or the bottle seal has not been broken, then you may not have a problem. My mom used a pharmacy in a food store chain. In her declining year, my siblings were off wherever, & my being a RN I became her caretaker as I did with her for my dad. It was winter, mom was in the car waiting, I went in & picked up her bag of medications, & once home I opened the bag with my mom's name on it only none of the medications were hers & had someone else's name on them. Another reason to open the bag before leaving the store. I was surprised by Carproth's comment about taking the old unexpired medications to the senior center to give to the Nurse Practitioner to pass onto members of the geriatric population. While good intentions are nice, you can't be sure about what may have or will happen to medications that are not sealed. Back to storing medications, vitamins, & other supplements, those little pillows or tiny cylinders are in the bottle for a reason, to absorb moisture. I know I don't always keep them in the bottle until the last pill is taken even though they really should. The hospital I worked at, like all other hospitals, would have educational in-services for the nursing staff. One was about disposing of old &/or expired medications. Disposing of them via toilets or sinks will put them directly put them into sewer systems. Emptying them into your garbage is the better way to go. Yes they go to a landfill, however, by the time they decompose especially if they were expired when thrown out, there's nothing really left I tend to think, to be concerned about. While this has nothing to do with the disposal of medications it is still about medications & is not bad to have in your home. There's a book titled "The Pill Book". It's a paperback, usual size of a paperback, & is a wonderful source of information about medications. With each new edition it gets thicker due to all the new medications available. It is written in words that are easily understood by all & tells all one needs to know from the brand & generic names, what classification it belongs to, interactions with other medications or foods, how it works, what it does, side effects, & more. For the wealth of information you get, it is well worth the $6-7.95 you will pay for it. I refer to it often even though I'm a RN as it quickly gives me the information I need to know. I think the latest edition is 13th or 14th, check the copyright page. Obviously I have been verbose here. I usually have nothing to add, I share when I can wishing others may benefit from what I have learned from personal & professional experiences. I thank-you for reading this Be well! - 6/18/2011   1:23:42 AM

I have medications on the kitchen cupboard and in a closet. Only because the bathroom cabinet is full with other things like shampoo, etc. I am happy to see that is the best place to put them! I should do a good cleaning of medication myself, I am sure a lot is expired.
- 6/18/2011   12:15:45 AM

I just turned in 11 bottles of old/expired prescription meds. My brother works for the local PD and told me they have a turn in day every so often. I knew not to flush them or trash them due to it getting in to the water and soil. Never heard of the coffe grounds or kitty litter ideas, but it seems to me that the stuff would still end up in the soil or water. - 6/17/2011   6:34:00 PM

Very helpful and lots of great added SparkPeople members comments and suggestions. - 6/17/2011   4:23:07 PM

I've also heard that you can crush up expired medications and mix it in with used coffee grounds; then just throw away the coffee grounds. I don't drink coffee and I don't have a cat, but I've heard the cat litter suggestion from my pharmacist as well. And by the way, you're not supposed to USE the cat litter after you mix it with the crushed medications; just throw it away. That makes it impossible for people to go through your trash and separate the crushed-to-powder medicine from the cat litter or the used coffee grounds. - 6/17/2011   11:15:00 AM

The Drug Enforcement Administration has a prescription drug take back initiative event as well as disposal tips on their main web page at the very top. - 6/17/2011   10:29:43 AM

Our Earth Day environmental fair had a booth for people to dispose of outdated RX's. I think the police department will take them for disposal too. - 6/17/2011   10:20:21 AM

Great blog...BUT...The poster whose pharmacist suggested grinding up expired meds and mixing them with the cat's litter? that's just plain gross...is said pharmacist is a cat-hater? Cats lick their paws, and could ingest the meds, especially if they had dissolved in the urine. Since many human-meds are toxic to animals (think dogs and uncoated aspirin...) that is the worst idea I've heard--I'm not blaming you, ALTRUSMAC, but your instincts are right, and your pharmacist seems to be an idiot. - 6/17/2011   9:36:42 AM

Even vitamins expire...so you need to look at all expiration dates. Good article. - 6/17/2011   8:38:22 AM

Our local pharmacies do not take in old pills. Once a year our city has a disposal service - otherwise you are on your own. - 6/17/2011   7:30:11 AM

You might want to consider editing the blog to simply say Pharmacy and not promote any one chain. - 6/17/2011   1:14:02 AM

Keep a RED wash cloth in your First Aid Kit to use on a child for any cuts. This will make the bleeding seem less as a white wash cloth can make a small amount of blood look like a LOT to a child and cause them unnecessary anxiety. - 6/17/2011   12:59:43 AM

Great blog....And its important not to take someone else's medication even though symptoms might be similar....What's Good for the goose.....Is not always Good..For the Gander haha!!! - 6/16/2011   11:12:39 PM

The CVS pharmacy here does not take back old meds. they suggested i call the fire stations.
seems odd. - 6/16/2011   1:45:18 PM

I go to my pharmacist first. They can usally sell me something over the counter for the issue I am having. I never thought bout how to dispose of the old stuff. Better talk to them about that too. Thanks for the blog! - 6/16/2011   1:42:17 PM

My pharmacist counts pills and sells candy. - 6/16/2011   1:32:45 PM

My pharmacists are great! They can tell you anything you need to know, and expand on it as well so that you will have a good understanding of the medication you are taking!!! - 6/16/2011   1:26:29 PM

My pharmacist is so helpful! I never hesitate to ask her questions.

I always bring prescription meds back to the pharmacy for destruction when they're no longer needed. - 6/16/2011   1:18:10 PM

I would say call your pharmacy about medication disposal. I took expired prescriptions to my local pharmacy and they would not accept them. They said I had to properly dispose of them myself. She suggested grinding it up and mixing it with kitty litter. I wasn't sure about all those steps (since I don't have a cat and don't want to pay for litter), but I would recommend calling to see if they do actually accept your old medications. - 6/16/2011   12:42:33 PM

Great blog. Safety first on storing medications. - 6/16/2011   12:00:53 PM

I haven't been keeping my medicines OR vitamins in my bathroom for years! It probably helps that I haven't lived in an apartment with a place to even keep medicine in the bathroom for years.

But I've heard the thing about the heat and moisture for quite awhile and I'm alway surprised to hear about people who haven't heard it! I think I just read too many things online and in magazines! - 6/16/2011   10:58:30 AM

Once a month, our PD has a mobile shred, car seat inspection, and prescription drug turn-in event that is held in various locations throughout the city to make it accessible to residents. By tossing meds in the garbage, they wind up in the landfill with everything else and there is a real possibility they will leach into the groundwater. DH is on blood pressure, cholesterol, and bi-polar meds which his doctor keeps changing as his body becomes resistant to current ones. He takes the old (unexpired) pills to the local senior center which has a nurse practitioner on staff and turns them in there. We live in an area with a very high geriatric population, many on fixed incomes that no longer cover all necessities, and unfortunately cutting back on their meds is one of the first ways they usually economize. If there's a way to safely recycle old pills and help someone out in the process, we're all for it! - 6/16/2011   10:30:46 AM

This is a great reminder to clean out your medicine cabinet, not only for organizational purposes, but also to be aware of what you have and reduce the chances of children getting into the medicines (either accidentally if they are young or purposefully to abuse some if they are teenagers). - 6/16/2011   10:21:46 AM