💊 Medicine cabinet checklist

This is a sorting job, not a shopping list. Empty the whole cupboard onto a table first: you cannot see duplicates and expiries while things are still stacked.

35 items

1. Empty it out
2. Everything onto a table, from every room
3. Include the kitchen drawer, the handbag and the car
4. Group by what it treats
5. Bin nothing yet
6. Check every box
7. Expiry date on the box and on the blister
8. Open-then-use-within dates on liquids, drops and creams
9. Anything unlabelled goes, without exception
10. Leftover prescriptions from a course you did not finish
11. Anything that has changed colour or smell
12. Duplicates — three half-packs of the same thing
13. What to keep stocked
14. Paracetamol and ibuprofen
15. Children's doses, if relevant
16. Antihistamine
17. Rehydration sachets
18. Indigestion remedy
19. Throat lozenges and a cough remedy
20. Decongestant
21. Antiseptic cream and plasters
22. Thermometer that works
23. Prescriptions
24. Check what needs reordering before the last week's supply
25. Set up repeat prescriptions if you have not
26. Order early before a holiday or a bank holiday weekend
27. One written list of who takes what and whenThis is the sheet a paramedic or a locum will ask for, and nobody can recite it under stress.
28. Check for anything that must be refrigerated
29. Dispose and store
30. Everything expired into one bag, back to the pharmacy
31. Nothing in the bin, the sink or the toilet
32. Store somewhere cool and dry, not above the shower
33. Out of reach of children, with a lock if needed
34. Emergency medicines kept separate and obvious
35. Diarise the next sort-out in six months