How should I store medicines at home?

Two separate risks sit in the same cupboard. One is that a child, or an adult in crisis, reaches something they should not. The other is that the medicine you rely on has quietly stopped working properly because of where it has been kept. The bathroom cabinet — warm, humid and at child height in many homes — manages both at once, which is why it is the one place medicines should not be.

Safety

Step by step

1. Move medicines out of the bathroom.Repeated heat and humidity from showering degrades tablets, capsules and effervescent products and shortens their working life, whatever the printed date says. A bedroom or hall cupboard is cooler, drier and more stable.
2. Store out of sight and out of reach, and preferably locked.Above adult eye level at minimum, and a lockable box if there are children in the house or visiting. Out of sight matters as much as out of reach, because a child who cannot see it does not try to get it.
3. Keep everything in its original packaging.The box carries the name, the strength, the dose, the expiry, the batch and the patient's name, and the leaflet carries the warnings. Loose tablets in a pot are unidentifiable in an emergency, which is precisely when identification matters.
4. Follow any storage instruction on the label exactly.Some medicines must be refrigerated — many liquid antibiotics, insulin, some eye drops. Some must not be. Some must stay in the original container because of light or moisture sensitivity. The label wins over any general rule.
5. Separate anything that could be confused.Similar packaging, similar names, adult and child versions of the same medicine, and different family members' prescriptions. Physical separation and a written name on the box prevents the class of error that actually happens at three in the morning.
6. Keep a written list of what everyone takes.Name, strength, dose, what it is for, and who prescribed it, for each person. This is what a paramedic, an out-of-hours doctor or a hospital will ask for, and remembering it under stress is unreliable.
7. Check dates and stock twice a year.Put it with the clock change. Discard anything out of date, anything with no legible label, and anything left over from a course that ended. Note what needs replacing in the first aid supplies while you are there.
8. Never flush or bin unwanted medicines.They contaminate water and they are recoverable from a bin. Every UK pharmacy takes unwanted and expired medicines back free, including controlled drugs, no questions asked. Blister packs can go too.
9. Watch the places medicines end up outside the cupboard.Handbags, coat pockets, bedside tables, car glove boxes and visitors' luggage. A grandparent's weekly dosette box on a low table is a common and serious hazard.
10. Know what to do if a child takes something.Do not wait for symptoms and do not try to make them sick. Ring 999 or go straight to A and E, taking the packaging with you. Paracetamol in particular causes serious harm with no early warning signs at all.

Keeping on top of it

• Check expiry dates and clear out finished courses (Twice a year, at the clock changes)
• Update the written list of what each person takes (Whenever a prescription changes)
• Take expired and unwanted medicines to a pharmacy (Twice a year)
• Check the first aid kit for used and out-of-date items (Twice a year)

Questions people ask