Spring Cleaning For Your Medicine Cabinet
Whether it feels like it or not, the calendar says it’s officially spring! This means out with the old and in with the new. The phrase “spring cleaning” can be applied to many areas in your life and really helps to get out of that winter funk. This method of preparing ourselves for the upcoming season has even proven to be good for our health! An unconventional, but extremely important, place to focus your cleaning efforts on for the upcoming season is your medicine cabinet. We all know how cluttered things can get in a small space like your apothecary cabinet, and you may find yourself questioning what to keep and what to toss. Keep reading for some tips on how to make this process quick and easy so you can spend less time inside cleaning and more time enjoying the season!
Check the dates
You wouldn’t eat bread that was moldy or milk that curdled, so why use hygiene products or makeup that has expired? Checking the dates on the items in your medicine cabinet is an obvious way to decide whether you should keep or trash them. Expiration dates vary depending on products. Powder based makeup, for example, has a shelf-life of around two years, where as a cream based makeup should be discarded after about six months. Skin care products also tend to accumulate over time and because creams and serums vary depending on the area you want to treat, you need to be especially mindful of expiration dates. For example, an anti-aging cream containing retinol will have a shorter shelf life than a pore cleansing face mask.
One year cut off
If you’ve got prescriptions in your cabinet that you’ve been holding on to, it’s crucial you follow the one year cut off rule. This means anything you were issued a year or more ago needs to go in the trash. You may think holding on to that old antibiotic may help you in a pinch, but the truth is it could actually hurt you. If you’re someone who’s constantly on the go and just don’t have time to get to a pharmacy to refill a script, companies like Hims specialize in telemedicine and can set up a consultation with a doctor via phone or FaceTime. After your diagnosis is complete, you can wave goodbye to hair loss and be prescribed medications like finasteride online, then receive them right at your front door.
Bonus Tip: When discarding medications, especially prescriptions, place them in a sealed bag with a little bit of water then mix in old coffee grounds or cat litter. This will mask the odor and make it less appealing for animals or small children to detect.
Relocate
Maybe your medicine cabinet isn’t a cabinet at all, but instead a drawer or a random shoe box. Consider switching locations of your items after you’ve gone through them. Place them in an area with easy access so you’re not constantly shoving old things behind new, and in turn losing track of what you’ve already placed in there. This organized space will also give you an opportunity to go through things that don’t belong and find new homes for them, either in the garbage or elsewhere. You don’t want your medicine cabinet to be a junk drawer, but rather a home for products that are important and beneficial to your mind and body. The more organized you remain throughout the year, the less taxing the cleaning will be come spring!
Have a listing you think should be featured contact us or email at Jeremy@offthemrkt.com to tell us more! Follow Off The MRKT on Twitter and Instagram, and like us on Facebook.
