The satisfaction of a low-stakes clean out
What do you mean, I shouldn't keep medicine that expired in 2013?
Lately I’ve been all about low-stakes clean outs. A low-stakes clean out involves an unemotional category of stuff no one in my house especially cares about, we don’t have a stressful volume to deal with, and with an hour of focus I can feel a sense of accomplishment. You may recall I recently celebrated my low-stakes cables and cords drawer rehabilitation.
With the seasonal change and winter illnesses suddenly upon us, I sensed it was time to tackle our over-the-counter medicine stash. There were some red flags suggesting the time was nigh:
Our stash existed in various drawers and cabinets in the kitchen and bathroom. (We all know each category should have only one home.)
I had no real sense of what we owned. (Some of it was purchased in Europe a decade ago with nary an English word on the package; other items had unknown origins.)
Whenever I needed a decongestant or whatever, I tended to go to the drugstore rather than diving into what we already had. (This is a sure symptom of the mild overwhelm of having too many weird things to dig through.)
My husband took the kids on a 6 hour adventure (!) out of the house one day recently and I knew this was a golden opportunity. (What, isn’t it everyone’s dream to spend a day home alone, organizing undisturbed?)
I started by pulling everything out of the various homes and piling it on the kitchen counter. Ack, it was so much stuff!
Before
First, I went through and checked expiration dates. This was an eye-opening endeavor. I found things that had expired long before my oldest child was born. I found expiration dates from 3 houses ago — I had willingly relocated some of these items multiple times while they were already expired. I found expiration dates from when I was in my 20s (I’m now 41). Clearly this organizing job was long overdue. Even more clear is that even the most organizing-obsessed person has blind spots.
I threw out everything expired. Learning from my apparent impulse to hang onto things I rarely use, I also de-duplicated some items, getting rid of whichever will expire first (how much Tylenol are we realistically going to use this decade?). I also tossed more exotic remedies and homeopathic tinctures I like the idea of but never actually used.
Then I took what remained and separated it into piles by category. I happened to have a nifty 3-section container to separate the categories: pain relief, sore throat & allergy, and cold medicine. It will live in an upper kitchen cabinet.
The remaining items I grouped into “First Aid” and put in a separate container that will live in a kitchen drawer. I guarantee my kids will be in college before we get through all the band-aids we own, so I might prune our band-aid collection in a future low-stakes purge.