Get Organized… Cold & Flu Edition

Here we are again…cold and flu season has started. Just a few weeks into school and I’ve already had a kid swabbed for strep and both have been stuffy and congested. I don’t know if I’m ready for it to be honest. But before we really get into the thick of it there are some easy ways to prepare for the inevitable.

First, Strat by sorting through all of your medications. Check expiration dates and purge what is no longer current or needed. Sometimes I buy something and I didn’t like the way I felt using it but hang onto it for some reason. Just in case. These are the last things you need to keep. Zero sentimental value in a bottle of cough medicine. But when tossing out any medication be sure to follow this guide on the proper disposal method to make sure you are doing it safely.

Sort what is remaining into categories..pain relievers, cold meds, antihistamines etc. and then make a list of what you need.

Some cold and flu essentials could include:

• Throat lozenges

• Saline spray

• Pain relievers like acetaminophen or ibuprofen

• Cold medicine

• Vitamin C

• Zinc

• Echinacea

• Immune support boosters like Elderberry

• Tissues

• Lip balm

• Chest Rub

• Hand sanitizer

• Hand soap

• Thermometer

• Humidifier

• Nose bulb syringe or the Nose Frida for littles. (It’s gross but when you have a baby who can’t blow their nose its a game changer.)

Some other things to keep on hand in your pantry are food and drinks. Pedialyte or low sugar electrolyte drinks will help with dehydration. Herbal tea, honey, soup and popsicles are easy things to keep on hand that have a decent shelf life.

Once you have all of your essentials gathered, organize them into baskets or bins for easy access. You can label your bins by illness such as cold and flu, allergies, stomach bug etc.  I recommend keeping adult medicine and kids medicine separate to be safe. When my kids had covid the first time around I found it very helpful to have a bin that I could move with them that contained what they needed or I needed to care for them. It contained tissues, hand sanitizer, masks, a thermometer, cough drops and Clorox wipes to quickly give remotes or doorknobs, anything high touch, a wipe down. I kept the pain relievers out for safety reasons but a grown up version with some Advil or Tylenol would be perfect. This worked so well that I now use it for any illness.

I don’t keep my medicine in a bathroom medicine cabinet. I find that I am always administering from my kitchen perch whether its daily vitamins or pain relievers so it just made sense to utilize a kitchen cabinet. A linen closet or under sink bathroom cabinet would work great as well to store your medicine baskets. Some other organizing ideas other than baskets or bins would be a turntable in a closet or cabinet for those frequently used items or, one that served me very well in a teeny house was over the door shoe organizers. I used a clear one and each pocket held different medications and first aid items. It helped with organization because it was fairly flat and I could see everything at a glance.

I hope some of these ideas helped. I can’t do anything for the illnesses coming your way though! Let us know in the comments what you do to make life a little easier during cold and flu season. Good luck!