The Best Place to Store Your Medication (Plus, 4 More Tips for Medication Storage)

Storing medications properly helps ensure they work as expected. But medicine storage may be the last thing on your mind, especially if you’re not feeling well. If you want your medications to work as well as possible, though, it’s important to pay attention to where you store them. 

Here, we’ll dive into the best places to store your medications — plus, four extra tips to help keep them as safe and effective as possible.

1. The best place to store medication isn’t the bathroom

Believe it or not, the bathroom — a typical home for medications — isn’t the best place to store them. The moisture and heat from showers and baths can affect your medications’ quality. Heat and humidity can make many medications break down faster, for example. This may cause them to be less effective before the labeled expiration date.

So, where should you keep them? A cool, dry place is ideal for most medications. This could be in a bedside dresser drawer or a secure kitchen cabinet. The key is to keep them at room temperature (68℉ to 77℉), out of direct sunlight, and away from heat sources, like an oven or stove. Other examples of good places to store medication are in a closet or on a shelf that’s out of reach of pets and small children.

How to safely store medication in your fridge

The majority of medications should be kept at room temperature. But some medications need to stay in a cooler place, like a refrigerator. Your medications’ prescription labels should tell you where and how to store them.

Common medications that should be stored in the fridge (36℉ to 46℉) include:

• Insulin and other injectable diabetes medications

• Some injectable weight-loss medications

• Many types of eye drops

• Some probiotic supplements

• Several biologics, including Humira (adalimumab)

Refrigerated medications are also sensitive to very low temperatures. Freezing these medications can impact their safety and effectiveness. So be careful not to accidentally let your medication freeze by storing it too close to the refrigerator cooling unit.

With any medication, it’s recommended to read the labeling or manufacturer’s instructions to make sure you store it properly. If you’re not sure whether you should refrigerate your medication, ask your pharmacist for advice.

How to prevent kids and pets from accessing medication

When possible, try your best to store your medications in a secure place that’s elevated and out of reach of pets and small children. Keeping your medications out of their access helps protect them from accidentally swallowing something they shouldn’t. Keeping medications in low and unlocked cupboards, drawers, or shelves could potentially lead to issues.

Good to know: Many medications come with child-resistant safety caps. These are designed to help prevent accidental ingestion. But it’s still important to store your medications out of reach for an extra layer of protection. You could even consider using a medication lockbox.

2. Heat, moisture, and sunlight could damage your medication

Medications come in special containers for good reason. Their packaging is designed to protect them from air, light, and moisture during the shipping and storage process. Exposure to environmental factors like these can make medications less effective. That’s why most original manufacturer bottles are light-resistant containers that come with desiccants. Desiccants are the little packets inside medication bottles that absorb moisture.

Once they reach the pharmacy, many medications are transferred to an amber pharmacy vial before being dispensed. This isn’t the case for all of them, though. Some medications remain in their original containers after being dispensed due to the risks of environmental exposure.

Common examples of medications that shouldn’t be transferred from their original containers include:

• Nitrostat (nitroglycerin sublingual tablets)

• Belsomra (suvorexant)

• Linzess (linaclotide)

• Xeljanz (tofacitinib)

• Descovy (emtricitabine / tenofovir alafenamide)

• Zofran ODT (ondansetron)

Which medications shouldn’t be kept in the bathroom?

As mentioned, it’s generally not recommended to store any type of medication in the bathroom because of humidity and temperature changes. But some medications are extra sensitive to these factors and should always be kept out of the bathroom.

Top examples include:

• Suppositories and gel-encased medications such as Lovaza (omega-3-acid ethyl esters)

• EpiPen (injectable epinephrine)

• Liquid antibiotics

• Dry powder inhalers such as Advair Diskus (fluticasone / salmeterol)

• Birth control medications such as NuvaRing (etonogestrel / ethinyl estradiol)

3. Pill organizers are helpful, but not appropriate for every medication

If you take a lot of medications, it can be hard to keep up with which ones to take and when. In this case, a pill organizer is a handy tool to help you stay on track. But not all medications should be removed from their original packaging to be placed into a pill organizer. Again, this is because some medications are sensitive to light or air and have the potential to lose effectiveness if not stored properly.

Ask your pharmacist which, if any, of your prescription or over-the-counter (OTC) medications are OK to be transferred into a pill organizer. If you do use a pill organizer, try to take medications that you’ve transferred within 1 week.

4. There are many benefits of optimal medication storage

Optimal medication storage offers many direct and indirect health benefits. In addition to keeping your medications working as intended, good storage practices, including good organization, can lead to less skipped doses and fewer complications and side effects from inconsistent use.

People who manage chronic health conditions often take several medications on a daily basis. Optimizing medication storage can be especially helpful for people who take more than one medication per day and those whose medication schedule isn’t the same every day.

5. It’s a good idea to discard improperly stored medications

As a general rule, it’s a good idea to discard medications that might have been damaged due to improper storage. If your medications haven’t been stored properly, they might not be safe and effective to use. 

Changes in color, smell, or texture can be signs that a medication has expired. If you’re unsure, ask your pharmacist if you should keep taking the medication or if you should throw it away.

Remember not to throw medications in the trash or flush them down the toilet (unless your pharmacist tells you otherwise). Throwing away medication with your normal trash, where children and pets could find it, could put them at risk. And flushing a medication down the toilet could have environmental repercussions.

There are several ways to safely dispose of your expired, damaged, or unused medications, including:

• Typing in your ZIP code at DisposeMyMeds.org and going to one of the secure drop-off locations listed

• Participating in an upcoming National Prescription Drug Take Back Day by entering your ZIP code or address to find a collection site near you

• Using an in-store medication-disposal kiosk at your local community pharmacy, such as Walgreens or CVS

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Written by:

Taylor K. Clarke, PharmD

Taylor K. Clarke, PharmD, has 8 years of pharmacy experience working in community practice, hospital pharmacy, and ambulatory care pharmacy. Taylor's commitment to patient education motivated her to pursue health communications as a pharmacist.

Edited by:

Joshua Murdock, PharmD, BCBBS

Joshua Murdock, PharmD, BCBBS, is a licensed pharmacist in Arizona, Colorado, and Rhode Island. He has worked in the pharmacy industry for more than 10 years and currently serves as a pharmacy editor for GoodRx.

Reviewed by:

Christina Aungst, PharmD

Christina Aungst, PharmD, is a pharmacy editor for GoodRx. She began writing for GoodRx Health in 2019, transitioning from freelance writer to editor in 2021.

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