Friends, I have a confession to make. It’s a bit shameful and embarrassing, but we’re all friends here so I feel like I can share this with you with zero judgement, right?OK, I probably deserve a little judgement.
Here it goes: I am a shover. Not familiar with this term? Let me explain. Basically in order to keep my house appearing to be neat and tidy but having a zero time to make this house neat and tidy, I shove. I shove things into closets. I shove things into drawers. I shove things into boxes and then shove them into closets and drawers. So at first glance, my house looks organized and nothing is misplaced. However, if you open a closet, watch out. You’re likely to be buried under an avalanche of “stuff”. Until now, my shoving really didn’t bother me (it drives my husband crazy, but whatever, the house is clean, man), but I’ve realized my little shoving habit is actually really dangerous (and I don’t mean falling boots or flying books). It has to do with medicine and my kids.
Since June is National Home Safety Month, I decided I need to get control of every place I have shoved medicine because the statistics from Up&Away of where and how young kids are finding medicine is enough to shake this shover up.
For the most part, medicine in this house is stored up but not necessarily away.
So I grabbed a plastic container and starting filling it with all of the medicine I had up but not away, and started looking for a safer place to store the newly locked medicine because these numbers just scare me
Just when I started thinking about safe storage for over the counter medicines, I realized this isn’t just prescriptions that are pills or liquid or even the kids’ over the counter pain relievers, but also things like eye drops and different medicated creams and lotions that could really harm a child. That’s when I headed to my ultimate shoving place: under the sink. Deep breathes, this picture is the epitome of my shoving.
Yes, hiding behind makeup bags, hair products, and hair brushes I have long since forgotten was a lot of over the counter medicine I had shoved under the sink in an effort to clean quickly.
After clearing out the cupboard, this is what I found:
That is a lot of medicine I didn’t even realize we had in this house. The scariest part was the random one or two pills that weren’t in a box and were just scattered in old makeup bags. I couldn’t even tell you what type of pill they were and the expiration date? Forget it. Everything else, up and away
So now I consider myself a reformed shover. Alright, I am a reformed shover when it comes to keeping all medicine up and away from my kids. But I am still a shower when it comes to all of the other closets and drawers in this house. Baby steps, friends. Baby steps.
This post was sponsored by KnowYourOTCs but all opinions and ideas are 100% my own
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I am a shover, too. My poor son’s bedroom ends up with all the stuff that I need to “hide” in it.
I also am a shover. I do it mostly when I have company coming over. Although I am getting better at throwing things away instead!
I am a shover as well, especially with medicines and then when I need one, I always have to search through a big mess. Now I am all inspired to get home and at least clean up the medicine cabinet!!
Yes. Me too. Haha. I have been working on this and once we move I plan to never be a shover again!
My husband is a shover. I can’t stand it!
LOL…I love that you have self-diagnosed yourself as a “shover”. I’m a bit of a neat freak and minamalist so this would make me crazy. In fact, I have a MIL that is a shover and it makes me nuts to visit and open a door or cupboard to find things hoarded away in some kind of stash/pile/mountain of disorganization. It’s not my space, so it’s fine for her…although your thoughts on medicine and safety are definitely important to consider!
LOL! Loved! I think I belong to the shove club! It nags me to no end! Your ideas are great, I need all the help I can get (I hate you Facebook. No I don’t. Yes I do. Maybe I should shove Facebook in a closet and throw away the key)!
Yep, I’m another member of the shove club. Going to go around the house and remedy that right now!
No judgement from me. I shove also.
I think storing them up and away is much safer. It makes me think I should store my cleaners somewhere else too.
i am just like you! Instead of taking care of stuff I hide it because I do not want to either deal with it or do not know what to do with it! I am trying hard to stop doing this.
Such an important topic and I admire your honesty. Keeping things out of harms way is so important and for prying paws, too.
I like how you coined the “shoving” phrase! We are all guilty of a little shoving here and there. However , I find that when I make the time to put away little pieces here and there it works out a lot better