I Want to Store Everything I Own in These Nalgene Containers
I take a lot of pills. I take so many that I started mailing my prescription bottles to be recycled (did you know that you can’t recycle prescription bottles! I mean you can, but it takes extra effort). But I also take some over the counter medication that comes in the worst packaging. I take melatonin, which comes in a bottle with a top that always breaks, making it even harder to open each week to fill my pill organizer. I also take Prilosec (I actually take Kirkland brand omeprazole) which comes in truly the worst packaging. You get a large box, and inside that box are three smaller boxes, and in each of THOSE boxes there is a blister pack of pills. WHY?! I bet you’re thinking I just buy the one with the worst packaging and there is a pill bottle available. HA! Nope. The bottles of Prilosec are only for like, 10 pills, and I’ve tried multiple brands and they are all packaged in the blister pack within a box within a box method. So when I need a top up, I sit down and open all the boxes and blister packs and put the pills in a different bottle. I used to use an old melatonin bottle, which as you have just read, sucked.
I was searching for a better way. And then I stumbled on the most magical aisle in REI. Nalgene, the makers of those ubiquitous water bottles, make tiny travel containers, and they are amazing. There are many different sizes and styles, but I bought two that looked about the size of the old melatonin bottles I was using. I buy a three pack of melatonin, and all three bottles fit in one of these Nalgene containers. And it’s SO much easier to refill my pill organizer each Sunday now that all my Prilosec pills are in one bottle and not multiple blister packs.
They have screw tops too, which is not only easier for me to use than a flip top or a prescription bottle, but it’s super secure. I love these bottles so much I was searching for more uses for them. And then I remembered my massive tub of Eucerin Healing Cream. I wrote about that miracle product in Wear, Watch, Want #89. It’s perfect for violently dry skin, like I sometimes experience, but you can only buy this stuff in an enormous tub that seems like it weight 6 pounds. I don’t have room to store that thing in my cabinet, which makes it hard to remember to use it, which then continues the cycle of flaky skin. I bought a tiny little Nalgene container and decanted some Eucerin into it. This tiny tub fits in my cabinet easily, and now I can also travel with it (I have traveled, by car, with my gigantic Eucerin tub. It was a pain.)
These containers are all priced between $1.50 and $5, and you can get them at REI or another sporting goods store. They are pretty much perfect, but I will say that I have tried to get labels to stick to them and it just… doesn’t work. I tried cleaning them with alcohol before putting the sticker on… nope. It’s pretty clear what’s in what container the way I use them, but if you had, say, two different white pills or two seemingly identical lotions then this could be an issue.
