Pill organizing/organizers

@grrranny
I use an automated pill dispenser. Its alarm goes off at 7am. If I don't take my medicine, it sends me an email or text reminder and if I ignore the email it texts or calls my brother. I take medicine once a day so I have a 28 day supply. I have no problem identifying medication since I've been on it for such a long time.
Best of luck to you.
Jake

@grrranny - glad @jakedduck1 had some ideas for you on pill organization. The automated pill dispenser sounds like a great way to go if it is imperative that you take your medicines.

Tagging other members who may have thoughts about 1) ways to organize their pills they have found helpful and 2) how they know one pill from another @scottrl @my44 @pek59 @mlmcg @sally12345 @annsandhorst @dkennedy9999 @thielejet2022. @hopeful33250 also may have some input on pill organizing and what works for her.

For me personally, though I'd somehow associated pill organizers with someone I did not want to be/did not want to admit I was, my sister finally convinced me to go get a typical plastic day-of-the-week pill organizer. It's very basic, but it helps me be all ready each day to take my medications for allergies, asthma, etc.

About knowing what pill is what when out of the original bottles, I have had some incidents where my pills have spilled out of the organizer while traveling or I bumped the organizer off the bathroom counter or a coffee table. Not a fun chore, but I've then grouped all the pills of the same size, shape and markings together. I then matched them with the pills in the bottles to be sure I knew what each one was as I put them back in the organizer.

I've also had a bad experience where I put my orthodontic/anti-grind retainer case in the same bag as my pill organizer, and the pills all or mostly spilled out. The tiny bit of water from rinsing/brushing my retainer then got all over my pills. I had to set all my pills out on a dash surface in our car to dry out during one road trip (I was not the driver at the time). So, keeping even the tiniest bit of water away from my pills and putting the organizer in its own bag have seemed helpful.

grrranny, have you used a pill organizer? If so, what kind did you use, and how did you like it?

Answering for my wife, Lorie, who has the same challenge - how to manage 10+ prescriptions and/or supplements needed on a daily basis. We've done various organizers over time and I'll share her current situation with a few comments. The daily pill organizer is important because it's too hard to have that many pill bottles in front of you and to have to remember what you have or have not taken.

Setting up a weekly pill organizer is her answer to staying on top of her meds. The question becomes which one is 'best' and that's often a personal choice. Key is to have each day segmented to ensure that each day's pills are consumed. It also depends on quantity of pills for each day. There are small ones and large... ones for travel and ones for home use. Amazon has them all...

Current solution is a flexible pouch that holds one days worth of pills. Each pouch is labeled by day... problem is that if you lose one, it sorta ruins the entire set. These fit into a larger pouch to hold the entire week's worth... But we've also done the hard plastic shell with daily dividers but this wasn't as effective...

I'll paste a link to something she's trying now which is a generic pouch with a zipper closure that is working well: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B28XNKYB?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1&th=1

Hope this helps! This journey we are on is a team sport and we need to help one another 'win!'

I use the plastic pill organizer with the 2 cheerfully colored pockets for each day. Every Saturday night ( my weekends aren’t very exciting), I carefully fill the pockets and know that, if I take all the pills in the pocket, I’ve taken all the right ones. After I take a dose, I put the pill organizer back so that the next dosage is facing me and I can tell without opening a pocket if I’ve taken the dose. This works well so long as I’m only taking pills 2x a day. Breaks down when I have to take something 3x a day. Luckily that’s not often.

Thanks, Lisa; I have not used a pill organizer before. Never had this many until now.
Are they hard to open with one hand? (left arm/hand not back to normal after stroke a month ago). starting physical therapy soon.
The bottles would be easy if I could open them, but they have those safety caps on them that u have to push down and twist open at the same time!

A friend mailed me a 7 day pill box. It is one of my most beloved possessions. Each day has its own box which I pull out the night before. There are several compartments. I am now using 3 of them now. You know . a.m. afternoon and bedtime pills.

I love pill organizers! I always get organizers with four slots for each day as my pill/supplement needs are taken four times a day. I have enough organizers for two weeks, but I try to update every weekend so I never run out.

This is the one that I have ordered from Amazon. It has a sliding top, so you don't have to lift the tabs, which is very convenient, especially if you have hand problems.
https://www.amazon.com/MEDca-Organizer-Dispenser-Stackable-Compartments/dp/B06ZY8JQHG/ref=sr_1_6_pp?

My pill organizer does really take two hands: one to hold it steady and one to lift the day's lid. So the kind that @hopeful33250 mentioned sounds better.