What do old medicines and trophies have in common? They both have a limited shelf life.
I recently rediscovered stuff in both categories as I was cleaning for company. Since our house has 4 bedrooms and Jim and I only need one, we happily welcome guests. Of course during Covid most people weren’t visiting so we didn’t pay much attention to the extra rooms. Even offering to house homeless people, desirable as it might be, seemed questionable.
But, as Covid appears to be waning, we welcomed several out-of-town friends to stay with us. This meant that space we had neglected to clean for awhile was not only dusty but hadn’t been pruned in awhile. Two categories became willing victims – a medicine closet and an old storage 
chest.
Medicine: Gratefully we’ve been pretty healthy, but during our child raising era there were various prescriptions and over the counter medicines that I am embarrassed to say ranged up to 20 years past the expiration date. I did some research and disposed of most of it.
In addition, the medicine cabinet was home to non-medicines like spray starch and a candy thermometer. Does anyone still starch shirts? A local yard sale took these items.
Trophies: We’re proud of our kids but we needed to move an old chest to make room for our guests. It was heavy, partly because it contained a lot of our kid’s trophies.
To lighten it we decided that many trophies we were saving for our adult children could be passed on (at least to the one child who had his own house). He can decide whether to save them. We pitched the medals but saved the trophies for kids who didn’t yet have permanent housing. For other ways to pass on trophies click here for my earlier blog on trophies.
Soooo, how long to save old medicines and your children’s trophies can be tricky but it’s worth your time to check whether you’re hoarding any unnecessary stuff.
