Week #3 Jan 11-16 Organizing your cleaning supplies

This week’s focus is on where you store your cleaning supplies as well as other sundries. In order to keep your house neat and tidy you must be able to easily find and access your supplies. “Right tool for the right job” kind of mind set.

What you need to find out is what works with YOUR schedule and YOUR lifestyle.  What are your confines? Time, Money or Space?

Here are some examples of how others organize:

                One blogger shares one bathroom with her entire 7 member family. She was short on space and wanted simplicity. She stated she only bought products that were white or had white packaging so she had a more uniformed look as they sat out on the counter. Space and time were a concern so she sacrificed money (by not purchasing on sale items or stocking up).

                Another blogger suggested having an entire cleaning kit in each bathroom so you don’t have to haul your supplies around and you can clean whenever you are in that room. This person apparently had no limits on storage space or money but time was more important.

                A third blogger keeps a simple cleaning kit of paper towels, baking soda, vinegar, microfiber rags. She also made her own laundry soap, detergent, and dishwasher pods. Her main motif was organic, thrifty, and simple. She had the time to make and store her own cleaning supplies.

Here is what I try to do:

                Laundry Room is off of the garage. I would eventually like to have ALL cleaning supplies in there. Right now it is laundry supplies, the vacuum and the steam mop supplies. I moved the broom, stick vac, and steam mop to the hangers right outside the door in the garage. We use the vac more than the other 3 so it made more sense to save space for it rather than the others.  Dad and Chris have not finished putting up my shelves in the laundry room so the rest of the supplies are in the hallway/linen closet.

The linen closet actually holds no linen. We store our bed sheets and towels for the master bath in drawers in a 12 drawer dresser in our bedroom. We had the space for it in there and it made more sense. It also helps me limit the number of bed sheets and towels we have/need. The hall bath holds the spare towels for guests and the guest bedroom has the spare linens in Chris’s old dresser.

I used to keep spare office supplies in the hall closet as well but it made more sense to keep them in the office.

The linen closet was a previous homeowner project so the shelves are not even and not even that deep – which is also why we decided to move our linens elsewhere because they kept spilling off the shelves! I do try the "ultimate super couponing stock up" once in a while on toiletries.  I store them in the paper photo boxes from Michael’s AND I can stack two on top of each other. The front of the boxes have a nice space for LABLES and they come in all sorts of colors and designs. Medications are sorted by symptom and stored in clear Ziploc containers. I wish I could find the rectangle ones again because they fit wonderfully. Our prescription meds are kept in Thirty-One zipper pouches. The doctors always want you to bring all your meds with you – or if you have to go to the ER or have an emergency overnight stay. This way, we can grab the bags and go. And they are quite fashionable and no one knows what is in them (as opposed to clear Ziploc baggies).

Also stored in our linen closet: Spare batteries, light bulbs, extra tissues, rags, dusting supplies, carpet cleaners, candles, Scentsy and WallFlowers, flashlights, and some décor items.

I am trying to pare down what we have. As I stated earlier my goal is to have all cleaning supplies in one location. I would also like all candles and décor in one location as well and just use the linen closet as a storeroom of sorts.

Take a look at some awesome organization ideas from around the web :)

Martha Stewart keeps her supplies in a bucket so she can carry them with her as she cleans

Just some cute laundry signs to brighten your space

Laundry bags to sort and hold dirty clothes until you can run a full load

One very tidy linen closet

Add Command Hooks inside of cabinets to hold wire baskets



Store your trash bags on dowel rods and curtain rod hooks to keep them easily accessible

 

  

Car cleaning supplies need a space too! Use a 31 organizing utility tote to store and carry everything you need



This is a 31 organizing utility tote, I store all our steam cleaner supplies in one in our laundry room

Put a shoe organizer on the back of the laundry room door to store all your cleaning supplies



A tension rod under then kitchen sink adds space to store all the spray bottle cleaners

 

Shoe organizer holds miscellaneous cords and vacuum adaptors