Hello, Organizing Warriors!
Welcome back to our How to Organize Your Entire House in 20 Days series!
Thus far, we have organized family common rooms, your children’s areas, guest spaces and your quarters, so today we are going to take a break from rooms and organize things. What things you may ask?
Cleaning supplies! Spring cleaning season is here and now is a great time to get those products organized and ready to use.
The first step to organizing your cleaning supplies is gathering all of them together in one room.
Often, different supplies are stored in different rooms so start off by getting together all of the cleaning supplies that are scattered around the house.
Check the bathrooms, under sinks, the laundry room, anywhere you have ever stored cleaning supplies, go there and start gathering everything together.
By pulling out and bringing together all of the cleaning supplies, you won’t have to keep bouncing from room to room during today’s process, risking getting off task.
Organizing is all about increased efficiency, after all!
The next step to organizing your cleaning supplies is to start categorizing everything into groups based on what the items are.
Make groups of hand soaps, dish detergents, toilet cleaners, degreasers, glass cleaners, wipes, disinfectant sprays, multipurpose sprays, air fresheners, tools (scrubs, gloves, aprons) and any other cleaning supplies you may keep on hand.
By grouping together like items, you will easily be able to see what you have, what you need and make it all easier to organize.
After you have categorized all of the cleaning supplies, go through all of it to see if anything can be disposed of.
Check expiration dates and throw away any products that have expired.
Ensure you’re disposing of products properly. If there are any cleaners that you bought, tried, and then didn’t like, toss it out too.
If you don’t want to just throw these cleaning supplies away, you can offer them your neighbors or your housekeeper!
Next, go through scrubs and rags to see if any of those are too worn and should be trashed as well. It’s not safe to keep products that are expired and there’s no point in keeping anything that you don’t use, so toss it out now! (You’ll always have more rags!)
Once you have gone through all of the cleaning supplies, the next step to the organizing process today is to clean the space. Wherever you pulled the cleaning supplies from, go back and wipe down the interior of the cabinet, or if you’re lucky enough to have a cleaning supplies cabinet, wipe down the shelves.
Throw away any trash that was left behind during the gathering stage. Wipe clean any shelves or cabinets the products came from.
Make sure to wipe any of the cleaning bottles that may have residue on the outside of them. It’s amazing what clean looking cleaning products will do for the aesthetic of the space!
Finish up by wiping any bins or baskets that you keep your cleaning supplies in.
After you have cleaned the spaces the cleaning supplies came from, the next step is to start putting the supplies away.
While you’re putting the supplies away, keep everything grouped together in the categories you previously sorted them. This will keep everything looking good, easy to find products when you need them and quicker to put products away when you are done using them.
Whether you store your cleaning supplies in the room you use them or all together in one space, it’s always a good idea to use bins to keep the products contained.
You can use small turntables to ensure items are always easily accessible.
If you store your cleaning supplies under a sink and the space is limited, check out these expandable under the sink storage racks that are great for keeping your products organized even when they are out of site.
It’s also smart to line the bottom of the cabinets or the shelves where your cleaning products are stored.
We love this one from Target!
Finish up by labeling any bins or baskets that you used to so there are never any questions where an item belongs!
The last thing you want to think about when you are trying to clean a mess in your home is where are your cleaning supplies hiding.
Cleaning is never anyone’s favorite task so don’t make it even more dreadful by letting your cleaning supply storage get out of hand.
If you’re still feeling overwhelmed by today’s process, please reach out to the Clutterless Home Solutions Team.
Talk soon,
Clutterless Home Solutions
