I have previously written a few posts about my basic organizing system which involves creating “kits” of things, that way you have everything necessary to complete a task {like wrap a gift, make school lunches etc}. In my post-Holiday organizing mode I realized I needed to do the same thing with cleaning supplies. Having all the cleaning tools I need, and safe and superior ones I believe in, right on hand has made a huge difference in how easy it is to clean my house, and that makes it all the more likely that I actually do it!
The first thing I did was recognize that with three bathrooms in our house, keeping just one set of cleaning supplies down in my laundry room wasn’t making life any easier. I started out by deciding what cleaning tools I needed for the upstairs bathroom. I ordered several of my favorite cleaners, a caddy to hold them all, and {why not?} added a vinyl sign to it. So I could clean when I needed, I stocked up on paper towels in bulk to make it easy whenever the space needed some spiffing up.
Now everything is right on hand so I can wipe up our sinks when needed. It’s so much nicer to get ready to go somewhere in a clean space, and now that everything is stored in our linen closet I can just grab, wipe and go!
This worked so well in the bathroom I revised my kitchen cleaning supplies too. I overhauled the space under the sink, adding pretty shelf paper and a two-level rack for extra storage for all the cleaning stuff. Now I have room to store plenty of paper towels so when I grab a cleaner, I am ready to clean.
Keeping our kitchen clean is always a challenge. It’s not just doing the dishes and putting food away, but keeping everything wiped down. Inevitably when we have guests, they wind up in the kitchen even if they are just popping in.
It took no time to pull together a full “kit” of cleaning supplies of appropriate cleaners for each space. For the bath I have surface, glass and bathroom cleaner along with paper towels so I can keep our vanity counters clean. I have a wider variety of cleaners in the kitchen, I use specific non-toxic cleaners for the counters, stainless steel and the sink.
In the end having everything in one place makes it easier to clean and less time consuming– so I can do other things than clean! Like decorate, which is so much more fun 🙂
What are your favorite cleaning tips?
