Whether it’s right in the middle of flu season, getting ready for spring cleaning, or just trying to keep your home a little tidier, it’s always a good idea to keep some cleaning supplies close at hand.
But the question remains – where are you supposed to keep all this stuff?
From brooms and vacuums to disinfectant wipes and hand sanitizer, cleaning supplies can start to take up a lot of room in whatever trusty bathroom closet or space-under-the-kitchen-sink you’ve been stashing them in. And that’s the eternal struggle: they’re too important to try to get rid of or scale back on, but they can be hard to organize after a while. One of our favorite solutions is to create a cleaning supply closet!
From an extra closet to those built-in shelves in the hallway, creating a specific closet space for your cleaning supplies is one of the most convenient ways to keep your cleaning goods organized and easy to access in the event of any accidental spills or sudden colds.
The first step is to look for any space with extra shelving. It could be a closet you’re no longer using, it could be an extra pantry in the kitchen, it could be anywhere! If you don’t have any of those handy, you could even add wall shelving to a hallway enclave or in the back of a closet you’re using for something else.
Once you have your storage area picked out, you should then start taking stock of what all you have to store. Do you have a trusty old vacuum or a few mops that need a safe home? How are you for things like glass cleaner or wood polish? Did you buy laundry soap in bulk and now aren’t quite sure where to put it? Anything that could be used for cleaning, from bleach wipes to dish soap is fair game here, as it will free up a ton of space elsewhere in your home.
Next, you’ll want to take steps to ensure everything is kept separate, as a lot of cleaning products maybe shouldn’t come in contact with other chemicals or objects, particularly harder products like bleach. Divide up all your smaller supplies (detergent, hand soap, and the like) into like types, and you can repurpose kitchen cabinet organizers or wire baskets to help separate them all into easily-remembered groups. Bigger containers or harsher products could be kept in plastic storage bins for safety and easier access (by the grownups, of course).
From there, you just need to shelve it all! We recommend sorting the products by how often you use them, with special considerations. Frequently-used things like paper towels and hand soap can be kept on lower shelves (unless you’ve got pets that just love chewing on paper towels), whereas things like glass cleaner and brass polish could probably be kept in the back or higher up since you won’t need them as much. Try to remember to leave space on the floor for things like mops and vacuums, since longer items will need to be collapsed and/or folded for better storage. Shelf labels could come in handy here to help establish what goes where, and cut down on all the digging around!
No matter what kind of cleaning supplies your family needs for right now or in the future, having a good organization plan and a specific space for them to go to will help save a lot of time and effort in the long run! Of course, you may miss having an excuse to get out of chores because you couldn’t find something, but when it’s all said and done you’ll be glad you did it.