Cleaning Out the Cleaning Supplies

Do your cleaning supply cupboards look like mine? A disastrous mishmash of half used cleaning supplies for every imaginable occasion? I hope not. My cleaning supplies are all stuffed and unorganized into cupboards around the house - some under the kitchen sink, the bathrooms, the upstairs hall closet, the laundry room and a shelf in the garage. Well this month's roundup was an overhaul on a cupboard and I decided to tackle my laundry room cupboards. (Eek!) I wanted to share with you the how-to’s of my project.

1. My Plan: in this season of life with littles, I wanted as many of my cleaning supplies as possible all in the laundry room cupboards away from little hands and mouths. I also want as few products as possible while still having the ability to clean properly!
2. So I gathered up all the cleaning supplies in the house and brought them to the laundry room. The exceptions: dish soap, dishwasher liquid and jet dry all remain under the sink in the kitchen. Method flushable wipes are kept in the bathroom for quick cleanups when necessary.
3. I then began to purge my cleaning stash. I have accumulated a lot of products, not all of which are necessary. I don't think that a special cleaner for each individual task though my cupboards sure tell another story! I really do enjoy cleaning supplies - I know, sort of weird. I like to try new things and pretty smelling things etc. Anyway, my point? A multi-purpose cleaner is just fine in many cases. I am going to ensure that I indulge my love of cleaning supplies only with multi-purpose cleaners as I need them!
4. I downsized to a fraction of what was in there! What's in my Cupboard? I still have a few cleaning supplies in there that will be used up in the next week or so and then I'll be all set!
5. I used an old baby wipes container to house my Soapnuts - check out my post here to explore their uses and for an opportunity to win. I haven't yet used them for anything other than laundry but I plan to because you can use them in a variety of household cleaning!!
6. Once I had sorted out what I no longer used, I boxed the rest up for family members to take what they would use and properly disposed of the rest.
7. I have a plastic stackable bin with drawers beside my dryer. I am going to use these for something. I was given about 10 of these (Hurray!) for free. I was thinking about a nicely labeled drawer for Repairs – a place to keep items that need to go out to be fixed (zippers, hems etc.) and one of the bigger drawers for a Donate drawer and another drawer for Socks Missing Mates…you get the point :)
8. I then gave the cupboards a wipe and put things back into them in an orderly fashion.

• With the laundry side, I found that it is easiest (and most natural for me) to open the left door so I put the Nature Clean soap that I use most frequently over there.
• In the cleaning side, I got a caddy for the supplies that I need to carrying with me to clean in the house. I'll simply pack my caddy and go work on the areas I need to and return the caddy to the cupboard when I am finished

Related Posts: Downsizing: What's in Your Cupboard? and Cleaning Supplies Frugal Friday Post - You Don't Need All That!