I am very fortunate to have a closet (separate from my pantry) right as you enter my kitchen.
When the house was built by my in-laws in 1963, it was a closet meant for guest coats. But, considering there is a coat closet down the split level set of steps, literally 8 steps away from the front door, I decided to use this kitchen closet as my Cleaning Closet!
Seriously? You have a cleaning closet?
Yep... I do.
It's a luxury that I am not sure I could ever live without.
However, like any closet, it periodically needs to be cleaned out as well as cleaned.
Here's the current mess I was dealing with.
I know what you're going to say...
That looks great! It's so organized! You should see my closets!
I get it.
I understand that I am a tad bit on the fanatical side when it comes to organization and order.
But, it's who I am and I know that I function much better when there is order in my life.
Especially in my home.
See, because this closet gets used A LOT, things start to randomly "dance" around from their assigned spaces.
If there is a spot, something "jumps" into it.
Random items and multiple items never seem to stay together.
Dust dragons accumulate on the baseboards as they drift down from rags and dust cloths and come off of the vacuum that's stored here.
Like every other space in a home, closets get dirty too and taking the time every few months to simply clean them out and clean them up is a good practice.
So, I started by removing everything from the closet, starting with the cleaners.
I mostly use our Young Living Thieves cleaners, but still, have some other cleaners from my stash of overflow products.
It was easy to go through and combine like products. This meant fewer products on the shelves in the closet.
I also went through my stash of rags and eliminated any that were threadbare and beyond use.
I recycle my face towels and kitchen towels to use as cleaning rags. I sew small ribbon tabs onto one corner to indicate that they are now cleaning rags. This helps when doing laundry...
I cleaned out the bins the house our plastics as well.
We don't use them often, but I like to have them on hand for the occasional use.
When we cleaned out my daughter's apartment, she "gifted" me many of her cleaning products as she won't need them right now (nice considering I probably bought them for her initially). I made sure to incorporate these items into the closet as well.
I did a quick sweep of the floor to rid the large debris, and then wiped down the baseboards and the floor to get any grime and dirt that was left.
I had this troublesome spot in the back of the closet where over the years I had different items hanging on different brackets.
It had left holes and torn wallpaper.
I have papered the inside of my cleaning closet with heavy-duty vinyl wallpaper. It keeps the walls fresh and clean and is easily wiped down when needed.
A quick trip to Lowes and I easily covered those holes and that tear.
I also grabbed a few of these Command acrylic holders for my sponges and Magic Erasers.
I searched through my stash of Command products to add a hook for my dustpan.
Command products are absolutely the best. Many of these hooks have been used before but are not currently needed. I store them in this sectionable, clear plastic case.
TIP: All my hooks have their sticky tabs already attached to the backs, just waiting for me to grab and go. This saves time looking for the correct tab when I need a Command product.
Check out all the Command products here. I am not affiliated with Command products or 3M in any way, but I use them everywhere, especially on the RV! They are more than just hooks! They have a wide variety of styles too; even ones that are stylish and can be used as decor. Check them out.
Here's one of my favorite hooks. It's a plastic base, with a thin metal hook that doesn't move or wiggle. It's perfect for hanging a dustpan. It also works well for hanging scissors or items with smaller holes.
Here's the finished result.
It's hard to get a full-on shot of this closet because it's in a short hallway and backup space is limited.
I have a small stick on light by my cleaning products. A few years ago I had hung 4, 2-shelf units in a staggered arrangement on the side wall. This holds all the cleaning bottles, my disposable gloves (I hate using my bare hands when working with raw meat), my Swiffer dust replacements, and a few of the vacuum accessories.
The back of the closet looks great with the new hook unit and the Command holders. I put some ribbon through a few of the items to hand easily on the hooks. I find that this makes retrieving them and putting them away a lot easier.
TIP: You should have TWO different brooms when keeping a home. One broom should be used for the inside only and the other for the outside only. You never want to use one for both. This is how critters get into your home! I use a label to clearly mark that this broom is my INDOOR broom!
I also purchase 3 brown bins from Lowes and use two on the top shelf for storing the following: WD40, carpet spot cleaner, Old English, ant and mouse traps, Goo-Gone, vinyl window cleaner, and my Lint Lizard. (The Lint Lizard is a great tool for using to clean the lint from your dryer crevices.)
The third brown bin is used to house the paper bags that we keep for various uses. We try desperately to not use plastic bags (from the grocery store and others) in this house. Dollar Tree is using large brown bags (Yeah DT!!!) and they are extra sturdy and great for saving for reuse. I also keep a few smaller bags in there as well.
We use our own bags for going to the store. When we cannot, and do use the plastic bags, we collect them and return them to Food Lion where they have a receptacle just for them. Unfortunately, they can not be put into our home recycling bin.
My collection of IKEA bags (the best things ever because they are large, reusable, and sturdy as heck) are now stored above. I have open space above as well as below.
YEAH!!!
I am done with this closet...for now.
I am sure in a few more months I will need to "reorganize" it a bit, clean out the bottom, and tidy the shelves. Such is the life of a home-owner.
Happy Saturday Rule Breakers!
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