Adventures in Spring Cleaning - Tackling the Supply Closet

This is it, the first challenge for "Spring Cleaning with Attitude." You have to know that I am picking spots that need to be tackled in my home LOL! And my cleaning supply closet definately needed some attitude. The whole thing was done in 40 minutes (and that included taking pictures). Enjoy - Cindy

In our laundry room, we have the perfect cupboard to store all our laundry supplies, cleaning supplies, grocery bags, trash bags, recycle bags, vacuum cleaner bags, extension cords, vacuum cleaner attachments, shoe polishes, glues, a toaster (?), and I think, the iron (however, I haven't actually seen the iron in quite a while). This is the perfect cupboard - it has a door on it.

Behind the door however, this closet is not so perfect. Because it is so large, it is really easy to stash stuff in here and forget about it. It is also really hard to dig through the stuff to find what you are looking for. As a result, the closet has become a "little cluttered" over the past few years. In fact, it hasn't really been cleaned out since we move here over five years ago. Today I am going in! (I set a clock beside the closet to track how long this is going to take).

First step, take out all the stuff. Oh my, you wouldn't believe what is coming out of the closet! Two boxes of black garbage bags, one box and two bags of clear leaf bags, one bag of orange leaf bags (I don't know how we ended up with all these leaf bags - we compost all our garden stuff), 105 grocery bags, the bucket used for washing floors (aka, the "puke bucket"), one vacuum cleaner bag for the vacuum cleaner we use, and four vacuum cleaner bags for the vacuum cleaner we gave away three years ago, the missing hose attachment for the vacuum cleaner, a vacuum cleaner belt (or maybe it is for the steam cleaner?), a dog leash, four loose dog treats (no wonder Charlie is sitting right beside me!), shoe polish and boot protector, several bottles of cleaning chemicals, a few tubes and bottles of various types of glues and lubricants, a toaster (still not sure how that got there), an extra set of dishes (??), Don Aslett's book "Clean in a Minute", a couple pieces of Lego (TM) - (now I know why it is called Leg-o. The stuff has legs and likes to travel!), several cleaning rags, a couple caddies (one for chemicals and one for the vacuum cleaner attachments), 14 extension cords, and three families of dust bunnies!

I also took a couple minutes to wipe down the shelves and the floor. (Ignore the wallpaper and paint job in the closet - that was there when we moved in!)

Refilling the closet! You know, it is a lot easier to SHOP at home FIRST, when you know what you have at home! Where we live, we put out our recycle for pick-up every two weeks. It has to be placed in clear bags so the garbage men know which bags are trash and which bags are recycle. I thought I was out of clear bags, so I bought new ones. WRONG! I found a box of 50 bags and a bag of 10 bags. Add to that the ten new bags and I have enough for almost three years! Clear plastic bags is definately going on my ANTI-shopping list. I am NOT spending any money on them for a long time!

Same thing for trash bags, cleaning supplies (I need some window cleaner - that's it), rags, vacuum cleaner bags, and definately extension cords (how did we end up with 14?!).

Only the things that we use and want to keep are going back into the closet. The cleaning supplies that I want to use up first are going into the blue caddy and the rest are going on the shelf above so I can SHOP at home FIRST when I begin to run out. I certainly don't need 105 grocery bags (I let the kids count them LOL), so half are going to the library the next time we go.

Ten minutes later I was done! Look at that, there is space in the closet (and it smells better in there too). The toaster and spare dishes are going into our next garage sale, the dried up glues went into the trash, and the vacuum cleaner bag is going into the vacuum - just in time for more spring cleaning!

There is however a downside to this spring cleaning adventure - I found the iron. And I found the special laundry detergent for delicates and sweaters. Big sigh. I guess this means I have no more excuses for not doing the ironing or not washing that sweater I pushed to the back of the bedroom closet. Next week!

Happy adventures in Spring Cleaning!
Cindy

PS: We received a reminder from one of our members that it is not a good idea to keep cleaning chemicals under the sinks in the kitchen and bathroom if you have little kids. Some of these chemicals are very poisonous. Keep them in an upper cupboard where they can't reach them. When our kids were little, we actually put a kid-proof lock on the cabinet so they couldn't get in. Now that they are older, I encourage them to access our cleaning supplies and use them - hee hee! Lastly, remember not to mix these chemicals, particularly products with bleaches in them and products with ammonia in them. The last thing you want is a chlorine release in your home! Take care.

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