Getting my organization and cleaning on, Part I

The other day I posted about getting a book about organizing and cleaning the house.

You can read about that here.

This post is about my first efforts in this process.

I decided to tackle what I call my “cleaning closet”.

Foolish me, I didn’t take a before picture, and I sure wish I would have now, because what a huge difference.

I purged cleaning products I’ve bought and never used; holiday napkins and paper plates; left over plastic silverware, all in it’s original packaging, was donated to the staff lounge at the school where I work.

Space was freed up enough that I moved all the dog and cat food and treats into the  closet, freeing up the space on the floor to store my new bin for recyclables.  This will remove the day’s recyclables from their present home at the end of my kitchen table and eliminate clutter.  My kitchen and back room are a wreck right now as I go through everything and get going, but in another day they will be organized and super deep cleaned.

So let’s have a look at what took me two hours.

First, close your eyes and imagine various products–paper towels, Swiffer boxes, trash bags, grocery store bags and cleaning products piled one and a half to two feet high in a jumbled mess on the floor of this closet.  The shelves were haphazardly crammed with products, some of which were here before we even moved in–I was hanging on to them for “someday” and “just in case”, both of which never happened.

After all the purging and reorganizing, my cleaning closet looks like this:

Everything has a home and can easily be found by the members of my family and me.

Because closets like this become black holes where things disappear, I did something smart.  I made a list of seasonal items and items I want to use up that are being stored in the closet and posted it to the inside of the door.

My house uses Bath and Body Works hand soap pretty much exclusively, but I’ve had these two half gallons of soap I purchased on sale a long time ago in a fit of super frugality forever…so they’re going to be used up.  My family has been instructed to refill our current BBW soap pumps with the bulk soap until it’s gone.  Then we’ll resume using the Bath and Body Works stuff.

It’s not like I don’t like a good bargain, because I do…but I try to purchase the Bath and Body Works soaps on sale and with an additional coupon, making them the same price as cheap soap you can buy at WalMart.  Why buy the WalMart soap when you can get the good stuff for the same price?

The seasonal things listed at the top are for when I bake treats or make candy etc. to share with friends and coworkers, or I host a little get together.  I always forget I have this stuff and don’t end up using it.  I’m trying to avoid that now–there by using up what I have and reducing clutter piles.

The last thing I did was put the cat and dog foods into reusable containers and label them with cuteness–I also labeled large containers or baskets for their treats.  I love the way the labels came out! The font I used is called Bosshole, and the graphics are by Shelley Comiskey.  The basket I have for the cat treats will get a laminated hang tag soon for the label…the sticky one is just temporary.  Thank goodness for that, because it looks kinda wrinkled.

Overall, I’m very pleased with the way this turned out.  Because there are no products that I normally do not buy, there won’t be any extra clutter.  Everything has a shelf, a bin or a container of some kind to keep things from getting out of hand.

It feels really good to have this done, and that feeling is carrying over into taking on the kitchen.

Major reorganization needed there.  I’ll be taking some before pictures for that one though.

I’m kind of nervous to show before pictures, but if I don’t, you won’t understand why I have been feeling such internal chaos…and who knows? Maybe you’ve had or have the same situation yourself.

Stay tuned,

Stacey

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