The hardest part of getting your weekly chores done is starting them. Before you get going on it, a long to-do list can seem daunting. Cleaning and tidying suddenly become anathema to you; you couldn’t possibly think of a worse way to spend your day. You start to look for distractions, promising yourself you’ll start the chores just after you’ve ‘watched this video’, ‘sent this message’, or ‘drank this cup of tea’. The best way to get things done is just to start. Say to yourself “OK – I’m just going to do (this chore) for five minutes”. Typically once you have got going, it doesn’t seem half as hard as you made it out to be in your imagination and five minutes will quickly turn into a completed job that you can tick off your to-do list. Feels good, doesn’t it?
Beware, though: A messy, disorganised cleaning cupboard can seriously hinder this process. If the contents of your cleaning cupboard are in disarray, your energy will be sapped the second you open the door. Having made yourself get off your butt to do ‘five minutes’ – you’ll probably find yourself sitting right back down when you see that you have to sort your way through a pile of disorganised products before you can even get started. A well organised cleaning cupboard makes cleaning easier. If you keep your cleaning products and tools neatly stored and ready to use, you can simply grab your things and go. Here are five great tips for organising your cupboard to maximise your motivation.
1. Cleaning cloths
Cleaning cloths can get everywhere, and it can be hard to remember which you used for what. Rather than risk using a toilet cloth for dishes, you will likely pull a new cloth from the packet. When your are done using it, it will get tossed back into the cupboard with all the rest – adding to the general disorder – and the same thing will happen next time you do the dishes. Your cloths will spread exponentially around your kitchen and pile up in your cupboard – never getting used twice. To avoid this scenario, colour code disposable cloths: red for bathroom, yellow for surfaces, blue for dishes. Keep used cloths in a bag hung on the inside of the cupboard door to stop them taking over your cupboard space. When you use thicker towel rags, launder these between uses. Don’t put them back dirty and then it won’t matter what you used them for.
2. Vacuum cleaner
Vacuum cleaners are inevitably bulky items to store. It is used often, so you don’t want to have to dig it out from under a rabble of other items each time you come to hoover your floor. Always store your vacuum cleaner front and centre in your broom closet or cleaning cupboard. Take it out first and place it somewhere inconspicuous while you do the rest of your cleaning, then do your vacuuming last. This is effective as it allows you to pick up dirt and dust knocked off surfaces when tidying and dusting. It also means you will put your hoover away last so it is easy to grab at a moment’s notice or get out next time you need it. A hook on the wall allows you to store the hose neatly, freeing up floor place and meaning you avoid having to wrestle with a tangled mess when you come to access your hoover.
3. Storage caddy
Chances are you have a single cleaning cupboard under your sink where you store all your cleaning supplies. This can make chores extra challenging because it means you have to walk from room to room to get supplies, or bundle everything up to carry it through to the room you want to clean. When cleaning the bedrooms or bathrooms – you just want to get on with it without the hassle of having to fetch extra or forgotten items. A storage caddy is the answer. Store all your regularly used cleaning products in a caddy inside your cupboard. Keep bathroom cleaners in one end and lounge or bedroom cleaners in the other. Just grab the handle and take the whole lot with you when you start your chores. Simple.
4. Bulky buckets
Buckets take up a lot of space in your cupboard, forcing you to squash all your other supplies together in a messy heap that inevitably collapses as soon as the bucket is removed. Of course, you could put your cleaning supplies inside the bucket for easier storage – but then you need to empty the bucket before use. The perfect solution comes in the form of a two in one bucket and caddy. The caddy nestles inside the bucket saving space, and it can be quickly removed in one smooth movement (and without littering the floor with cleaning products) when you need to use either apparatus individually.
5. Rubber Gloves
There is nothing worse than slipping your hands into your rubber gloves to find them damp and mildewed. Gloves left on the side of the sink often get knocked into the basin, allowing water to leak in. Gloves do not dry well hanging over the side of a bucket or the sink. A simple solution is to stick a pair of clothing pegs to the inside of your cupboard wall. Hang the gloves up by a fingertip with open side down to efficiently air dry them and ensure they are fresh, clean and dry in time for their next use.
Store according to instruction
General safety warning: always ensure you read the labels carefully and store your cleaning products as specified in the instructions. Some cleaning products can be dangerous if mixed together, so they must be stored separately to avoid risk of toxic fumes leaking out or even chemical explosions. Base solutions containing sodium hydroxide or ammonium hydroxide must not come in contact with acid solutions such as acetic acid, so store these items at opposite sides of your cupboard.