Downsizing: What’s in Your Cleaning Cupboard?

In Cleaning Out my Cleaning Supplies, I mentioned that I had downsized. Here is a breakdown!

This is what is currently in my laundry cupboard:

Spray n Wash Stick (diaper bag) and Spray (I have only had two things ruined by stains. Both times it was mustard…this takes everything else out!!)

Nature Clean box of liquid soap. I mentioned it in More Green = More Green. Love this stuff. Only 1 tbsp does the load. I have a tablespoon right on top!

I also have a container of Zero left over from when John was a newborn and allergic to everything. I’m saving it for any future babies that may come along!

Nature Clean All Natural Bleach (I do my diapers once a month+/-)

A bottle of fabric softener and a couple packages of sheet fabric softener. I rarely use it as I find that it is an unnecessary additive in most cases but there are a few things that I like that extra little scent in!

I have a box of oxy-clean powder as well that I am finishing up. I will not replenish this though as I find I don’t really need/use it.

I also have used a couple of old baby wipes containers to store things. One has soapnuts in it and the other has my mesh laundry bags for washing delicates.

This is what will be in my cleaning cupboard within the next few weeks:

Nature Clean Toilet Bowl Cleaner

Vinegar (lots of uses for this!!!)

Multi Purpose Cleaner

Cleaning E-Cloth (just use water)

Glass E-Cloth (just use water)

Orange Oil (we have some nice wood pieces that need this!)

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 as there are tons of cleaning uses for them!

What’s in your cupboards? Do you have favorite cleaning or laundry product? I’d love to hear about it

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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!

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My Beautiful FREE Photo Book!

I have an amazing husband! Thanks to him we have never really had any ‘picture chaos’. I take pictures – lots of them. I have such adorable children – how can I not take their pictures?

Anyway, I take the pictures and once a month or so my wonderful, wonderful husband takes them and downloads them from the camera onto our server and puts them in the appropriate yearly folder. So the above is a print screen of what our photos look like. Within each folder is the photos for the year in the order they were taken. (We have only been married 3 years so that helps too. It’s not like we have years to go back). Looks sparse I know but we have a lot of photos, trust me!

We also have a website. Where all the photos are uploaded and sorted into quarterly albums. I’ve debated on whether to share this or not because it does encompass all our photos and therefore me (or my home) look less than stellar in some but for a limited time I will put this link in here. How is that for online organization? I told you he was wonderful!

Anyway this is all fine and dandy for us to scroll through on the computer but what about a hard copy? I generally print out some photos by uploading them to Costco and picking them up the following day. But those photos are to give away to grandparents and such. I’ve been meaning to do something about photos for us but with a toddler, a baby, and a myriad of other tasks, where is time time?

Thanks to the Organizing Junkie’s Roundup and a coupon from Shutterfly…I made a photobook of the highlights of 2008 for free…I just had to pay the shipping. It was very simple…the longest part was uploading the photos but I didn’t have to sit there to do it so that didn’t bother me. I want to go back and make a highlights of the year book for 2007 and a combination 2005/2006 (before we had littles we didn’t have as many pictures), all I need to do is wait for another coupon.

Frugal Friday Tip?

If the idea of a photo book interests you at all, you should sign up for their newsletter. Though it can get annoying at times, a few times a year they send out a coupon for a free photobook, you just have to pay the shipping which from the USA to Canada was $6.99. My guess is that it is cheaper get a “free” photobook once or twice a year than it is to print out pictures. Right now they have 20% off using the code BOOKS20 but I am holding out for the free book coupon.

Once I get another coupon and go back and do our missing years, I will then use the additional coupons to create photobook gifts. What an amazing present for aunts, uncles, grandparents. They have all sorts of “themed” photobooks too. For 6.99 or less (shipping varies by location) you get an AWESOME personalized gift idea.

What are you waiting for? Go here to sign up! You don’t want to miss the next free photobook do you?

SIDE NOTE:

Did anyone notice my frugal use of time here? Monthly Roundup and Frugal Friday combination post….

(Yes, I am impressed with my geniusness on occasion!)

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