declutter with me – linen/cleaning closet

Welcome to season two of my declutter with me series. Last time I did this series we were living in a small basement suite which had very little room to collect anything extra and as such it was very important that we cleared out often. Now we have been living in our home for almost a year and have a lot more room, but things still pile up and it is important to go through things every once and a while to get rid of what isn’t needed, organize what is, and perhaps move things to a different area.

You never know exactly how an area of your home will work when you first move in and there are usually adjustments that need to be made later on. This is definitely something that I was feeling with this closet. Things had piled up in it, lots of sanitizer, face shields, and cleaning supplies added because 2020 and I disliked ever having to go into the closet.

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I decided to work from the ground up starting with the mess on the bottom. There were old boxes, extras, and more.

I started by moving all of the extra products to the bottom including the extra hydrogen peroxide, dish soap, and compost bin that we are not using at the moment. The cardboard box had some art supplies that I moved into a small container and overall I organized it a bit better.

The next shelf up I kept the supplies we actually use with the bin of cleaning cloths moved to the left where they are more accessible and the items that I use to make my cleaning supplies such as vinegar, baking soda, and citric acid. Now much more tidy and able to be grab easily.

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Going up we had all of the linens including towels, dishcloths, and a spare set of bedding. I was able t to combine some of the piles together and move them to the left and then put our extra dishes. We are slowly collecting these dishes from Ikea whenever we go to have on hand for larger gatherings once we can have them again. I also have a container of cutlery, some plastic cutlery, straws, and chopsticks that we have around to keep in one place in case they are ever needed.

The next shelf up was full of home repair tools in overflowing bins, the bowls that I had moved, and no room to even find anything. These bins I went through to try and figure out if anything could be moved somewhere else, got Nigel to look through the lightbulbs to see what actually matched what we had in the house, and placed the face shields in the open bin as they were always falling everywhere.

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The final shelf was already looking better as I had removed the plates and cutlery from here already, but I was able to do some rearranging and space things out so that the supplies that are up here are more accessible and aren’t falling on themselves. We also moved the multimeter out of the battery bin and put in the garage which made it easier to find the batteries that we need.

Now onto what I got rid of. There were only one thing that I placed in the donate bin which was an extra battery charger. We already had two so this one was unneeded. There were two and a bit roles of non slip covers for shelves that we don’t need at the moment so we moved to the garage, and then some trash. I had been saving kombucha jars from when I was able to refill them but since I don’t know when that will come back and decided to recycle the containers. Some I kept to hold sauces and salad dressings as they fit perfectly, but most I didn’t need.

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The finished closet is so much nicer now and I feel like I can move things around without everything falling out and I can get to the supplies I need when I have to get to them.

First area of the home is done. I am excited to go through this series again this year as I declutter and tidy up my home, one area at a time. Take this as your opportunity to find that drawer, closet, or room that you need to go through and clear it out!