[VIDEO]: How to Organize a Cleaning Kit

Hi Everyone!

In this video I show you how to organize a cleaning kit so you can be efficient when you clean your house because everything is organized into one caddy nice and accessible!

Products Shown:

Cleaning Caddy
Microfiber Sponge
Microfiber All-Purpose Cloth
Microfiber Glass Cloth
Toilet Brush
Toilet Brush & Rinse Cup

I hope you enjoy this video!!
Alejandra

How to Organize a Cleaning Kit

Hi, everyone. I’m Alejandra from Alejandra.TV. In this video, I’m going to share with you how to organize and set up a cleaning caddy so you can be more efficient when you clean the house because you have everything you need right by your side nice and organized in one little caddy.

But first, if this is your first time watching any of my videos and you are just getting started with organizing or you’re a new subscriber or you are – or you need a jumpstart to getting back on track with your organizing goals, you can check out my free video series on three tasks to do tonight to wake up feeling more organized tomorrow morning.

So let’s talk about setting up a cleaning caddy. So, when it comes to cleaning your house, it’s nice to have everything you need right by your side in some little caddy that you can just bring room to room and just make cleaning the house a little bit more efficient. So let me share with you the cleaning caddy that I found and everything I keep inside because I’m just loving it and I’m excited to share with you everything that I did here.

Step 1: Find Cleaning Caddy

So the first thing is to find yourself a nice cleaning caddy. So, I spent a lot of time researching cleaning caddies, buying and returning cleaning caddies, and this is the best one I found. So this one right here has so many great features.

The first one is the handle is nice and sturdy, does not move, is not going to swing back and forth when you carry and pick it up and stuff. It’s fixed which is really nice. It has a nice flat bottom so when you put things inside the cleaning caddy, they’re not going to fall to the edges, they’re not going to roll around because the bottom is nice and flat. A lot of them don’t have flat bottoms.

The next feature is it’s not too big, it’s not too small so you can carry a good amount of things inside but not too many things where it’s going to make the caddy really heavy.

So those are the features of the cleaning caddy. It was $2.68 at Wal-Mart, an amazing find. All the other cleaning caddies were like 8, 9 bucks. So this was the cheapest one. It was the best one. And I am loving it.

The first thing I did here was I labelled the caddy with where everything goes. So for example, there is cups, baking soda, scrubber and the over here is labelled as well. I used clear tape with black font with my label maker. And the reason why I labelled the caddy is so I put everything back in the right spot.

I figured out where everything should go inside the caddy so the weight is evenly distributed when you pick up the caddy because it’s so annoying when you pick up a cleaning caddy or any kind of caddy and one side is heavier than the other side and it tilts, leans, it’s just a little bit of a pet peeve for me. So everything is labelled so it goes back on the right spot.

Step 2: Fill Cleaning Caddy with Supplies

So that’s the cleaning caddy. Now, let me show you everything that I am putting inside of this thing. So let’s start with the gloves.

Dusting Gloves

So my mom recently introduced me to dusting gloves. So, they are gloves but they’re microfiber. And you just put them on your hand and you just dust everything inside of your house just like you’re wearing a glove. You just go and you just dust everything like you normally dust but it’s a glove.

And so when I was putting these things in here, I was like, “How do I fold these?” And then I remembered how I fold normal winter gloves. I just take them just like this and I just ball them up just like that and then I put them right here in the glove section, just kind of get jammed in just like that. And they fit perfectly inside.

Microfiber Cloths & Sponges

Next, let’s talk about the microfiber cloths. I have three different types of microfiber cloths and they go in the middle section on the caddy. The first cloth is a glass microfiber cloth for cleaning mirrors, glass, shower doors, any other kind of glass you have in your house, maybe with a glass coffee table or any other glass.

All I do is I just fold it into thirds. It’s kind of hard to show in the air. But I just fold it into thirds and then just I roll it. So I’m just going to roll this right here. Roll it just like that as you can see. And that just goes next to the all-purpose rag right there.

The next microfiber cloth is the all-purpose cloth. And so, this is for cleaning counters. It’s for wiping down any other surface that’s basically not glass and it’s not the toilet. The same thing, fold it into thirds and then roll it up like a burrito or like a sandwich wrap.

And then the last cloth is the toilet cloth. So I felt like cleaning the toilet is like on a different level than cleaning the counters so I want to use a different microfiber cloth. So this one is the same as the other one but I labelled the tag in red permanent market. Where is it? And it says toilet. And just like that.

So, I’ve washed this microfiber cloth a few times now and the label will fade but it doesn’t come off if you use a permanent market. So that says toilet. So when I’m cleaning the toilet, I check which one – I check to make sure I’m using the toilet ones so I don’t get them confused. And again, this just gets folded into thirds and then it just gets rolled just like the other ones just like that. And then we just pop it right into the toilet rug section just like that.

Something else you can do to differentiate your microfiber cloths is to color code them. So you could use instead of blue for cleaning the toilet, you could use yellow or purple or something. All right. So that’s the cloths.

The next thing is the sponges. So I have a sponge that goes in the sponge section for wiping down counters, anything else that I need to get in there and go like that. All right. So this just gets popped into the sponge section just like that.

Now, I tried with microfiber sponges from the Dollar Store. They come three to a pack and I felt like they don’t really work that well. So these are the Casabella Microfiber Sponges and you can get them at HomeGoods. I’ve seen them a three pack for $2.99 which was the best deal that I saw.

Baking Soda

Next thing, what’s next? Let’s go to this side right here. So I’m saving the best thing for the very end of the video. So keep watching and I’m going to show you a cool way to do something.

So next thing is baking soda. I have baking soda inside of my cleaning caddy for cleaning things that need baking soda to be cleaned. And all I did here was I took a crushed red pepper container from Costco. I buy it in bulk. Peeled the label off. Put a baking soda label here. Filled it with baking soda. And anytime that I need baking soda when I clean, I unscrew the cap and I have a nice, what’s it called? One of these lids, whatever they’re called, they’re like a spice lid or something. But I just sprinkle it into the toilet or into whatever I’m cleaning and it’s really easy to do. And it just makes whatever I’m cleaning extra clean.

Toilet Bowl Cleaner Brush & Rinse Cup

Next thing is my toilet bowl cleaner. So all I did here was I found some cups from the Dollar Store. There are from Dollar Tree. Whenever I say I get something from the Dollar Store, it’s always from the Dollar Tree because I always go to Dollar Tree because everything is truly a dollar unlike some other Dollar Stores where things are like $2 or $3.

So I found these cups. They were four for a dollar and I have two of them here. The first one is for my toilet bowl cleaner. This just says toilet just like that. They’re labelled so there’s no confusion whatsoever. I have my toilet bowl cleaner. I clean the toilet with this and then I’m done, I shake it off, somewhat kind of clean it and then pop it into here and it stays because it’s a nice fit.

And then I have another cup for rinsing. So rinsing like the bathtub or rinsing a big area that needs to be rinsed. And this is labelled rinse so there’s no confusion that this is the toilet cup and this is the rinse cup. And the rinse cup just goes at the bottom of the toilet cup as opposed to vice versa because then the toilet cup would be inside the rinse cup. So those just in the cup section.

Scrub Brushes

Next thing are the scrubbers. So I have two scrubbers. I have a big one, for all-purpose scrubbing like the shower, things where you just really need to get in there and scrub. And then I have a toothbrush for cleaning small things like around the drain in the shower, for cleaning round the faucet in the sinks and anything else that’s hard to reach that I can’t use this. Also, when you open the shower door and there’s like the bottom track, this is really good to get in there and really get it cleaned. So these just stay right here on the side of the caddy. They stand upright just like that.

DIY Natural Cleaner Toilet Bottle

This is my favorite part of the video. I’m so excited to share with you what I did here. All right. So this is where all the cleaners are. So I have an all-purpose cleaner. I have a glass cleaner then I have a toilet bowl cleaner.

Let me show you the first thing. The first thing is the toilet bowl cleaner. So I made my own cleaners. I have been. Ever since we moved to the new house, I have been trying to just be more natural about things. And cleaning products is something. It’s one of the things that I’m trying to be more natural about. So I am making my own cleaners.

All I did here was I took a Sriracha bottle and I made my own cleaner inside. And now for the toilet, I just squeeze and I go around the toilet ring just like that when I’m cleaning the toilet. And so, so far this is working great. Once this is out, I’m going to try a taller bottle because I feel like this is kind of small, but it’s working. It is not leak-proof. So if you happen to like knock this over or something, it might leak because if you close this cap and you squeeze, a little bit comes out but it’s not really a big deal because this is always going to be upright inside the caddy.

DIY Natural Cleaner Glass Spray Bottles

This is my favorite tip of the video. The next thing, I have made my own glass cleaner and my own all-purpose cleaner. And so when I was making the cleaners, I was like, “All right. I need a spray bottle.” So the first place I checked was Dollar Tree. Found this awesome spray bottle. It comes in four colors, pink, orange, green, and blue. This is the blue one, so cute. It’s just a small bottle so I was like, “Well, I can make my own cleaners inside this.”

And then I was thinking, well ideally, I would use a glass bottle as opposed to plastic because I’m going to be using essential oils inside the cleaner and with essential oils, you should use glass because over time they will break down the plastic even though if you use this cleaner like fast then the essential oils would not have time to break down the plastic.

But anyways, I use glass or I was thinking I should use glass. So then I started researching glass bottles to make your own cleaners and they were all expensive. They were like – the cheapest I found without sacrificing quality was $6 which is still a lot of money.

So then I was thinking, “What if I take the top off and I use some other glass bottle that we have around the house like in the pantry, in the fridge?” So I checked all my glass bottles in the kitchen and I couldn’t really find one that fit. So then I went to the Dollar Store and I went to the condiment section and I started checking all the condiments, squeezing the bottles trying to figure out what was glass, what was plastic. And I found this garlic wine vinegar. It was like the only condiment that was at a glass bottle besides their hot sauces, which are smaller bottles. They don’t work. Well, one of them might work.

And so I found this and it was a perfect fit. So let me show you here. Hang on one second. I’m going to do one thing. So, I put the – I took the garlic wine. I put it in a mason jar. It’s currently in our pantry. And I took the bottle. I took a lid on top. I screwed it on just like this. Perfect. Fits perfectly. Look at the bottom of the thing. It fits perfectly in there.

And then I was thinking, “OK. Well, glass, I feel like with glass you need to be so careful with it because it can break. It’s easy – you have to – what’s the word? It can like hit other things inside your caddy and stuff and when you’re cleaning like fast and I don’t know, sometimes I clean hard and stuff. You put something down and it makes a lot of noise and if you’re putting it on tiles, it’s going to make even a louder noise.

So then I was thinking, “How can you insulate a glass bottle?” So I was thinking, ‘Well, you could use koozie to insulate a glass bottle to make it a little bit softer on the outside. So I went back to the Dollar Store and I looked for koozies and I found a koozie that fit the bottle perfectly. And so this right here is my own natural cleaner using a glass bottle, using a koozie that fits absolutely perfectly around the bottle.

And now when I clean, I can just put this down. I don’t know if you can hear this but it’s a lot softer. That’s the glass. That’s the koozie. And I put the koozie down really hard. But that’s – it’s just a lot softer and now it’s not going to break. It might break but the chances of it breaking are a lot less because it has this nice koozie around it.

And the glass bottle is clear just like this. And when you use essential oils, if you use essential oils, you’ll see that they’re all inside of an amber glass bottle. And the point of the amber is to keep the sunlight out. So the koozie somewhat keeps the sunlight out because it covers the glass and makes it not transparent.

So, this is just a total win-win. So this glass bottle, I feel like I’m all over the place right here. So this plastic bottle was a dollar from the Dollar Store. This garlic wine was a dollar from the Dollar Store. And the koozie was a dollar from the Dollar Store. So, it’s a $3 cleaner and then I just made my own cleaner. So this is the glass cleaner, so it’s just vinegar, half vinegar and half water. That’s it.

And now, I have a natural cleaner in a fun bottle that’s such a fun color. And so, I did the same thing for my all-purpose cleaner just like this. I use orange so they’re totally – they’re all color coded so I know like what is what. And then I labelled the top with glass cleaner. The top, so I use my clear label maker – not my clear label maker, my clear tape with black font. Labelled the top. Did the same thing for the all-purpose cleaner just like that.

And now, these guys just get popped into the caddy just like that. How fun is this? Ever since I did this and I made this caddy, I’ve been having so much fun cleaning the house.

So, one more thing. When you have all four of the water bottles and you have all four of the koozies, the colorful koozies plus they have a purple one but they don’t have a purple top. This is what it looks like. It looks so fun. It makes cleaning a little bit more fun because it just makes you smile when you pick up your cleaning supplies because they’re so fun and colorful and it just makes you want to clean your house, at least it’s making me want to clean my house more.

And also, one more thing. When you’re looking for a bottle for these tops if you do the same idea, check in your pantry. Look for apple cider vinegar. Look for other vinegar bottles. Look for balsamic vinegar. Look for hot sauce bottles. And just look for basically a glass bottle in your pantry or fridge that has a little screw top. Vinegar bottles work. The apple cider vinegar bottle will work. I just feel like it was like too big and it just made it too heavy because it was glass. So this is just like the perfect size.