Day 2 Under the Sinks - 7 Days to an Organized Home

These tasks are meant for you to take on as you can. If you need to go every other day, once a week or 7 days straight it is up to you. We all work differently and have different responsibilities and time commitments to work around. The goal here is not to make anyone feel bad about what they did not accomplish, but to focus on all that we do accomplish.

Now that all our papers and piles of papers are organized into appropriate folders or filing systems it is time to move to our next task.

Under sink cabinets
Start in the bathrooms. Take everything out and wipe the cabinet out. Here is the hard part. Throw away anything you don't need. I found I had extra bottles of conditioner that I didn't love, half used bottles of lotion I don't use, little hotel bottles that I saved from traveling. The truth is that these things can be better used donated to a women's shelter or homeless shelter. If you don't use or love the product it may sit under your sink for years adding to the disorganization and chaos. Be brave and get rid of these things.

Now that you have de-junked the cabinets it is time to organize them. This is the fun part and I feel great because I have what I need under my sink and room to spare, not to mention that it looks orderly.

Things I keep under my bathroom sinks:

Toilet paper
Paper towels
Extra Hand soap
One extra bottle of lotion
Cleaning caddy with cleaning supplies
Humidifier

My cleaning caddy is one of my favorite things. It is so easy to grab and holds all my supplies to clean the bathroom. I have one in an upstairs bathroom and one in the downstairs bathroom. This saves me time and allows me to tidy up and quickly clean between deeper cleanings. I know where my supplies are without searching through the house. It makes it easier for my kids to learn to clean the bathroom as well.

My caddy was purchased at Wal-Mart. I filled it with all my preferred cleaning supplies such as:
Windex
Lysol Toilet Bowl Cleaner
Ajax
Scrub Brush
Lysol Bathroom Cleaner
Lysol Natural Cleaner

Bonus:
Take time to empty out the bathroom drawers, wipe them down, put only those things you need and use back in. I like to use a container to hold toothpaste and toothbrushes.

As I opened my kitchen sink cabinet I realized that the empty egg cartons and 2 L pop bottles (all for scouting activities) needed to go. The ones I "had" to keep went down on a shelf in my storage room and all the others went straight into the trash. I have a wire stand that allows me to add a shelf under the sink that helps with organization. I make sure that my dish soap, dish wash detergent and granite cleaners are all readily accessible and easy to grab. The stove top cleaner, jet dry and other less used cleaners sit behind.

My last sink cabinet is in my laundry room. This cabinet contains my cleaning buckets, rags and scrub brushes. Material should have it's own spot. For me it is in my storage room. While you are at it you might as well check off another to do by mating socks and getting rid of any with holes or lost mates.

This task shouldn't take more than an hour or two if you are focused and have no distractions. Dig in and get it done and feel how much better it is to know your cabinets are cleaned out, de-junked and organized. Happy organizing!