For being someone who thrives on cleanliness, you’d think “storage” areas in our home would be immaculate. Not the case. You see, if it’s out of sight, it’s out of mind. Well, sort of. Unless I pass by said cabinet or closet and then I am merely reminded of the mess that waits for me inside of it… then a tinge of anxiety occurs. AND, you’d think that with all the time we had at home in 2020, we would have tackled said areas.
No. We. Did. Not.
Until January 2021 hit and we decided it was time. We started in the garage (I mean, why start small) and then worked our way inside the home, purging dressers/closets, organizing pantries + junk drawers, etc… And while it isn’t perfect by any means, it sure does feel a heck of a lot better than it did.
So today I’m sharing a few of the products that we relied on heavily to get this house detoxed and organized! Juuuust in case you’re in a similar situation!
DETOXING
I consider detoxing more than just “cleaning.” When detox comes to mind I think about getting rid of things that no longer serve us, or that just take up unnecessary space (mentally as well). In a way I guess you could say it’s similar to organizing, but I find it to be one of the first steps to actually getting organized. Whenever I clean out my dresser drawers or closet… or we tackle our garage… there is a “purge” before the cleanse.
That being said, we’ve been detoxing our home majorly this year… getting rid of things we don’t need in order to become more organized. Yet, after we get organized, and purge all the things we likely haven’t needed for the past several years, we clean. And for that here are the products we’re loving:
DYSON CORDLESS VACUUM: I’ve mentioned this before, but this just might have been my all time favorite purchase from 2020. It makes cleaning up messes so easy. And I love that I can remove the vacuum head to clean in crevices where tiny crumbs might fall (i.e. the couch). I use it several times a day and it helps to keep the house looking clean-ish.
SHAKLEE GET CLEAN PRODUCTS: I’ve been loving the shaklee hand dish soap to clean all of our dishes… it’s non-toxic + made with sustainable ingredients, which I always appreciate. I just ordered the dishwasher products as well, so we will see how those are. Also like their all purpose cleaner.
LAUNDRESS DETERGENT + STAIN REMOVER: Laundress products are another home cleaning line that we’ve been loving. Mainly for all of our laundry needs. I’ve been diligently using the white detergent on all of our white bedding, towels, and clothing and it leaves them looking brighter, and not dull + dingy (which so often happens with white towels + sheets). AND the stain remover is amazing. It removes stains that other stain removers have not been able to… blood (from a toddler fall), dirt, chocolate, avocado. I was sold after the first load of laundry.
STORAGE PRODUCTS
RATTAN BASKETS: I love rattan baskets as a way to “stylishly” conceal items. We have them under our entryway bench for shoes, in the girl’s room for toys, and in our consoles for more toys.
TIERED STORAGE: We also own this tiered drawer storage system. For so long the girl’s art supplies were in various, unorganized parts of the house. Once I cleaned out the supplies, I was able to appropriately organize them into categories in this unit. It’s not necessarily aesthetically pleasing to look at, but it fits inside our hallways closet, so it’s out of sight, but super functional for what we needed.
PANTRY STORAGE: Embarrassingly another area that we needed to purge and organize. Food was haphazardly everywhere… so once we cleaned the shelves out, I was able to figure out what containers would help us keep food organized and easily accessible. I ended up getting two of these lazy susan containers for snack bars and snack packs, and then several of these clear plastic containers to organized dried goods such as pasta, rice, chips, granola, etc. I also purchased this can goods organizer for our canned foods such as beans, crushed tomatoes, etc.
FOOD STORAGE: Anyone else have missing lids to their tupperware? Me neither. I started using Zwilling’s fresh n’ save tupperware/food storage to help preserve our food longer (hello avocados that don’t brown after 2 days)…. and it’s been a game changer. I use the baggies (they’re reusable) and the glass storage containers for anything and everything… fresh fruit, veggies, leftovers. I just pop the lid on, use the air vacuum, and food stays fresh! It also works on wine as well (a great alternative to the coravin if you are removing the cork).
JUNK DRAWER STORAGE: I am sort of proud of our family. I cleaned a few of these out last year and they’re still looking good! We’ve had great success with these bamboo organizers. You can customize them to the size of your drawer, and arrange them to fit your needs.
