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. There’s
the link below.
All right. 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.
All right. 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.
All right. 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.
All right. So, 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.
So, 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.
All right. So that’s the cleaning caddy. Now, let me show you everything that I am
putting inside of this thing. All right. So let’s start with the 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.
All right. The next thing, let’s talk about the microfiber cloths. So I have three different
types of microfiber cloths and they go in the middle section right here. The first one
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.
So all I do here 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
rug right there.
All right. 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.
All right. 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.
All right. So next thing is baking soda. So 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.
All right. 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 Trees or Dollar Stores where things
are like $2 or $3.
All right. 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.
All right. So those just go back here in the cup section just like that. And all right.
Next thing are the scrubbers. So I have two scrubbers. I have a big one. This is 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.
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.
And so, all I did here was I took a Sriracha bottle just like this 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. All
right. So that goes right there.
All right. So this is my favorite tip of the video. So 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 lot9 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.
OK. 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.
All right. So that’s my cleaning caddy. I am absolutely loving everything I did here
to set this thing up. It’s fun. It’s efficient when I clean the house because I have everything
I need right here in this nice caddy that is perfectly a setup to the way I clean my
house. And it’s not too heavy and it’s just perfect.
So I hope you enjoyed this video. If this is your first time watching any of my videos,
you can subscribe for more tips on living a more organized life or you can check out
my website, Alejandra.TV for more tips, tools, and training on being more organized on a
day-to-day basis. Thanks for watching and I’ll see you soon. Bye!