household cleaning essentials

Image from An angel at my table

Today's subject for my beautiful utility post series is Household cleaning.

I've lost your interest already, haven't I??

But wait!

Nobody likes cleaning, ok, I get that...and if you are anything like me, your cleaning tools and supplies are not what you want to spend your money on, right?

But in all honesty, doesn't your arsenal of cheap plastic brooms and buckets, ugly, branded bottles of cleaning products and your old, washed out cleaning cloths kind of ruin the aesthetics of your home? 

I've been stuffing all that crap under my kitchen sink for years...outta sight , outta mind, right?

Only, the truth is : Housekeeping and cleaning is an ongoing job...never ending (Uuuurgh!) and inevitably all that stuff will be found laying around the house as it's being used...or not put away, like little eyesores in my otherwise well thought out interior!

Image found on Elements of style

I'd love to have a separate room to house all my cleaning and laundry tools and supplies...a Utility room! But in our tiny Victorian terraced cottage, space is at a premium, and unfortunately such a luxury is in-achievable...And I'm guessing that I'm not alone!

So in terms of storing my cleaning supplies, I have to get creative, as the little space under the sink is quite frankly insufficient...I mean, it may be fine for housing a few bottles of bleach etc., but this does not help me hide away the hoover, buckets and brooms and other large things needed around the house....things that I quite frankly do not want to feast my eyes upon whilst eating at the kitchen table, or trying to relax on the sofa.... Their bright and ugly plastic-ness only serves as a reminder of all things not done in a day!

Image from Kitchen source book

Just a little area, a spare nook in our home would have been great, as keeping all those household essentials i one place would be ideal.

Image from A beautiful mess

I'd love to have a peg-board covered wall to organize my cleaning supply storage and I'd use wall hooks to hang dusters and brooms from....

Even just a few shelves on a wall where I could keep everything handy but out of sight would be great...

Image from BHG

I'd use pretty storage baskets to house unsightly washing paraphernalia and decanter all my cleaning liquids into pretty jars and boxes to make it visually more pleasing...

Image from Ollie and Seb

But unfortunately I have not got any such spare nook in my tiny home . At least not in a suitable space....

The only option I currently have, is to convert the little cupboard under the stairs, which is currently being used as a general dumping ground for stuff, into a designated storage station for all things household...
And quite frankly, it is not a bad option at all, and I count myself lucky to have such a space...
It will be my next project in the house.

If you have not got the luxury of having such a space to your disposal, why not try to convert a free standing cupboard in your home into your household supply station, like below:

Image from Kitchen source book

To convert such a small space to hold things like the hoover, mops and buckets and other necessary cleaning supplies, will take a bit of planning, and a few clever ideas to maximize the storage potential of the space, like using the back of the door, as pictured, below....
And if you'd like to follow along at how I do mine, sign up to my weekly newsletter by entering your e-mail in the bar at the bottom of this page, as I will be posting updates on my cupboard design and makeover over the next few weeks...

Image from Kitchen sourcebook

But, even with a great storage space for all my housekeeping and cleaning equipment, there is still the element of the ongoing nature of keeping a home tidy and fresh to consider, and as mentioned above, this stuff inevitably becomes a part of a home's make-up...

Image from House to home

So my solution to prevent garish eyesores in the form of cheap plastic dusters etc. laying about is to pledge to invest in some well designed, functional but good looking cleaning tools and other household essentials, along with the aforementioned stylish storage solutions...

Here's a few nice examples:

1/Brooklyn Storage trug 2/Perigot bamboo mop 3/Iris hantverk table brush set 4/House doctor bamboo duster set 5/galvanized bucket 6/Brabantia Orla Kiely retro bin 7/Iris hantverk tall dustpan and brush 8/cleaning and drying cloths 9/Brooklyn surface cleaner

A handy cleaning caddy ,will mean that I can carry what I need for the job around the house in style, and a nice looking bin is top of my wishlist for the kitchen. The idea of having beautiful tools, like a good-looking mop (did I just say that??) and bucket appeals to the glamour-puss in me (I have been known to clean my floors wearing high heels whilst dancing to loud music....I mean: Making the best of a dreary situation, like cleaning, has got to be a good thing , right??) And I've recently replaced my broken plastic duster with a gorgeous ostrich feather one, and quite frankly, I now proudly display that thing in my kitchen. I've also been on the look-out for a nice long-handled dustpan and brush to replace my "get-on-your-hands-and-knees" plastic set for ages, and love the one in my collage above.

When researching for this post, I must say that John Lewis has the most stylish range of cleaning and household products out there, and they are NOT paying me to say that! I adore the packaging on their Brooklyn range of cleaners...in fact their entire Brooklyn home range  is beautifully designed, and I'll be sharing more from it next week when I tackle the subject of Laundry!

Image from Garden trading

In my recent series of posts, labelled Beautiful Utility, I have been investigating my own theory that your home's everyday essentials should be equally stylish as your interiors to become a more integrated part of your home and thus improving the aesthetics and quality of your home-life.

Considering design as well as functionality when purchasing tools for housekeeping, will make your home feel more pulled together and maybe even make the jobs around the house seem a little less of a chore (Optimistic, I know)...At the very least, if your duster is as gorgeous as mine, you wont mind taking it for a spin every now and then!

Pop back next week to see me trying to bring some style into doing the Laundry!