Sometimes cleaning seems to be a real hassle. Why is that? Part of it is that cleaning takes time and effort: you have to get your supplies together, take them to the room you're cleaning (or the mess you need to clean), DO the cleaning and then put everything away. Some of that time and effort can be greatly reduced by strategic storage of you cleaning supplies.

It's worthy to note at this point that if you have children or animals and your cleaning products are primarily chemicals, you have a greater challenge in storing your cleaning products such that they are not easy to reach and/or open by your kids and pets. But as you will read, you may not need to keep cleansers in different places all the time--you may just need some tools. Carefully evaluate what you REALLY need for constant maintenance and address those things.

Think about the daily or weekly tasks that really SHOULD be done, but becomes a complete annoyance because the tools aren't right at your fingertips. For me, this was cleaning my master bathroom sink. It needs to be cleaned frequently because of the type of facial cleanser I use and the shaving cream my husband uses. I found that the only thing I REALLY needed for daily (or every 2-3 days) maintenance was a sponge with a scrubbing side. I would clean it with cleanser once in a while, but the bulk of maintenance didn't require much. Now, I keep such a sponge under my sink in a little soap holder with suction cups that stick onto the side wall of my vanity cabinet. Voila--the sink is always sparkling. And it turns out that I can keep the mirror pretty clean with just a slightly damp cloth followed by a dry cloth (usually the hand towel or dried washcloth that's about to go in the laundry).

Dusting is a huge issue for my house as well; but that's easy enough to accomplish with dust rags kept in a spot in each room.

We used to keep the vacuum cleaner in the downstairs coat closet--which really didn't make sense since there is one area rug on the first floor and 4 (plus a room of wall-to-wall carpeting) on the second floor. We made room in our second floor linen closet for the vacuum. Now, vacuuming is not a matter of dragging the vacuum up the stairs.

It's also a good idea to make up "totes" for specific cleaning tasks. You can find handle baskets in a dollar store--or use whatever you can find to easily hold and transport items needed to tackle a specific cleaning situation. I have one for bathrooms (this is for deep cleaning--not daily maintenance). The basket contains the liquid cleanser, powder cleanser, pumice stone, a small travel-size spray bottle of window cleaner, a scrubby sponge and rubber gloves. I made sure to assemble my "kit" before buying the container so that I could be sure I had the right size basket. The basket is stored on the landing going down to my basement (which is inaccessible to the kids and dogs). That's fine because I only need to go there once each week and having everything in one basket means getting ONE thing--not assembling them all from different locations.

When implementing the "tote" method, remember that you might be best off to buy a few smaller containers and distributing your cleaning products into the smaller containers. You'll find some good ones among travel containers for shampoos and the like. If those are too small, look in the hair care section for larger spray bottles; and in the kitchen section for condiment containers.

Make sure to label your totes in case you wind up assigning a child, spouse, relative or friend to a cleaning task.

By making your cleaning supplies more readily accessible, you make the task quicker and easier to accomplish! All it takes is a little careful thought and assessment of what you truly need, where and when.