Top ten must-have cleaning supplies to keep things spic and span in a hurry! A busy mom who hates to clean reveals her top choices.
I am really surprised by how excited I am about today’s post. When I found out that my fab blog hop group wanted to do a post about New Year’s Resolutions along the way of cleaning and organizing I thought I may just have to skip participating for a month. I am creative and colorful and busy busy, but I am NOT a housekeeper. I organize my day-to-day life with lists and post-it notes and my paper planner, but my craft supplies are in piles all over the freaking house. It’s BAD. As for cleaning, I do it enough to not be disgusting or expose my kids to major germs, but that’s about it. I hate cleaning. It’s a necessary evil, but I hate it. For real. However, I have gotten pretty good at it by learning which tools and cleaning supplies are effective and efficient for me, and today I am going to share with you my list of the top ten essential cleaning supplies for busy moms. Prepare to make your life a little bit easier!
Before I share my cleaning supplies list with you let me share with you some fabulous posts from other bloggers on how to clean, organize, and plan your life. These gals are SOO talented. I love being counted as a colleague in their world!! PLUS there is an awesome giveaway at the end of this post for all of you organization nuts (or those of you who need to become organization nuts!), so be sure to keep reading!
1. Bombshell Bling
2. 52 Mantels
3. 4 Marrs One Venus
4. Crazy Little Projects
5. Smart School House
6. Dimple Prints
7. Giggles Galore
8. The Cards We Drew
9. That’s What {Che} Said
10. Design, Dining + Diapers
Now on to my list. I’m excited to share!
(This post contains affiliate links. This means that I get a small percentage of the cost of the product for referring you to it, but your costs remain the same.)
1. OXICLEAN!
I was at a baby shower once and a friend told me that Oxiclean was so amazing that she had gotten lazy about pretreating and washing her baby’s stained clothes. I tried it and I have never looked back!! I love Oxiclean in ALL of its forms. I keep the spray solution next to the hamper (in every room—I love it THAT much!) and spray things immediately. Sometimes with a really stain-filled load I dump in a scoop of powdered Oxiclean to boost the cleaning power of the regular detergent. But the REAL beauty of Oxiclean is that I can dilute the powder in water and let really stained things in the solution for DAYS. Sometimes when something makes it through the wash and is still stained I will soak it in a tupperware on the counter for a few days. It’s almost like magic!
2. A DUSTBUSTER!
Last April we lived with my grandparents for a few weeks and my compulsively neat granny followed the kids around with her Dustbuster clearing up the crumbs. So I started doing the same to save her the trouble. Do you know what one of the first things that I did was when we got home? I bought a Dustbuster. I use it constantly now!! It is perfect for messy little ones, a crumb-filled highchair, and it’s even perfect for car seats! A friend of my sister’s owns two and keeps one of them in the car. She vacuums and cleans up whenever she’s waiting in the carpool line, at the gas station, etc. I have NO CLUE how I survived the first four years of motherhood without this cleaning gem!
3. 409 GLASS & SURFACE CLEANER!
This stuff is a classic. My mom used 409 regularly for counter spills, bathrooms, and more, and now they make a combo version you can use on surfaces AND glass. Score. The less effort (and money spent on cleaning supplies) the better, am I right??
4. BLEACH!
Bleach is a must-have for any mom. Or household, really. It makes white clothes white again, disinfects after …… ummmm ……”accidents” in the tub, and more! Just keep it high out of the reach of little people!
5. GOO GONE!
Have you tried this stuff? It’s the bomb. It can get sticker residue off of ANYTHING. It’s perfect for anything sticky, really. In fact, once when I was in elementary school we were in the mountains at Grand Lake (Colorado) and I discovered some “soft, squishy cement” in the parking lot. I stood in it and wiggled my toes in it until my feet were buried in it. Yeah…..it was tar. No longer hot, but still warm enough to be squishy. My mom wanted to kill me. To say the least. Do you know how it came off? WITH GOO GONE!!!! That is a true story. I remember she scrubbed until my feet were raw and I was whining and moaning, but the Goo Gone eventually got the job DONE! It was seriously thickly caked on there. You can’t make this stuff up.
6. SWIFFER WET JET!
We love the Swiffer Wet Jet. It is perfect for spot cleaning after spills happen, and it was great for apartment living even before we had kids. The pads are removable once they get gross, and the mop sprays the solution that you can refill. It’s just so dang easy.
7. MAGIC ERASER!
Speaking of things I can’t BELIEVE I survived without at one time, Mr. Clean’s Magic Eraser is THE BOMB! It can get anything off of ANYTHING, I swear!! We use it all the time on the sink and in the tubs and even to get marks off of the wall. HOWEVER, be warned: it WILL take the finish off of your kitchen table if you rub hard enough. Not that I know from experience or anything….. Yeah, I do. My dad’s kitchen table. Ay ay ay. We no longer use them on wood, and I would never risk it on my dad’s granite, but I don’t have a clue if others have tried that.
8. SWIFFER DUSTER!
I have a very severe dust allergy, so dusting has always been one of my least favorite chores, which is problematic since dust is one of my health’s worst enemies. Amazingly irritating. Imagine my DELIGHT upon discovering these babies! The Swiffer Dusters may be pricier than just using a rag or a plain feather duster, but they are soooo much better for me! They pick up everything, trap the dust so well, and then I can just throw them out when they get icky and put on a new one. It completely changed the way that I feel physically on house cleaning days. They will always be on hand in my home!
9. SPOT SHOT!
Spot Shot is the carpet cleaner that my mom always had on hand, and I am here to tell you that it works! I have a particular set of cousins who were SOO hyper and wild when they were young. They were some of our VERY favorite houseguests and we always looked forward to their holiday visits (and get very sad now when they don’t happen as often!), but my mom used to joke that it was literally impossible for them to come without leaving a red or purple stain on her carpet. Enter Spot Shot. I have a memory as a 12 year old girl of babysitting the grandchild of a very wealthy, VERY neat couple from church. The house was just about as un-baby-friendly as any house I have ever seen. And, of course, the baby spilled red juice on the floor on my watch. I rushed into their laundry room looking for the Spot Shot. Even then I knew what I needed! 🙂 I am happy to report that the juice came up and the grandma didn’t kill me. Phew! I use it often on upholstery as well.
I can not count how many of these I went through as an elementary school teacher. You wanna give your child’s teacher something to use in the classroom? How about these wipes, Lysol, and antibacterial hand sanitizer! BELIEVE ME—they need it! I used these on every surface of my classroom almost daily. The kids were THAT germy, even to this non-cleaner. They were perfect to have on hand, and now as a mom they still are. I carry around the mini packages of them in my diaper bag. True story.
Are there any cleaning supplies that you would add to my list? Obviously, I can’t promise that you will love any of these supplies or be able to use them to get wet tar off of your children’s bodies, but I can tell you that I buy and use them all on a regular basis. I’m not a cleaning expert IN THE SLIGHTEST….this is just one busy (ahem—and LAZY) woman passing along her tips to another busy woman.
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Did You Love My Cleaning Supplies List? Check Out These Other Posts
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How I FINALLY Organized my Craft Supplies and Reclaimed my Basement
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Wow, that is fabulous list. I love my dustbuster too!
I would love to use the lifeplanner to organize my blogpost and planning making items for my etsy shop and fairs.
I would love a dust buster! I really need to invest in a swiffer duster, as well. I loved the swiffer wet jet when I had one, but then I (in my opinion) upgraded to a refillable mop like the ones offered by rubbermaid. Plus, those mops tend to have washable mop heads…AKA all more cost efficient. I use a lot of the other stuff you mentioned and agree that these products definitely belong on an essentials list.
I’ve never even heard of a refillable mop—I’ll have to look into it!
Really! Actually, I don’t know why I’m surprised. Even though they were right across the aisle from my Swiffer mop… Well, it took me like two years to notice them. At my local Wal Mart, I found them in the same section at the other mops, buckets, mop heads, etc. However, I’m hoping to invest in a Shark Vac & Steam Mop soon because I have zero carpet in my house and I just need something with a little more umph!
I love the 2014 life planner -picture this! full frame.
Clorox Wipes are one of those things I can’t believe we ever lived without, an absolute must have cleaning supply in my book. 🙂
Love your list, I have never used Spot Shot or Oxi-clean but this list has me getting ready to take a trip to the store just to get some. I also need a dust buster, which brand do you have? As for the Clorox wipes, I swear by them but I get the Dual Action kind because they have the scratchy-scrubber side to them and I LOVE that for stuck on messes. I just tried the Magic Eraser last week actually in a trial size, love that too it got the rust that comes from my water out of my bathtub in seconds!
Ummm…Dual Action?? Didn’t know about those!! I think my dustbuster is Black & Decker? Whatever brand has the actual trademarked name Dustbuster. It was about $30 on Amazon I think.
Actually they’re by Lysol sorry but they are awesome! And thanks for the tips I’ll be looking on amazon for one as well! 🙂