Under the Sink

Nothing too hideous but lots of stuff I’d forgotten I’d bought! However, this post has given me an idea. Maybe this is where I hid my axe! I know I own one but it’s not something I wanted easily accessible. So put it in a “safe place”! I think I’ll join you in an under the sink clear out!

Since I’ve been cutting down on single use plastic my under sink cupboard is a lot tidier and even has space to spare. Washing up liquid, loo cleaner, and surface cleaner are either refilled at the local eco shop or come in small sachets which you add to your own empty spray bottle and fill with water. Dishwasher tabs and laundry tabs come in flat cardboard boxes which take up hardly any space. I’ve replaced kitchen paper with a roll of mopping up sheets which you throw in the washing machine up to eighty times then when they finally get worn out, cut into pieces and add to the compost bin. Still a way to go but at least it’s a start.

I clean my kitchen drawers before Christmas, when checking what I need for the baking, the china cupboards in the spring, the pantry in summer before I start making jam, etc. and the blanket chests and wardrobes in the autumn.

I thought everyone cleaned the entire house in their young days in one fell swoop and in later years on the rotation scheme.

I have just done the upstairs floors, as my pre-Christmas cleaning starts in October nowadays.

Lilliesmum79

Help I've got mice in kitchen they got into dog and cat food bags under kitchen sink. Been cleaning since 5.30am ?

Store the cat and dog food somewhere else. If, as I suspect, it is dried food put it in airtight tins.

Next have a serious conversation with dog and cat - it is their job to get rid of mice, not yours!

Close both the aforementioned pets into the kitchen with you while you clear out that cupboard, hopefully cat will enjoy a good old-fashioned mouse hunt.

Scrub cupboard thoroughly then inspect it carefully to find out where the mice are getting in. This will entail the use of a strong torch or lamp and may well entail emptying all the adjacent cupboards until you find the hole or crack.

A crack the size of an ordinary pencil is large enough for an adult mouse to get in and out of!

Block hole or crack with polyfilla, if you should happen to have any wire-mesh lying around, place it over the crack/hole before applying polyfilla or plaster. Ground up glass in the plaster or polyfilla deters the little beasties too, but do remember if you use glass not to smooth the polyfilla with your hands!

Leave cupboard open at night for the next week or two and insist that cat sleeps in kitchen!

If after all this bother, you still have mice, buy a mouse-trap or a new cat who likes catching mice!

Good luck - they are right little bu'''''s to get rid of!

Pans and baking trays under our sink. I clean & line it regularly. All cleaning products kept in plastic boxes in utility room large cupboard.

Our under the sink it's too bad at the moment. DH fitted a new tap a couple of months ago so it got sorted out then.

I do, however, have far too many old towels and tea towels I use as cleaning cloths :-)

I,d had nice about a year before my clear out and my bill had "dealt with them" by putting down "friendly" traps that captured them and you set them free. I found a trap at the back with a mouse skeleton. So much for friendly, poor thing starved to death ?

I bet I could top you Witzend, I have different products for everything, hardly ever use them. My sister puts me to shame, she says there’s nothing you really need except washing up liquid, cif and bleach. Perhaps she’s right. I’d have a lot more room.

Hi
I had issue with mice under kitchen sink a longtime ago. I was advised to push steel wool into any crevices around the water outlet pipes. Apparently the can come in through the smallest gap but cannot chew through Steel wool. It worked! No more issues!

Because I have a cleaning lady I don’t look in the cupboard under the sink but this morning decided to do so. There were all sorts of sprays for cleaning all sorts of things and right at the back an oil lamp in case of power cut, a box of tools, a spirit level, a bar of Sunlight soap, a box of Robin Starch and some tins of old paint. Lots of dirt. Thankfully no mice!

I have my cat food under my kitchen sink there must be about 10/12 boxes in total I bought extra every week when we where in lockdown I just couldn't have Oliver going hungry could I,also countless cans of air freshener when my favourite one is on offer/bin bags as I double bag all my rubbish/lots of pan scourers and countless packs of foil trays with lids for when I cook to much and want to freeze but never get around to doing it.

RESULT! I found a bottle of gin at the back of the cupboard under the sink!!

Sad to say I am a new cleaner product junkie!
Each time I do the grocery shop, either in the store or online, I have to have a look at the household section and now , with all the eco products available, I just have to buy the new ones - even though I haven't finished the old ones! I have no more room in my cupboard!
The only thing is that I did clear the cupboard out a couple of weeks ago but the only stuff that got thrown out was ones that had set solid, separated in the bottle, or the spray was so gummed up that it wouldn't work.

Not exactly under the sink, but when my mother died, I found batteries in most drawers. I thought "poor old soul, starting to lose it". It was many years before I needed to buy a battery. When I retired, I went through lots of cupboards and found that most of them contained a roll of sticky tape....I've only just started to buy tape again- eight years on.

After listening to the mice stories under the kitchen sink I know what my job will be today. If I see any you will hear the screams for miles.

I usually find a full bottle of something I’ve just bought to replace the one I (thought I’d) just run out of!
Mine is well, well overdue for a sort-out. I looked for something under the sink yesterday and had to perform the usual balancing act and swift door closure to cram everything back in. Perhaps I’ll do it tomorrow…

I inherited loads of kitchen cleaning stuff under the sink when I bought this place. I'm still using some of it.
I used to get mice coming in under the sink but read that they hate the smell of peppermint. So I bought some peppermint liquid stuff and every night squirt a few drops in there.
No mice since, and the kitchen always smells of peppermint
which is quite pleasant.

Loads of half used bottles of cleaning products in my Under the sink cupboard. Several packs of oven cleaning kits, sticky stuff remover, disinfectant, and floor cleaning / carpet shampoo . And a variety of cloths. Nothing too horrible yet. Someday I'll sort it out, but not today.

So far, three different floor cleaning products and two leather conditioning kits. For laundry: an Eco Egg and some mysterious 'seeds'? as well as the capsules I've recently been using. Some rationalising is needed. Oh, that's just the first quarter...

I have got everything in those difficult cupboards in large plastic boxes like JackyB though, which makes it easier, NotTooOld

I once found 3 old packs of oven-cleaning stuff. My oven was still in a right old state
Yes, I knew I had one somewhere and was going to clean the oven last week, but alas I couldn't find one so I couldn't clean the oven after all. What a relief.

Callistemon

^I go through my kitchen cupboards in rotation and so the cupboard under the sink has its turn every 2-3 months^

I feel faint JackyB, must go for a lie down! ?

Me too! Find it quite hard to get down low enough to turn out under the sink cupboards anyway.

I go through my kitchen cupboards in rotation and so the cupboard under the sink has its turn every 2-3 months

I feel faint JackyB, must go for a lie down! ?

i had to do an online shop last week as i can't go out for about 12 weeks, i buy all my cleaning items from poundland, i was shocked to find all the various kitchen/bathroom cleaners, bleach, various sprays, sponges and brillo pads, there is 10 bottles of washing up liquid, i live on my own and use paper plates most of the time......lol looking at the things i have i will not need anything for months.

Yes, I have a crammed corner cupboard - one of those you have to excavate to find anything. I once found 3 old packs of oven-cleaning stuff. My oven was still in a right old state.,

I think I can modestly say that I could probably go in the Guinness Book of Records as the woman with the most cleaning products, who is least likely to use 90% of them on anything like a regular basis.

The good old Brasso wadding will be excavated out in the not too distant, though, for the annual ritual of pre-Christmas brass and copper cleaning.

I go through my kitchen cupboards in rotation and so the cupboard under the sink has its turn every 2-3 months. Actually, we had a tap that leaked for a while and we have a gadget under there that bleeps like mad if any water leaks. Every time it went off, the whole cupboard had to be emptied and DH had to crawl under to tighten nuts and washers while I turned on various taps and held on to things while he turned underneath.

Since then I have kept all cleaning stuff in a plastic box with a couple of spares at the back. The box is quickly removed.

It's a large space because it's a corner cupboard.