The cupboard under the sink - aggghhhhh!

I have a pantry under the stairs where I store ocean my products. Also under the sink. The cupboard in the main bathroom and the cupboard in the toilet cloakroom.
I have duplicated of my duplicates. The same goes for toothpaste, soaps, shampoo, body washes, deodorants, conditioner s, wipes, tissues etc etc. There is a box of duplicated toiletries in the coat cupboard on the landing.
For about 6 months I have been on a mission to buy nothing until I open the last bottle. I'm using shampoo I'm not so keen on as shower gel. DH is a bar of soap man and so I'm using his gifts of shower gel.
At last I can see the progress. I feel uplifted and unburdened.

ocean my .... cleaning
duplicated..... duplicates
Apologies for predictive text and poor proof reading.

We have had bathroom and en-suite re designed and built every room in our house is now a storage space for house hold products. Anything related to cleaning and personal hygiene as I obviously have bought in bulk any products we favour and use.
The kitchen sink hasn’t even been looked at yet. But the good news is I went shopping to bulk buy storage baskets tubs etc. I will keep what I know we will use and put the rest of the stuff in charity boxes which I am assured will be used. It’s a start anyway…

I have tried very hard not to buy duplicate items since clearing my father's house and realised the extent to which he had been doing it! He didn't have dementia but can't have ever checked if he'd got an item before buying another. I was shocked when I discovered the quantity of stuff in the kitchen cupboards - then discovered there was an overflow cupboard in another room!

I am a product of the bogof generation and like Biglouis, I forget I already had various cleaners etc. Same now as coolgran and helped by the de-cluttering thread, I resolved not to buy any more until the last one was almost finished.

I am not there yet but spaces are slowly appearing, I just have to get through all the bulk buying I did of bio D and perhaps today I will refill the toilet cleaning containers. Don`t mention toilet rolls either, I accumulated them for years before covid

Cotton dishcloths, I bought stacks of them from lakeland, on offer again and I feel like adding to the one star reviews, so I don`t use them but there they sit in a pile, they have to go, not fit for purpose. I could find more stuff but bit by bit works best for me

No I'm a thrower out not a hoarder. I regularly clean and sort through the cupboards. It's a bone of contention with my husband who is a hoarder and does the shopping and cooking.

I’m not a hoarder I don’t buy new till I’ve used up what I have. I know at some point I’ll have to move so try not to fill cupboards with stuff.

We use a small spare bedroom as a store cupboard. All the walls are shelved and I store everything in there, so cleaning material, rice, pasta, cereals, tea, coffee, tins, jars, spices on and on. The cupboards in the kitchen are just for what I use regularly - and get replaced from the store room. Works for me and I kid myself that I am saving as I only buy in bulk when on offer etc.

I would not willingly have a cupboard such as yours biglouis. I like to have "a place for everything and everything in its place." Sad to say, quite a bit of labelling goes on as well although not under the kitchen sink.

However, if you open the doors you can see where the washing-up items, bags for rubbish, different types of cleaning stuff are. I just replace when they are close to running out. I imagine how much you store depends on how many are at home or visit regularly. It took me ages to stop catering for a family.

Washing (clothes) stuff is in the bathroom as the washing machine is in there. That's my worst storage. It's a drawer under the basin and the space is awkward.

Karmalady, what is wrong with the dish cloths? They must be useful for something. I must make a mental note not to buy those particular ones.

Had a good clear out recently, very cathartic. Now one of each item I use, but as its a small cupboard, made room for dishwasher, it's still packed to the nines.

Sodapop
I’m the same, can’t bear tutt. One cleaner under the kitchen sink. Same in the bathroom.
My OH jokes that he daren’t stand in one place too long or he’ll be out the door 😄

I had an issue with my waste disposal on Christmas Eve and had to empty out the double cupboard under it. I could have set up a shop with all the stuff!
However, it’s meant that I haven’t had to buy a single cleaning product so far this year!
Laundry stuff is kept separate and I’m fond of the 3 for £7 offers in Wilko, but that’s about it.
I had a similar issue with toiletries, kept in my airing cupboard - buying outstripping using, so again nothing new bought this year. I think I’ve enough L’occitane (thank you QVC) to see me out.

Under the kitchen sink is quite well organised in plastic baskets, although I did find a box full of furniture renovating items at the back the other day so most of that has been thrown out as no longer fit for purpose.

Now, the under-sink cupboard in the utility room is another matter .....
Remember those little bags that laundry tablets went in? Do I need two dozen+, unused? (They might come in useful.) Shoe polish? No longer have the shoes to match. 🙄 Garden furniture cleaner? No longer have that furniture.
I daren't look further.

I have been told, quite firmly, by horrified DC, that mine is NOT a glory hole.

Shame, that..

Not much room in our cupboard under the sink, thanks to the waste disposal unit that we never use any more, but the corner cupboard next to it is stuffed.

I’ve often thought that given the number of cleaning products it contains, anyone would think my house is as pristine as Mrs Hinch’s (not that I’ve ever perused her online).

Instead of which….
During a rare clean-out I once found 3 lots of oven-cleaning stuff, but I wouldn’t want to describe the state of my oven at the time - I know there are some sensitive souls on here.

Daisyanne, look at the 1 star reviews on site. Mine are gone and I have replaced with the white ones with a red hem all around, packs from waitrose etc. They are much more efficient

I have an upside tbh, I have saved a lot of money by bulk buying in the past.

Georgesgran, I used to be addicted to qvc and all those special bulk buying offers. Then realised that they too have use- by dates. I gave a lot of my good stuff to the Ukraine transport soon after the war started. Now it is one at a time from lookfantastique and I have sourced the essential factor 50 from them, works out much cheaper if I buy 3 for 2

I have cupboards full of hammers, drills, various tools and jars of different sized screws and nuts and bolts which need sorting. I cant get near them to see whats inside. Some of the stuff has been there 10 years. I will have to wait for the general rubbish bin to get emptied before I have another session.

My cupboard under the sink is just that , under the sink only, and very small. Contains the food pail, a small waste bucket and a few assorted cleaning items like bleach, de-scaler and small sponges.
The pantry (cupboard-under-the-stairs,) being long, narrow and having a sharply sloping ceiling, contains many undiscovered treasures: a few tinned goods, ironing board and iron, hoover, mop, brooms, brushes, cleaning products, casseroles times a lot, cake tins, bulbs, plastic containers, batteries, wine, picnic hamper, Useful Things and many, many carrier bags.

Years ago I bought a carrier bag holder from IKEA. It fixes on the back of a door.
Now we try to avoid plastic bags, the same ones have probably been in there for a long time.

Slightly off track here but with regard to decent dishcloths, I knit my own. I order cotton yarn from Amazon and knit one every two evenings while watching tv. A two row pattern with a garter stitch edge. They are the best ever. If I later discover a wrong stitch I don't bother to fix it, that's character and for my own use. Others I use as a little gift if I go to visit someone. 3 cloths tied with a piece of ribbon. My friends love them. They last for ever. Into the washing machine and sometimes bleach. When they start to look tatty they are used for the messy tasks.

The trouble with bulk buying is that you don’t need to replace that item for so long you forget about buying it and run out. I bought oyster sauce on special offer last year, looked in the cupboard when making a stir fry last night and there was none there.

Cleaning products and e clothes breed in my under-sink cupboard, I found them the other day when I cleaned it out after a u bend leak.
I sorted them into like pre-Covid half fulls. Not keen but only ones available during Covid with duplicates and ones that I like and can now buy again with duplicates.
Tablets of soap breed in the airing cupboard, I'm like my mother she always said it gave the cupboard a good smell and the soap hardened and lasted longer.
As for toilet rolls, DH says I could supply a hospital.
Upmarket hand wash and shower gel for visitors standard for us. The same with towels. Why do we do it it just adds to the clutter that basically I hate.

I am one of those miserable well organised types. I work on the KISS system, (Keep It Simple Stupid).

I use cream cleaner for sinks, basins and loos, plus lime descaler, we live in a very hard water area, and a diluteable surface cleaner, like liquid Flash, bleach - and thats it. There is cream cleaner and descaler in each bathroom/cloakroom, and Flash type cleaner and bleach in the kitchen, with one or two spares in the broom cupboard, so that I never run out.

The cupboard under the sink doesn't have a shelf and contains a stack of big mixing bowls, a plastic washing up bowl and some baking trays

I use my grandmothers' solution to this problem, and go through every cupboard and drawer in the house once a year, at least.

The cellar that I use as a pantry for jam, tinned goods etc, is cleaned before the jam-making season, the china cupboards in the autumn, the undersink cupboard at four monthly intervals, the bathroom cupboard twice a year, and the attics every second summer.

I find it makes life easier, and saves wasting money on things we already have in the house.