I use a three-tier metal cart with four casters on the bottom for easy rolling. I purchased mine years ago at Bed Bath & Beyond (sadly, it’s been discontinued), but the IKEA Råskog Utility Cart is similar, and you can find virtually identical options at The Container Store and Amazon, too.
I keep my beloved Bissell Little Green Portable Carpet Cleaner on the top tier because I use it fairly often; I break it out to spot-treat the couch after a spill, to give the light-beige bedroom carpet some TLC, or to clean up after a dog accident. If you also have a heavy appliance that’s difficult to lug around, I recommend keeping it on a rolling cart. In my experience, just rolling out the cart for easy access is so much better than breaking my back trying to haul the Bissell machine out of the bottom of my closet.
On the middle shelf I store an assortment of specialty cleaning solutions, including disinfectant for when someone in the house is sick, Goo Gone for removing pesky adhesives from various surfaces, pet-odor shampoo, and Scrubbing Bubbles foaming cleaner for shower deep-cleans. These are cleaning solutions that I don’t reach for every day (those go in the caddy, of course), but I still like to keep them where I can easily grab them if a specific mess arises.
The bottom shelf is dedicated to cleaning tools for particular tasks, like single-use and microfiber pads for my Swiffer (which I rarely use, since our apartment’s square footage is so small), Mr. Clean Magic Erasers, several different scrub brushes, and extra sponges for tasks I don’t want to subject the kitchen sponge to.
If you’re overwhelmed by a surplus of cleaning supplies, and you’re not sure what you actually need, it might be time to pare back. Go through your collection one by one, tossing expired items and thinking about the last time you used each one. If it’s been over a year, it’s probably time to donate or safely dispose of that item. Multiples aren’t especially helpful for concise storage on a cleaning cart like this, either, so consider stashing surplus items elsewhere and keeping the open bottle or package on the cart if you have the space.
You might not think that something on wheels is a good fit for a closet, but I’ve found that the exact opposite is true. Although static, built-in storage is certainly helpful, it’s equally useful to have a storage cart that rolls in and out so you can better access things toward the back of each shelf, as well as the items in the closet behind it.
