Not every family has tidiness and a clean home atop their list of priorities. Even so, it’s imperative to consider how the cleaning products that are used are stored. While these products have proven to be particularly effective in disinfecting and maintaining a clean home, they’re also composed of some hazardous chemicals. Meaning improper use and storage can result in harm. For the sake of protecting yourself and your family, not only will you have to be educated regarding their use, but you’ll also need to know the safest ways to store them.
Now, you shouldn’t feel like all of these products need to be protected under lock and key. Most products, assuming parents have educated their children about them, are generally safe to be stored in the most accessible places. Kitchen cleaning products such as dish soaps or garbage disposal tablets are safe to be stored under the sink. Disinfectant wipes or toilet cleaner are safe to be stored in a hallway closet nearest the bathroom. The products that deserve more attention to storing are those that get less use than the products mentioned previously. Products such as bleach, drain cleaner, or paint thinner are the types of products you’ll need to create a designated space for. These are the products that are most hazardous if they end up in the wrong hands.
This is where grouping products based on their use can be highly beneficial. Often times families will have storage space dedicated to specific products. Whether that be a hallway closet, underneath the bathroom sink, or even the laundry room. In addition to a dedicated location, these products will often be kept in some sort of caddy or basket in order to keep track of them all. This is a great strategy for reducing clutter in the home, as well as limiting accessibility to these products from children or pets. If these products are kept in a location out of reach of our four-legged friends and our younger children, you will have much less to worry about.
Ultimately, the best way to mitigate the risk on your family with these household chemical products is to take a more minimalistic approach. Rather than having an excess of these potentially hazardous products taking up space in the house, buy only what your family needs and frequently uses and safely ditch the rest. This in tandem with the designated spaces for these less than safe chemical products, somewhere where the younger hands are unable to reach them, is a great method of keeping your family safe.
If you’re on the hunt for additional tips on how to effectively store these products, be sure to take a moment to review the infographic coupled alongside this post.
Author bio: Lynn Place is Vice President of Marketing for SolvChem Custom Packaging Division. She has 30 years of professional experience in the manufacturing industry and specializes in consumer packaged goods, new product development and strategic planning.
