How would you like cleaning supplies that have a dual purpose? Read on to find out more!

Ah, January! The month where we all get motivated to evaluate our daily cleaning routines and home maintenance tasks.

If you’re currently in the process of doing this as well in your own home, I’d like to inspire you with ways to use your useful everyday tools for cleaning as decor for your home.

The idea might sound a little foreign, but as you continue on, you’ll hopefully come out with fresh eyes on how to use and display your cleaning supplies!

There’s a quote I’ve seen floating around that I just love:

Beautiful Tools Need Not Be Hidden

-Unknown

And that’s what we’re going to work towards today!

*This post contains affiliate links to products I know &/or love.

Some Inspiration to Get us Started:

If you keep your eye out, there’s something you’ll notice that repeats in the following pictures! Using the honor system, let me know in the comments below if you notice it before I mention what it is!

I love how Victoria from ourgrowingstorey on Instagram has added such a nice variety of useful things here – cleaning supplies, gardening tools and even dried herbs.

And I love the contrast here of the light blue and grey wall from a Shaker home by Remodelista.

This garden wall by Billy J Brawner is STUNNING.

#goals as the younger generation likes to say.

And this is Martha Stewart’s own laundry room.

Ok, so did you notice it?

The functional design decision that was made in each of these homes…. Peg Rail!

Not only is it so perfectly vintage and charming, it’s also so useful, as seen repeated here!

Adding it to your kitchen, bathroom, or laundry room can create such a beatiful space to store and display your cleaning supplies, and luckily, how to go about it doesn’t have to be a mystery!

Liz Marie has an amazing blog post all about how to create your own peg rail! She’s gone all out in her home and has entire walls and rooms with peg rail.

As an example, this is her kitchen. They even went so far as to remove their vent hood to continue the open shelving and rail all the way across that wall.

Lovely, isn’t it?

Now the Moment You’ve been Waiting For:

Here are the 12 cleaning supplies I suggest you keep your eye out for while thrifting and at garage sales or on clearance!

A mini tip before I get started, I think it’s wise to pick your colors and then stick with them. Having cohesive colors is one of the ways to differentiate between things that have been pulled together haphazardly, and things that have a real element of intentional design.

My colors for these types of items are natural colors, white, cream, and sometimes grey. Knowing this ahead of time makes it easier when I’m out and about and considering bringing something into my home.

The 12 Cleaning Supplies That Can Double As Decor:

Number One | Your Broom

I found this one at At Home and love the natural wood handle, the twine for hanging, and that it’s got grey accents.

I’m waiting until my current plastic dust pan wears out, and then I’ll look into finding a new one that looks more vintage like this one pictured below from Zara. This exact one seems to be out of stock, but I saw a cute option on Amazon that was very similar.

This is another one from Martha Stewart’s laundry room.

Number Two | A Cute Bucket

Nothing makes hauling soapy water around more fun than having a cute bucket! My favorite are the metal ones with wooden handles for a vintage look.

I found this one for $3.99 at Value Village, though it was apparently only $5 originally at Target!

And if you’re going for a vintage look mop & bucket set, Zara has you covered there, as well.

I also accidentally ran across this super cute window cleaner squeegee from Zara. It makes me actually want to go wash all my windows!

That’s one thing I’ve realized about going down this path looking for more fun and decorative supplies is that you’ll start noticing them more and more, and you’ll prioritize wanting to find and buy them.

Number Three | Large Baskets

Something to always keep your eye out for while thrifting and at garage sales are good baskets! I recently found a great large laundry basket for just $2 at a garage sale! (Not pictured). It has the potential to look great hanging on a wall if I find the right spot for it, or being used to hold blankets or something similar.

Number Four | Cleaning Caddies

This is tip I started years ago (with varying levels of success over the years), but I gave each of my children their own cleaning caddy so that they could have all the supplies they needed with them as they helped around the house.

I found the caddies at IKEA for $10 each, but they seem to have been discontinued since.

I am lucky that my son made me a fourth caddy that I’m going to use for my upstairs cleaning supplies. As a goal this year I’m trying to evaluate and remove things that are wasting my time, and not having a dedicated upstairs cleaning supply caddy meant I was constantly going up and down when I was cleaning. No more!

I loved this metal version that Hearth and Hand has out, so I used the colors as inspiration and painted the one from my son!

Here’s how mine turned out.

Number Five | Spray Bottles

If you’re at all like me, you’re not big into the aesthetic that store-bought cleaning supply bottles bring to your home. The colors and the labels just don’t match the look I’m going for.

My work-around in the past has been to swap the product out into these $1 clear plastic bottles from the dollar store.

The tops were originally a variety of colors, so I carefully spray painted them with high-gloss black paint.

Number Six | Glass Bottles

More and more now, though, I’m trying to stay away from even plain plastic, and I’m slowly switching over to glass bottles. I’ve found some on Amazon, and sometimes if I’m lucky I’ll find the glass bottle bases while thrifting, and then it’s just a matter of finding a spray top that will work!

The only downside is that they’re a bit heavier and obviously fragile, which is important to note if you’re having younger children help clean.

I also use these glass jars for my plain water while I’m ironing. But, I’m trying to find ways to avoid ironing more than I have to, and that brings me to :

Number Seven | Prefold Diapers as Towels

I have always really loved pretty dish towels, but they’ve always required ironing to look their best, and it was just not worth it to me for right now.

What I’ve begun using instead are called Chinese pre-folds, and they’re part of the vintage and modern cloth diapering systems!

I am often able to find them for only $0.10-0.25 at garage sales and thrift stores, they’re SUPER absorbent, and they’re really easy to keep up because they’re white and can be bleached.

I’m loving the way Hvitur Lakkris displayed their dish towels here in these wall baskets in the kitchen, and that’s a look I’d happily recreate in my home.

Number Eight | Crocheted Dish Cloths

This is another kitchen linen trick that I’ve been really enjoying – finding crocheted items that can be used as dish cloths! There are lots of tutorials on Pinterest for making these yourself in about 1 hour, but if you’re not eager to do that, you can also find them thrifting and at garage sales!

I’ve found some before that I think might have been intended to be used as trivets, but as long as they’re the right size and texture, they work great as dish cloths!

Number Nine | Natural Handle & Bristle Scrub Brushes

Swapping out more modern scrub brushes for these wooden handle ones can make all the difference at your kitchen sink! Instead of being an eye-sore they actually add a great element to focus on. I find these on Amazon and think of them as an investment in a more vintage look for my kitchen.

Number Ten | White Gloves

I was glad to find several pairs of these at a garage sale for only $0.50 each! I think they bring such an elevated sophistication to my cleaning supplies!

I know they won’t last long against things like spaghetti, but I’ll certainly enjoy them in the meantime.

Number Eleven | Amber Bottles

I received this beautiful bottle of soap as a gift and you’d better believe since we used up the original soap we’ve been refilling it over and over to keep it in use.

I love that even the label feels very simple and vintage.

Number Twelve | Labeler

And speaking of labels, you can’t go wrong with having a cute labeler to be able to note which products are in which jars!

I’ve previously used my P-Touch labeler which has a much more modern white printed label look, but then I saw these cute dish & hand soap bottles that my friend, Lauren of Bless’er House has in her kitchen, I kind of started loving this embossed look! I actually ordered myself one of these DYMO labelers, and I’m excited to put it to use!

And that’s the list of 12 vintage look cleaning supplies that you might want to incorporate into your home as decor!

If you’re looking for more cleaning content, I have this post from a few years back all about how I clean the items I’ve found while I’m out thrifting!

I hope this inspires you and helps make cleaning that much more fun in your home!

Pin These Cleaning Supplies for Later:

Until next time,