I Tried the "Cleaning Cart Hack" and It Cut My Cleaning Time in Half

Until recently, my cleaning supplies were in an out-of-the-way cabinet near my ceiling. Accessing the bins required two trips and a stepstool; then I had to schlep the heavy containers from room to room while cleaning. Despite appearances, I wasn’t trying to make cleaning day a weight-lifting day. My children were tiny when I chose this spot, which is why it was ambitiously difficult to reach.

But now I’m a mom to adolescents, and this placement doesn’t make sense anymore. I want my children to be able to reach the cleaning supplies, which is why this viral TikTok from the “Queen of Cleaning,” Vanesa Amaro, immediately influenced me.

In the video, viewed over 5.2 million times, Amaro fills a CAXXA 3-Tier Rolling Cart with “everything [one] could possibly need” to clean a home. The top layer holds cleaning solutions, the middle layer is home to trash bags, sponges, gloves, and scrapers, and the bottom layer is for microfiber cloths. Amaro even added Command Hooks for dusters, trash bags, and brushes, plus a Sponge Daddy Caddy to make use of the vertical space. When cleaning at home, Amaro can just “grab it and go” — no trips back and forth for supplies necessary, and no heavy lifting required.

Unwilling to wait on an Amazon delivery, I “borrowed” my teen’s rolling cart (aka his nightstand) to try this method out for myself. My collection of supplies is more minimalist than Amaro’s, but I still easily filled the cart. In the top tier, I placed cleaning sprays, gloves, trash bags, Bon Ami, and my new favorite product, The Pink Stuff. For easier accessibility, I placed the microfiber cloths on the middle layer and saved the bottom tier for mop and duster attachments. Because I don’t use paper towels or disposable dusters when cleaning, I added a laundry hamper instead of a trash bag.

I don’t enjoy cleaning — although you wouldn’t know it if you saw me exuberantly rolling this cleaning cart around. It’s so damn efficient! There are four bathrooms in our home, and it usually takes me a couple of hours to clean them if I’m working alone. With the cart, I was done in half the time. I didn’t realize just how much all those trips back and forth for trash bags or extra towels were costing me, but now I’ll never again lose precious weekend minutes to inefficiencies!

I love the cart, but it’s not for everyone. If you have a home with multiple floors or wall-to-wall carpet, this may be more cumbersome than helpful. The caddy also can’t contain large items, such as a broom, mop, or full-size vacuum. If you have small children at home, it will be harder to keep the supplies out of reach. 

Amaro stores the cart in a closet but also recommends a laundry room or garage. If your caddy must live in plain sight, you could decant your cleaning supplies into pretty spray bottles like these. 

Now, excuse me while I order another cart on Amazon — I just heard my son saying, “Hey, where’s my nightstand?”