Tips for Laundry Room Organizing

For those of you looking for tips on keeping your laundry room organized, be sure to pick the July 2008 "Atlanta Home Improvement" magazine. In it, you'll find tips that I shared with writer Julie Edwards for her piece titled, "Laundry Room Redo: Tips for a Functional and Stylish Space." You can find this free publication at area Whole Foods grocery stores and Ace Hardware, among other places. I normally pick my copy up at my favorite household consignment store, Finders Keepers, in Avondale Estates.

Here are a few laundry room organizing tips that I shared with Julie:

• Keep laundry supplies that you use most often, such as detergent, fabric softener, and anti-static sheets on the more accessible lower shelves.

• Store seldom used items on the higher shelves. I often recommend to my organizing clients that they use the higher shelves in the laundry room to store larger serving pieces or party supplies. Be sure to keep a small folding step stool nearby or you're likely to forget what is stored up there!

• If you have wire shelving installed in your laundry room (the favorite affordable solution amongst contractors, it seems), consider using a product called The Shelfanator to cover the shelves. The Shelfanator is easy to install and covers up wire shelving giving the space a smooth surface. Too often, the combination of moisture and soap products in the laundry room creates a sticky film over traditional wire shelves. The Shelfanator's smooth surface makes the shelves easier to keep clean and helps prevent items from tipping over or falling through the
  

• Liven up the laundry room with bright paint on the walls or with one of the new colorful washer and dryer options like this one.
  

• Create a hanging area for clothes that need to air dry. If space is an issue, a folding drying rack or retractable interior clothesline may be perfect solutions.
  

• If you have children, consider installing a lower hanging rod so that your kids can help with laundry and begin learning how to take care of their clothes.
  

• Keep a small wastebasket in the laundry area for disposing of dryer sheets, dryer lint, and all those tissues and tiny pieces of paper that you pull out of pants pockets, hopefully BEFORE washing them.
  

One of my favorite trends that I'm seeing in new homes is having laundry rooms closer to the master bedroom. In a few cases, I've even seen them situated in closets inside the master bath. It's so much more convenient to get the clothes from the laundry hamper to the washer and back into closets when you don't have to trek all the way to the basement or mudroom, don't you think?

Two Weeks In a Carry-On Bag

After my last post, I received a reply from my good friend Cheryl. She has a friend who regularly travels to exotic locations for a couple of weeks at a time, and her friend agreed to share her secrets for packing two weeks of clothing into a carry-on.

The interesting thing about this list is that it encompasses clothing for multiple occasions such as a business lunch, shopping, a board meeting, and even a visit to a tribal village! It's obviously a woman's packing list, but I'm sure my male readers can adapt it for their use:

• Black jeans (on the plane for comfort, later for hiking or outdoorsy stuff)
• Long sleeve t-shirt weight, zip-up sweater/jacket, with pockets to hold gum, room keys, etc (wear on the plane; can be crammed into a backpack, used as a tablecloth or ground cover, or to fight off air conditioning or an evening chill). Consider two or three different colors of these which can all go with (yawn) black.
• White t-shirt
• Nice(r) black pants
• Longish black skirt
• Two coordinating tops to go with black bottoms, in addition to white t-shirt above
  
• Black casual or dressy vest or jacket to go with tops and black bottoms (dressy or casual will be dictated by trip agenda)
• Dressy tennis shoes (is there such a thing??) to wear on the plane and for future hiking
• Black flats, semi-dressy
• Nice coordinating pashmina or shawl for any evening that calls for dressing up

If you manage to squeeze all of your stuff into a carry on, don't forget that your liquids and gels need to be in containers no larger than 3 oz. and they must all fit into a quart size, zip-top bag. If you have had a difficult time finding these tiny refillable containers, here is a link for an affordable little carry-on kit that includes three 3 oz. bottles, four caps (two screw-on, one atomizer, and one locking pump cap) along with a quart-size zip-top bag.

Do you have more secrets for successful packing? Please share with us at www.betterorganized.blogspot.com.

Cool Product: Travel Pack-It Folders

School's out and it's vacation time. That also means it's suitcase packing time. A really cool product to help you pack more efficiently is the Pack-It Folder from Eagle Creek. They keep everything from suits and jackets to shirts and slacks neatly folded and compact. And since garments are enclosed in the velcro-sealed pockets, they don't shift during travel, keeping them practically wrinkle-free.

The other neat thing about them is that they come with a little folding board that has graphics showing you the best way to fold different garments. While traveling, I keep my folding board in the packet so that I can re-fold any clean clothes I didn't use on the trip. (Yes, even I sometimes overpack. Gasp!)

I've been using all three sizes for a couple of years now and I LOVE them. I also got a couple for my husband but wasn't sure if he'd break his old packing routines and try them. Once he did, he was hooked! They make it so easy to find a particular garment if you are on the road for several days and don't want to have to unpack everything every time you arrive at your new hotel.

In between trips, I store my Travel Pack-It Folders in the suitcase I use most often. This follows the organizing principle that you should store items where you use them.

If you hurry, you may be able to get the Eagle Creek Pack-It Folders for 25% off from The Container Store during their travel sale!

Cool Product: Turn-About from Pampered Chef

I just got an email from Karen who recently attended my "Managing Paper Chaos At Home" seminar. She wanted to tell me about this cool organizing product she just bought. The Tool Turn-About, made by Pampered Chef, spins freely and will hold 10 lbs. worth of tools. If you've ever been to a Pampered Chef home party, you know they make quality products.

I can see this spinner being used for easy access to kitchen utensils, office supplies, craft and sewing supplies, or even household tools. It costs $17 plus shipping/handling and tax. To order one, please contact Pampered Chef Consultant Karen Carter at kkcarter10@yahoo.com.

If you have any other cool organizing products you use and love (or have just seen and covet), email me at suellen@creativeorder.com or comment to this blog at www.betterorganized.blogspot.com.

Cool Product: Cascading Pocket File Tote

It's tax time and that means that organizing and office supply stores are holding their annual Tax Season sales. Knowing that The Container Store always has great deals during their tax sale, I stopped by to see what I could find. I picked up this awesomely cool cascading pocket file tote. It has a leather handle, snap closure, and 7 pockets. I love the colors and the matching files are so fun!

The beauty of this product is that it can be used as an accordion file to carry around your project folders, or you can hang it on a hook in your office and it cascades down for quick and easy access to the materials inside.

Am I a geek if it makes me giddy just knowing a product like this exists? So be it. Some of my best friends are geeks.