(Note that when I say ‘laundry basket’ I am referring to the basket I tote clean laundry around in. I’m not referring to a laundry sorter or any other basket I put dirty clothes in. I just want to make sure we’re on the same page.)

I’ve owned many laundry baskets in my life.  Some baskets were lovely and girly and some were more functional.

My personal preference?

I choose the functional laundry basket every time.

I’ve learned that in this case, functional is better and makes my Laundry Life easier.  If a super cute, practical laundry basket was on the market, I’d be first in line.  Until then, I’ll stick with my plain old drab ones that get the job done.

Mama has several criteria when purchasing a laundry basket. Here they are in no particular order:

Buy a Basket with Sturdy Handles

A laundry basket with sturdy handles is an absolute must.  I detest a basket that has handles that bend when I pick it up.  You know with 6 people living in my house that our laundry baskets are piled high and that makes them heavy.  I need a basket where the handles stay put and can bear the weight of our laundry.

Make Sure it has a Rectangular Shape

I owned a round laundry basket when I lived alone and it was fine for just one person’s laundry.  It was always a pet peeve of mine that I couldn’t stack folded clothes in it, though.  Since the basket was round, it could only hold one stack of folded towels or one stack of shirts.

It is rare that I stack a load of folded clothes in a laundry basket, but in the event that I do, I want it to be a rectangle.  A round basket is completely impractical, in my opinion.

Only Buy a Laundry Basket with a Smooth Finish

Have you ever had a basket (think wicker) that snagged your laundry?  I despise that.  There’s nothing worse than having a nice knit shirt that has been picked because it got caught on the edge of my laundry basket

I completely avoid the whole issue and buy only laundry baskets that have a smooth finish.  I’ve only found plastic ones that are smooth, so plastic it is.

Steer Clear of the ‘Hip’ Laundry Baskets

You’ve seen those laundry baskets that are curved to fit around your hip, right?  They seem like they would be a good idea.  However, if you routinely stack folded clothes in your basket, they aren’t ideal.  As with the round baskets, they just don’t stack clothes well.

Make Sure Your Basket is Vented

All laundry baskets need to have vents, even if you only transport clean laundry in them like I do.  Vents are just the little holes that are all throughout the sides of the basket, allowing the laundry inside to breathe.  Laundry baskets that do not have vents tend to harbor more static electricity. If you do use your basket for dirty laundry, it must be vented so your laundry doesn’t mildew.  Mold and mildew are hard to remove from clothing, so avoid the problem all together and just go vented.

Do you have a laundry basket that you can’t live without?  Tell me all about it. I’m always looking for things that would make my Laundry Life more simple.

I’m over at In a Nutshell today, writing about a few of my top favorite laundry items.

Apparently I have many favorite laundry items, as I’ve written a couple of these types of posts.  And each one contains different things.  Well, except for Oxi-Clean.  Y’all know how much I love it.

With all of these favorite laundry things, you’d think I’d have a larger laundry room!  Oh but in my next house, I will!!

Here are my other favorites if you care to take a peek:

Mama’s Top 3 Essential Laundry Items

Mama’s Laundry Room Must-Haves

Do you have a favorite laundry item?  Do tell.

 {Make sure you scroll to the bottom for info about the Laundry Room Makeover Pinterest Board.}

Are you looking to remodel your laundry room? When we tackle a remodeling project at our house, I always need a few ideas for inspiration. I found 9 laundry room makeovers that range from simple to complex. Take a peek for some inspiration on your next laundry room overhaul.

Simple Laundry Room Remodel – Between 3 Sisters
This is a great example of what stripping old wallpaper and updating with a little paint can bring a laundry room. Beth even shows how she’s organized the inside of her cabinets to be more efficient. To me, this is a real laundry room remodel – not one of those I-can-only-dream projects.

Dog Hide-Away in the Laundry Room – Kathy’s Remodeling Blog
Unfortunately, we are not inside-dog people here in the Hill House. My floors stay dirty enough as it is with 6 people living here. I can’t imagine adding an inside dog to the mix.

However if I did, this is the set-up we would have. This might be the most adorable dog idea I’ve seen lately: a little doggie apartment in the laundry room. Oh it’s super cute.

Turn a Closet into a Laundry Room – Fine Home Building
I often see laundry room makeovers that are beautiful and pleasing to the eye, but not very functional. While lovely little mason jars of various colored powders are pretty, they are totally not useful. (Or maybe it’s just that way at our house?).

This remodel is a great example of how to utilize the small space of a laundry closet. Form the sturdy doors to the custom-built washer and dryer pedestals, this is just dreamy.

DIY Laundry Room Makeover – The Happy Housewife
Angie shares her simple DIY Laundry Room overhaul, which includes paint, new flooring and new shelving.  She transformed an ordinary laundry room into a bright and cheerful spot to fold laundry.

$100 Laundry Room Makeover – Remodel-aholic
By putting a fresh coat of paint on the walls and cabinets, this remodel-er freshened up the look of a dark laundry room. All for under $100! Can’t beat that.

Make sure you scroll down to look at her homemade ironing board hanger. Love that idea!

Fresh and New Laundry Room Makeover – Blessed Little Nest
Don’t just look at the beautiful transformation pictures in this post, but make sure you actually read it as well. Heather honestly explains how her makeover budget was needed to buy new walls (they are a little important, after all) and she had very little money left to work with.

I adore her finished product – simple, cheery and frugal. She made do with what she had and just did a lovely job.

Shabby Chic Laundry Room Makeover – Love of Family & Home
While the décor in this laundry room makeover is super cute and creative, it is the design of the room I wanted to highlight.

I’m assuming this is a long room and the blogger created a closet at one end. She hung a curtain rod and created an enclosed space to hang clothes just-out-of-the-dryer with some seasonal storage as well.

Laundry Room Make Over with a Great Twist on Lighting – A Delightful Design
Did this laundry room really need a make over? It looked so good to start with! I should be so lucky!

I love what Abby did with the lighting in this room. What an interesting {and fabulous} choice. It pays to think outside of the creative box a little.

Making the Most of Storage Space – Kevin & Amanda
Kevin and Amanda obviously have a smaller laundry room, but they’ve done an excellent job in maximizing their space. By adding new, pre-made cabinets, storage boxes on top of those and a pull-out organizer beside the machine, they have a spot for everything.

 Laundry Room Makeover Board

Are you a fan of Pinterest?  I’ve set up a Laundry Room Makeover Board if you need some more inspiration!

image source

Static cling is a huge problem at our house. 2 of my girls wear fleece sleepers/pajamas to bed and they create quite a bit of static.  Work-out wear, socks and polyester are all big static producers at the Hill House also.

Recently when I folded clothes, the static seemed to get worse!  Which got me thinking: I’m not totally sure I understand what static cling is or where it comes from.  So I can’t eliminate it until I understand it.  And of course, the internet came through for me.

There’s even a whole website dedicated to static cling. What Is Static Cling reports:

From the above, it can be summarized that static cling occurs if the following conditions are fulfilled:

• When there is friction between two materials
• The two materials are not the same but are electrically insulating
• Dry conditions exist with humidity at very low levels (this is conducive to the transferring of electrons)

So according to their explanation, the dryer is the perfect place for the creation of static cling.  The materials are not the same and there is an enormous amount of friction.

So how do you get rid of The Cling?

There are a few methods to rid your clothes of static, some green and some more traditional. Regardless of your preference, here are some ways to reduce the annoying static in your laundry.

• Traditional Fabric Softeners
  You know the ones: Downy, Bounce, Snuggle and others.   Fabric softeners come in the liquid form you pour into the final rinse of the washing cycle or they come as a sheet you put in the dryer.  They leave your clothes smelling nice and dreamy and are excellent at keeping static at bay.  The problem?  They get a bad rap for being potentially toxic.
• Any type of Dryer Balls
  Dryer Balls come in the form of wool or plastic.  I understand that people rave about the wool ones…but not so much about the plastic ones.  After reading many reviews online, it seems that their best claim to fame is that they keep the clothes separated in the dryer.  This one characteristic goes a long way in reducing static (re-read the how static forms at top of post).  Whether they interfere with the actual electrical charge is not well-proven.
• Aluminum Foil and Tennis Balls
  Again these items separate the clothes in the dryer, thus helping to prevent static cling.  I’ve tried them both and I would say that there is a significant reduction in static cling, but definitely not an elimination of The Cling.  But both items are relatively cheap, so they might be worth a try for you!
• Static Guard
  If you’d prefer to deal with static cling after the laundry is dried, you can try this spray-on product.  It claims to “instantly eliminate and prevent static cling.”  It works remarkably well in my limited experience with the product.  The only problem is that you must use it to address each article of clothing, rather than dealing with the entire load of clingy clothes at once.
• Line-drying
  Drying your clothes on the clothes line (or inside drying rack) practically eliminates the problem altogether.  It is rare that any item I line dry has the The Cling.  Just another reason to line dry your clothing items instead of tumbling them in the dryer!
• White Vinegar
  Lots of Mama’s Laundry Talk readers swear by white vinegar as a fabric softener.  For loads of laundry that are mostly cottons (bed sheets, towels, jeans) I use vinegar faithfully.  But for those loads where fleece or polyester is involved, I need something with a little more punch.  I do love that it is inexpensive and chemical-free.

So how do you get rid of static cling?  Any of the above recommendations?  Or do you have your own secret weapon against The Cling? Do tell.

Disclosure:  This post contains affiliate links.

If you follow Mama’s Laundry Talk on Facebook, you know that I had my first (of hopefully many) visits to Ikea this weekend.

And I’m hooked.

We needed some bedroom furniture for my 2 oldest girls and Ikea came highly recommended.  We didn’t have a huge budget and my husband is a pretty handy guy, so Ikea’s way of doing things works okay for us.

Thankfully, we found some ideal furniture for their room.

I won’t go on and on about how much I loved that store and how it is truly an organizer’s dream. Because all of you who have an Ikea nearby already know that.

But for those of you who don’t, I had to take a few laundry pictures.

What’s that?  You don’t go to stores and take pictures of their laundry set-ups?

Hmmm.  Maybe it’s just me then.

My absolute favorite thing in this laundry set-up is the hanging drying rack.  It’s like a hanging pot rack in your kitchen…but for laundry.  I love it!  If you have a very small laundry room like I do, it’s a great way to access your vertical space.

I have my washer and dryer on pedestals, which provide a fairly decent amount of storage space.  Ikea’s pull out wire bins on both sides of the washer are a good alternative for storage.  The $139 price tag includes everything in the picture, including the countertop.

This was Ikea’s example of a more spacious laundry area.  The counters on top of the washer and dryer are ideal if you need a spot to fold and don’t have pedestals to add height.  And I adore the little drying rack on the top left.  It’s compact enough to not be obtrusive, but plenty of room to hang dry all of your unmentionables.  The hooks in the middle of the area are extra-large clothespins that could also drip dry small items that don’t need to go through the dryer.

What are your thoughts?

Are these your ideal laundry rooms?  Are they missing something you deem vitally important in your laundry routine?  Do you own any of these laundry organizational tools?

I’d love to hear your critique!

It is no secret that I adore Lindy Sue’s.  I’ve written about their creative laundry products so many times because I sincerely love them.

Linda, the sweet owner of Lindy Sue’s, sent me the most fabulous baby gift when my littlest one was born: a set of laundry magnets.

Oh it was the perfect gift from one lover of clean laundry to another!

But I must show them to you, because they are super cute.

This is the wrapping.  Isn’t it just the most original design?  A real button on top is used as the bow.  And the wrapping paper?

It’s a clothing pattern. Now how is that for creative?  And about 20 levels of adorable.

The magnets are housed in a signature tin.

And here they are: a set of fabulous little laundry magnets adorned with laundry care symbols. Oh be still my heart.

A huge thank you to Lindy Sue’s for such a kind and thoughtful gift!

Disclosure: I have no affiliation with Lindy Sue’s except a sincere love for their products.

So?  How did it go?  Did you totally rock the Spring Spruce Up?

No, my house is definitely not spotless by any means. Is that even possible when 6 people live in a house?  And 4 of those people are 6 or younger?  I think not. My expectations are nothing if not realistic.

However, my laundry pile on my dresser is completely gone and my closet is tremendously improved.  My next two projects to tackle are deep cleaning our den and the school room.  Thankfully, they don’t need to be de-cluttered (which is half the battle) but just cleaned really well.

I’m hoping that you were able to Spruce Up a room in your home this week.  If you blog and wrote a post on your Spruce Up project, please link it to our round up! The same link up appears here at Mama’s that appears at all of the other Spruce Up sites.  So your link will appear at 10 blogs today!

So browse through all of the links to get some inspiration! It’s much easier to get started when you have a lot of motivation.  So today is the day!

In case you missed the Laundry Room Spring Spruce Up here at Mama’s, here is a re-cap of the posts:

Day One – Get Started with a Printable Laundry Form
Day Two – Determine the Purpose of Your Laundry Room and organizing ideas
Day Three – Getting Your Linen Area in Tip Top Shape

So tell us:  What did YOU accomplish during the Spring Spruce Up?

The Spring Spruce Up is Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week.  Make sure to stop by each day for some Spruce Up Inspiration!  Several bloggers and I are teaming up to each work on a different room of the house.  So be inspired!  Best of all, there is a link up on Thursday of this week.  So get movin’, spruce up your space, take pictures and write a post!

Mama’s printable Laundry Room form

I’m so excited that the Spring Spruce Up is finally here!  I live in North Carolina, where the weather is nothing but gorgeous. It’s 70 degrees and sunny…and that makes me want to spring clean like mad.

Will my house be spotless by the end of this Spruce Up Week?  Probably not, but a mama can dream.

And what is exactly is ‘Sprucing Up’? It probably varies a little bit for each of us.  For some, it is a massive de-cluttering.  For others, it is a through cleaning of everything from window treatments to baseboards.  And still for others, it might be something as serious as a new coat of paint.

I’ve started working on Sprucing Up my laundry room and am thrilled with the results.  No matter how great you think you have a room ‘under control’ there are still items left to tend to.

When spring cleaning a room, it’s helpful to do this 1-minute exercise first.  It’s the foundation for making a cleaning plan of attack for any room you need to tackle.  Stand at the door of the room so you can visualize the whole space.  Make a few mental notes about what needs work: the floors?  Do you need to de-clutter first?  Is it covered in dust?  Is it really not that bad and you just need to straighten?

From your mental list, decide what must happen first. You can’t vacuum the floor first if it’s covered in clothes and detergent bottles, you know?

After you’ve decided where to start in the room, have a plan for every item you touch.  If you need to throw it away, do it.  If you need to give it away, have a designated bag for that.  If it stays in the room, set it off to the side.

If you are serious about really cleaning the space you’re working in, this is not the time to be sentimental.  Make your decision quickly and then act on it.

So specifically in cleaning your laundry room…  I know there are some of you that have only a little laundry closet in which to work.  Then there are others of you with a giant room big enough to do cartwheels in.  Both sizes have their pros and cons.  Regardless of the size of your laundry area, there is always room to spruce it up in some fashion.

To help you get movin’ on your laundry room, I’ve created a printable Laundry Room form.  It is a fairly comprehensive list of every area in your laundry room that needs attention.  It even has little check boxes where you can check off your work after you complete it!

I’ve uploaded the printable Laundry Room form to Google Docs, so all you need to do is click over and print it.  Then grab a pencil to check off your ‘done’ items and get to sprucing!  (I intentionally didn’t make it colorful so it wouldn’t soak up your printer ink.)

So make sure you stop by the next two days.  I’m covering how to Spruce Up your linen closet, how to organize your laundry/cleaning products and several other laundry spring cleaning tips.

In the meantime, you can visit these other blogs.  Each blogger is focusing on a different room of the house and yard.

Sprucing Up the School Room | Homegrown Mom
Sprucing Up the Craft Room | Many Little Blessings
Sprucing Up the Bathroom | Feels Like Home
Sprucing Up the Playroom | …Life’s About a Dream
Sprucing Up the Garage/Storage Space | A Slob Comes Clean
Sprucing Up the Master Bedroom | Raising Arrows
Sprucing Up Your Homeschool | Jimmie’s Collage
Sprucing Up the Kitchen | So Happy Together
Sprucing Up the Garden | An Oregon Cottage
Sprucing Up the Backyard | Successful Homeschooling

My brother and hopefully-my-someday-soon-sister-in-law went to Disney Land a couple of weeks ago.  And how thoughtful it was for them to take a picture of none other than Mickey Mouse’s Laundry Room! They knew I’d love to see it!

So if you are feeling sorry for yourself that you have laundry to do today, cheer up.  At least you don’t have an old-style wringer washer like Mickey does! (You can barely see the wringer on the right hand side of the picture.)

We all have to wash clothes, right?  Even Mickey Mouse!

There are a few items in my laundry room that I consider to be must-haves.   Here they are in no particular order:

• My baskets above my washer and dryer
  
  These baskets hold everything from scissors to a tape measure to the lint brush.  By having these baskets, it prevents all of these small random items from lying on top of my machines.  And then falling off behind it.  It’s one of the easiest ways for me to keep my small laundry room organized.  But more importantly, these items have a ‘home’ so people know where to return them after they are borrowed.  ‘A place for every thing and every thing in its place’ – right?

• My S-hooks
  
  I love these little hooks.  I hang dry lots of items on these S-hooks so I prolong the life of our clothes – girls’ tights, lingerie, and bathing suits to name a few.  They take up very little space when not in use and they are cheap to purchase.

• Oxi Clean
  
  Oh I do love the Oxi Clean so.  I have four little people and they are the masters of creating messes.  My washing machine also has an ‘Oxi’ feature which puts the Oxi Clean in the water at just the right time in the wash cycle to maximize its cleaning power.  This product has saved us so much because of its excellent stain removal quality.  No, I’m not affiliated with Oxi Clean in any way – I just think it is a top-notch product.

So what are your laundry room must-haves? Share them in the comments!