Our Favorite Laundry Tips and Tricks

I'm addicted to buying cute, stylish little girls clothing.

There. I said it.

Okay, I've actually mentioned this before in a post, but the reason I'm bringing it up again now, is because with ALL of those adorable new threads, comes a whole different issue...

MORE LAUNDRY TO DO!

I'm not a Mom of boys, but I hear that keeping up on their laundry pile is just as hard, if not harder than a house full of little girls, because of how dirty and messy they tend to get when playing. So whether it's 5 outfit changes a day for a "picky princesses", grimy, stained duds from an active, curious little man or just the weekly sheet and towel washing responsibilities; we ALL dread doing the laundry at some point... am I right?

That being said, I thought I'd share a few tips and tricks that we use to help us alleviate some of our laundry doin' stresses around here.

While there may be that one person in the house that takes care of most of the laundry duties, having everyone pitch in during the week to help make the job for that person easier, can make all the difference.

Designate a laundry hamper to each room: This makes collecting dirty clothes and linens a lot simpler. For a long time our kids were so small that I didn't have hampers in their rooms, and just walked their dirty clothes straight to our laundry room after changing them, but now that they're getting much bigger they dress and undress themselves, resulting in clothes everywhere!

Our solution of having large, inexpensive hampers tucked away into their closets helps to keep dirty clothes clutter off the ground, and creates an easier clothing roundup when it's time to do laundry.

Utilize your little people and teach them while they're young: Around our house Cason does all of the overseeing of laundry getting done, but delegates other jobs within his laundry routine to our kids. From as young as three years old he's taught our girls how to separate colors into darks and lights, change things from the washer to the dryer, lay delicate shirts over our portable clothing racks to dry and put their own clothes away after they're done being folded.

We feel that kids should help with as many tasks around the house as possible. Not because we're trying to be mean or strict, or even because Cason and I don't want to do all the work, but because it teaches our kids responsibility and HOW to do things for themselves so that they're not completely clueless when they grow up and have to do simple day-to-day duties like this on their own.

Color my Room with MyColortopia by Glidden

This past year we've talked quite a bit about Glidden's awesome tools from their MyColortopia site.

If you're new and haven't had a chance to visit and explore, basically, MyColortopia is a site full of great ideas on how to decorate with color and bring your house to life, with tips and tricks shared by lots of your favorite bloggers. It's a destination where people who are easily overwhelmed by interior design decisions and painting can get advice, guidance and inspiration... and no matter how awesome we think we are, we ALL fall into the "overwhelmed category" with room makeovers from time to time, am I right?

MyColortopia offers a few really cool tools you can use to help you plan out your next room makeover. One we posted about before was the My Life, My Colors tool, to help you find out what color schemes best represent YOU, based on a few multiple choice questions that you answer about your personality and lifestyle.  Another great resource that we shared was the Show Your Colors feature. This was awesome because it lets any homeowner submit their before and after photos from spaces they've redone in their house, so they can share it with others! You know me, I LOVE a good before and after... and I love lookin' in on other people and how they live.
:)

 

So now I'm REALLY excited to show you this brand new tool that MyColortopia released called Color my Room. Guys... it's freakin' AWESOME! Since our little laundry room is still a blank canvas and we have yet to do much to it since the last time we talked about it, I thought it would be fun to play around with this new color tool to get a few different looks.

Laundry Room Makeover - Take Two

So remember when we went shopping for a new washer and dryer?

Well... we decided on one. Or should I say Cason did.

I was working downstairs a few nights ago when Cason bounded down with an ear-to-ear grin and announced that he had just bought us a new washer and dryer online.

Uh...

What!?

I went into a good 10 second "shopping for a washer and dryer moments" montage in my mind, remembered how awful it was, how I couldn't make a decision to save my life, how sweaty I got when I flipped up price tags and started comparing them to the same amount that a new Pottery Barn sectional for our empty basement would be... 

.

.

.

...and decided that I would let this impromptu purchasing without my final 'ok' decision, slide.

Now that our new washer and dryer were on their way, it was time to get rid of the old ones. We knew that our old dryer needed some work and that these machines were 10+ years old, so we weren't looking to make any money off of them; just trying to find someone who wanted to fix them up and more importantly... take them off of our hands.

Luckily, the day before our new set was due to arrive a friend decided that she wanted to scoop them up to replace her pair that were over 18 years old.

It was a win, win for everyone!

That night Cason started deep cleaning our empty laundry room.

Of COURSE visions of planked walls, wallpaper, cabinets and a new floor flashed vividly in my mind, but THIS time, knowing that our entire DIY budget was just spent on a new washer and dryer...I kept it to myself.

Due to a leak in our washing machine hose at one point, we had a portion of the wall and baseboard that needed replacing and fixing... so like a good wife, I went to get the supplies. As I was gathering things Cason stepped out into the garage and said "Don't worry about it, I'll do it in the morning before the delivery guys come." I asked if he was sure, he gave me a "yeah, it's fine"...and then that was that.

Fast forward to the next morning. I had to leave to visit some of the ladies from our church for a few hours and when I came back, this is what I found...

Now let's stop here for a minute, so I can address a couple of things.

Helpful Color Swatch Idea for Decorating

Happy, Happy (almost) 4th of July!

Hope everyone is having a great weekend!
I'm spending the day at my parents house, playing with family, and enjoying the beautiful sunshine! :)

 Since I'm just hangin' out, I thought I'd share a little tip with everyone!
Something most of you probably already do!  But for those of you who don't... just a little FIY  :)
------------------------------------------------
About a week or so ago I stopped by Tuesday Morning with Cason, just to look around.

I stumbled across a bunch of decorative plates and immediately fell in love with THIS one!
I knew it would look AWESOME in my laundry room, up on my shelf next to the rest of my turquoise decor.
And for $3.00... I couldn't pass it up.

Anywhoo, the point of this post, and the reason I knew it would look great, and would match my other decor... is because I had my houses' accent colors in my purse!

Laundry Room Segment on Studio 5

{Me, in Action!}

Today was another fun one, at Studio 5.

Check it out!

Great Ways to Freshen Up your Laundry Room

{Great Ways to Freshen Up your Laundry Room}

People in most households spend an estimated time of five to seven hours a week in their laundry rooms, yet these spaces are often drab, dull, and uninviting.  You may find yourself a little less hesitant to do the laundry if you make it a space you enjoy to be in!

First of all

 COLOR!

It’s the easiest, fastest way to freshen up any space!

Most of us don’t have extremely large laundry rooms, so a great way to open up the space, and make it calming and more welcoming, is by picking a paint that will calm the “stress” of doing the dreaded laundry!

A few of my favorite colors are

Green - Cyprus Grass from - Glidden

Yellow - Champaign Tickle - Valspar

Blue - Upward - Sherwin Williams

Cream - Autumn Haze – Glidden

Satin Finishes

I've painted MY laundry room the Cyprus Grass.  I love this subtle green in this small space :)

Wanted Laundry Board Tutorial

{Wanted, Laundry Board Tutorial}

I don't know about you, but in my house we have lots of paired items that go "missing". lol.

So I wanted to come up with a fun, cute, creative way to keep all those items in one place

Cue: The "WANTED" board tutorial! :)

here's how I did it...

Laundry Board Hanger Tutorial

{Wash, Dry, Press, Fold, Repeat}

Please tell me I'm not the ONLY one who feels this way about laundry!?

bleeek!

Laundry Room Reveal

{Laundry Room Reveal Part 2}

Yes... this small room is getting it's SECOND reveal. lol.

I have been working hard on decorating this tiny little room, and STILL have about 4 more things I need to get or do, but I just LOVE how things are turning out... So I thought I'd share!

The lighting in this space is well.... there is NONE... lol, so these pictures aren't the best, but you'll get the idea.

BEFORE...

Laundry Room Before and Progress

{The Laundry Room Reveal Part 1}

Once a cluttered, dark catch all for tools and supplies....

now pretty, green and clean, for our Washin' Machine.