Update: Laundry Room-less Blues

I need to add to my dream house wish list a dedicated laundry room, along with a decent size bedroom, and a kitchen that isn’t completely stupid.  Oh well, can’t afford to move yet.  So the laundry saga continues.   Last week I got my basement cleaned up and found a place to put the laundry sorter down stairs.  This week I returned to my action plan and looked at the next step.  Here were some of the action plan items I covered this week:

• Two Centrally Located Laundry Bins (One on each floor)
• Labels for Sorting Bin
• Storage for Detergent, Dryer Sheets and miscellaneous items
• Clearing out space for bins, and shelving

This week I really  made headway on Project Laundry.  I picked up a pretty cool laundry hamper from Ikea on Friday.  Not the prettiest option, but definitely useful, and the right size.  I like this bin because it has two separate sides, and the bags have nice handles, so they are easy to take up and down stairs.  In a perfect world I’d have the same kind of organizer so I could just switch empty bags from down stairs with full bags upstairs, but what can you do?

Last weekend I got the Sorter Bins in the basement taken care of, and I have to say I’m loving it.  I made some cheesy clothes pins that I wrote wash and fold on, I didn’t exactly care for them.  I found some neat bin tags at Target, and for $3.25, they just slip right on.  You can use a dry erase marker to write on them, or slip in an actual label if you wanted to make each bin for a different color.  Now I can label the bins what ever I like.  Whether I need to fold or wash the clothes in the bin.  Pretty handy.

I also picked up a Closetmaid little shelving unit, which I like because it has adjustable shelves.  The little shelving unit works great for storing my detergents and dryer sheets.  My last two “buy” item are hooks for clothes that can be worn again, like work pants, and I also need some type of bin to corral the folded clothing in the closet.  I noticed last week when I was putting away laundry that Steve’s clothing is a total freaking disaster, mine isn’t much better, but mind is corralled into a dresser and not on free-standing shelves.  I think I can find some dollar store, easy solutions to the problem, but I need to do some measuring and check out a few stores.  So I’m putting it on the back burner.

Here’s the dollar’s and cents of the make over:

• Brown three bin laundry sorter (Wal-mart) $25.00
• Bin labels (Target) $3.25
• White two bin laundry hamper (Ikea) $15.00
• Closetmaid shelves (Target) $23.00
• Pull out bin (Dollar Tree) $1.00
• Total Cost:  $67.25 (not too shabby considering I budgeted $70-$150)

Next week my focus is moving to the habit and scheduling items on my action plan.

• Scheduling one or two laundry days a week
• Finding a solution to remind us to empty pockets
• Purging
• Figure out how to corral Steve’s clothing.

I have to say this weekend doing laundry was almost a treat.

Dollar Store Drawer Organization

So this week we are short on the Get ‘ere Done, because I’m working on the bathroom down stairs.  Which will probably become next weeks Get ‘ere Done.  What I do have this week is a simple, cheap tip, and yet another reason I love the Dollar Tree.

They sell these great little drawer organizers, and for a dollar you get either two or three.  I’ve seen similar products at other stores for about twice the price.  I picked up five sets in various sizes, I only really needed four of them.  We have an Ikea Expedit entertainment center, with drawer inserts.

One set of drawers we use for the dog’s leashes and grooming things.  It got so messy that you had to dig for everything.  Every time we started digging for something the dogs would go crazy, thinking it was time for a walk.  Now it’s doggie zen!

The tool drawer was absolutely impossible.

The worst part of the tool drawers, is having to pull out everything tool only to find out the there isn’t a standard screw driver in the drawer.  I also saw these great little tool sets at Ikea for $8.00.  What I love about the tool kit, it’s got all your basic tools in a single box, there’s a place for everything and everything is in its place.  I can see when something’s missing, and make sure it gets put away.  I took out all the other tools and put them in a tool kit for down stairs.  Now we have two sets, one on each floor.  I used simple snack bags to organize the little bits screws and extra bits from RTA furniture we had left over.  Plus, it looks great.  I was even able to reclaim a junk drawer as usable space.

Dollar Store Organization

I know I haven’t posted much in a while.  I thought with it being summer break and all my life would get similer…not so much.  I’ve been working on getting my teaching license the last three years…and instead of just student teaching and then freaking out that I don’t have a job afterwards, I got a fellowship.  So I will be a fully benefited employee once I’m done, which rocks.   I’m just trying to get all my ducks in a row since my new job starts the end of July, rather than August like most other student teaching posts.  Since I’m on a tight budget, and want to get organized, I thought I’d pass on some of the cool cheap Dollar Store finds that have helped me.

Bins, Baskets, and containers oh my….

If you haven’t been to the dollar store lately, you may not realize the wide variety of containers they have.  There are stackable containers, bins, plastic shoe boxes with lids, small laundry baskets, handled plastic bins, all kinds of shapes and sizes and colors.

My favorite is what’s called a Locker Bin.  They come in two sizes, a shorter square size and a longer rectangular size.  I love the longer ones, and think they are the perfect size for almost everything in my house.  I’ve used them in cupboards to corral all my cooking oils and vinegars, I use them in my linen closet to organize all my wash cloths and hand towels, I put all my cook books in them and put them on top of my fridge for easy access (before all my cookbooks were in the cupboard above the stove and it was a pain to get them out and back in).  I love these bins.  I went to four different stores today just to find enough for my latest project, I’m reorganizing my kitchen cupboards.  Rule of thumb, if you think you’ll need more, get extras, you never know when your local store will run out.  The great news is they are just a buck!  I used 9 of them in my linen closet, and I’m still under $10.

Clothing bags…

I found these sweater keeper plastic bags that were two for a dollar, and I’ve used them for the extra sheets for each of bed in the house.  They are perfect for queen and full sheets, although they might not be big enough for king, I don’t know.  They are little plastic zipper bags, I just put the sheets in after I fold them, and they work great.  Now I don’t have to look for missing pillow cases, or have them tumbling out at me when I open the linen closet.  You can even write the size or which bed it belongs to on the side so you can see what’s in it when they are all stacked up.  Right now they are in my linen closet, but I’m going to move them to the new dressing area we created down stairs (I’ll show you what we did in another post).  You could even put them under the beds they belong, and the sheets will stay clean and dust free.

What I’ve learned about the Dollar store is sometimes you need to be a little creative with your solutions.  I may go in looking for something specific and come out with another idea entirely.  I created a Word Art picture frame for my Father using dollar store frames I hinged together.  I was looking at trying to buy a custom frame and matte at that point for a ton of money, and the frames and hinges cost me $22.  Some times you gotta think outside the box.