Color and function in your laundry room.

Laundry rooms do not have to be dull boring places that we dread having to go in and crawl through the piles of dirty clothes!
We may always have to climb through piles of clothes (but I hope there is some organization there)..but it doesn't have to be dull and boring!
Painting or wall papering is one option. But that can be hard to do because you have to move out your washer and dryer and its hard to do without that room for even a day. Another option is just using fun colorful baskets. You can get all kinds of colors now for baskets. I found these at Target.
I have a very small laundry room and when I first moved into this house my now husband (we were dating then) came in and put these shelves up for me. I at first just had some boring white baskets on them...but spotted these and had to have them!
It just gives enough color to make me feel a little better about going into that place of never ending dirty clothes!

Laundry Cubbies!

Here is another cubbie idea! This is what I use some more cubbies (can you tell I love them!!) for in my house. At the top of the stairs we have this little area that works perfect. By the way before Dave and his kids moved in, I had my scrap booking albums in these..and yes they were full. Anyway...I needed some way to sort the laundry (with 5 kids)and thought this would work. It works great.
I bring up the folded laundry in my laundry baskets and sort it into the proper child's cubbie. (By the way...does anyone know if cubbie should really be spelled cubby? Spell check doesn't tell me! Hee hee) The kids are then responsible for putting their own laundry away in their rooms.
The basket in the middle is for mismatched socks.
The basket on the top left is for my step children's clothes that need to go back to their mom's house.
If you look close you can see that the kids names are on the bottom of their cubbies. I just use scrap booking stickers for this.
I would love to have something like this in my laundry room...but it's not big enough.

Crafty mama of 4 is having her first give away!

I found a fellow twitterer, Kim..who is having her first give away also! It will be over in about 2 hours from now though. So you will have to hurry.
She is giving away a Bratz Kidz Slumber Party Wii game!! Wow.
Follow this link and you can sign up to win it!
www.craftymamaof4.blogspot.com/

Launching my new review site. Pouchee review and give away!

My review site has officially launched!! I am beginning by giving away one of my pouchees!
Be one of the first to comment!
Your chances are good on winning this since it is a new review site.
Go to my review site (tab above) to see it!
Good luck!

Organizing coats and bookbags the easy way.

Another tool you can use to keep things somewhat organized for your kids is to simply hang some hooks on the back of your closet door. You can also use your basement door or laundry room door. I got the double hooks so a book bag goes on one hook and a coat can go on the other. They are labeled with colorful stickers with their names so no one can fight over where theirs goes.
The kids come in and they hand me their school folders and anything else they need me to see and then they hang their book bags and coats up. Easy and no book bags all over the family room floor! When kids are small they need to be able to hang their coats somewhere they can reach easily and just hanging it on a hook is easier (and more likely to be used)than a hanger.

Organizing your family with cubbies

This is the central family zone in our home. We do not have a very large home and I tend to be one who is very practical. Each child has a color and they know their color. There is one cubbie for each child and one for me. My husband has the station on top for his phones and keys etc.
Anytime I find something laying around the house, I throw it in their cubbie. They can put their dry hats and gloves in their cubbies, along with little things they want to keep downstairs. Have them clean them out every couple of weeks (or sooner if needed) and put everything away.
Works great for us. What do you do with all the little things you pick up around the house all day?