25. Organize Your Laundry Room

Start by eliminating anything that does not belong or can be thrown away from the room.

Design a place for everything. Shelving to store items, mini trash can for dryer lint and misc garbage, rack to hang clothing, hooks and wall mounting products to get items off the floor. If you need to place storage high, make sure you have a step stool in the room for easy access.

Also, things to consider:

- Have adequate lighting: if it is not well lit, you will avoid the room like the plague.

- Group objects by category: laundry detergents, fabric softeners, hangers, etc.

- DO NOT keep heavy bottles overhead.

- Have a small garbage near the dryer for lint and misc garbage.

- Hang wall mounted dryer racks for clothes that cannot be placed in the dryer. Some newer dryers have racks that can be placed inside of the dryer. You lay your clothes on top of the rack and they are dried without being tumbled inside of the dryer. I use mine for tennis shoes and sweaters.

- Hang wall mounting or over-the-door racks for your ironing board/iron and misc items.

- Have a basket for mismatched socks. Eventually socks will find their mate.

My favorite tips are more about the use of time: keep the laundry room moving daily. Have a constant rotation of clothes moving through the room. One load in the washer, one load in the dryer. Once clothes are dry, fold them immediately as they come out of the dryer. Once folded, place them in stacks of who they belong to - have each person put away their own clothing. This way you will not a have a huge pile of clothing to be folded or washed at the end of the day or week. Also, pulling clothes out of the dryer and folding or hanging them immediately will reduce the chance for winkles. Less Wrinkles = Less Ironing.

To make sorting laundry easier, add dots with a laundry marker to the waistbands and necklines. One dot for the oldest girl or boy, two dots for the second oldest, and so on. When kids are close in age, sometimes it's hard to tell whose clothes are whose -- the dots take out the guess work. This system also works for handy for hand-me-downs -- just add a dot when it's ready for the next family member.

Another suggestion is to have a different style of sock for each family member. This will save time by taking the guess work out while sorting socks.

***The most important tip is to have ample space for the clean laundry. No one enjoys cramming clothes in over stuffed drawers and closets.****