You’ll spend countless hours of your life lugging, sorting, and folding laundry.  So why not get supplies that make the job a little easier?  These smart, stacking laundry baskets are among my favorites.  I usually fold laundry on the kitchen table or my bed but I hate constantly bending over to reach the clothes.  These cool baskets from WalMart solve that problem for me.  When the handles are folded in the baskets stack, allowing me to grab clothes from the top without any bending.  When the handles are out, the baskets nestle inside each other and tuck away neatly.  As an added bonus they also have wheels which makes moving my laundry (and my toddler on occasion) tons easier.  Just thought I’d pass it on.

Looking for another great laundry link?  Check out this handy stain-fighting site.  Just plug in your specific stain and it will give you a host of home-based treatment options.  My favorite stain fighters?  Liquid Tide poured directly on the stain and generic Oxy Clean added to the load.  How about you? What laundry tools do you love?

Here are the links to the rest of the series…

Tackling Laundry Mini-Tip 1: Set a Schedule and Stick To It

Tackling Laundry Mini-Tip 3: Incentivize to Minimize

Tackling Laundry Mini-Tip 4: Hang Out Outside the Closet

Tackling Laundry Mini-Tip 5: What You Give is What You Get

For example, I just did an overhaul of my cluttered garage shelves.  If I were on an organizing show they would probably make me go through a very deliberate (and time consuming) process such as…take everything off the shelves, purge the excess, divide up the remaining stuff into clear categories, make spiffy new labels for the shelves, measure the shelves to determine where everything should go, and then finally place all the items in their assigned locations.  Well, my little guy only naps for an hour at a time so, unlike the makeover shows, I needed a fix that would be faster and more flexible.  My solution?  Use a dry erase marker to create temporary labels.

I still went through the basic steps.  I scanned the shelves and moved or pitched anything that didn’t seem to fit in (like the cordless drill stashed on the bottom shelf or the bike pump I found behind the pasta).  Then I used my dry erase marker to make quick category labels on the shelves.  Once I started moving things around, I realized that my paper towels were a little too tall to fit on the low shelf I originally planned for them so I erased that label and reassigned them to a higher one.  I did the same thing with my 25lb flour sacks.  They were too big to fit with the other food storage items so I added them to the empty side of the cleaning supplies shelf and then wrote a quick label beneath them.  You could call it a trial and error (aka lazy) form of organizing, but I find it be much faster.  All in all, the entire project took me about 25 minutes and that includes the time it took me to take the random stuff (like the drill and the bike pump) back to their correct spots in the house.

You might ask, “Now that you’ve got your system all worked out, did you go spend hours creating beautiful, weather-proof, permanent labels?  Isn’t that what organized people do?”  To which I would answer, “Are you kidding?  I had 35 more minutes of kid nap time to kill so I spent it doing important stuff like checking my email and browsing blogs.”  The simple fact is, the garage shelves aren’t a high priority and their contents change frequently so it seems kind of silly to create permanent labels.  Rather, I left up the dry erase labels as a solid, temporary fix.  They’re clear enough for my family to follow and low-maintenance enough for me to rearrange and adjust as I see fit.

I often do the same thing with my organizing bins.  For example, I’ve got most of my kid’s old clothes in these blue rubbermaid bins (I’ve got over 20 of them).  I have a nice plastic-coated label on the front which is great because they look really neat and organized when they’re stacked in my basement.  However, functionally, having a label on only one side of the box isn’t terribly helpful.  After all, sometimes the boxes need to be stacked sideways, sometimes they don’t get put away correctly so the label faces the back, and sometimes I’ve got several out at a time and I don’t want to constantly flip them around to figure out what’s inside.

To solve the problem, I grab my dry erase marker and label the top, back and sides of the box.  It’s not a pretty fix, but since no one else ever sees the other sides of the box I don’t really care about aesthetics.  Plus, once we’re done having kids and it’s time to get rid of all the clothes I can easily wipe off the labels and repurpose the bins for something else (FYI – a lysol wipe works well if the ink is stubborn).  It’s a simple organizing solution that saves me time and trouble.  Just thought I’d pass it on.

My family was thrilled with the change but there was a small problem.  Each Monday I’d make four perfectly puffy loaves of whole wheat bread only to watch them be hacked to pieces throughout the week by my family.  It didn’t seem to matter what type of knife we used, we could never get smooth, even slices and my counters suffered from the constant crumbly mess.  I looked on Amazon for bread slicing tools and found several clunky contraptions.  However, none of them had good feedback ratings and they generally had a price tag of $25 or more.

Then, while I was perusing the “as seen on TV” area at WalMart, I came across this handy tool.  It’s a battery operated, twin-blade electric knife and it works like a charm on my bread.  The sharp blades slice without any added pressure so your bread never gets mashed or mangled in the cutting process.  The blades pop out with a push of a button and fit easily in the utensil basket of my dishwasher.  Plus, it’s cordless so it’s easy to use at the kitchen table and stores neatly in my cupboard.  Whether I need to carve up a roast or slice a birthday cake this handly tool is a must in my kitchen.  It’s called the OneTouch Cordless Knife.  I bought mine for $12 because it was marked down at WalMart.  You can also find it on Amazon by following this link.  Just thought I’d pass it on.

Are you craving a big batch of Honey Wheat Bread too?  I’ll be posting my scrumptious recipe tomorrow so be sure to check back soon.

A Sewing Magnet: I have to thank my big sister, Amy, for passing this tip on a few years ago.  Bobby pins and metal clips are staples in lots of little girl hairstyles.  Instead of digging them out of the bottom of your bathroom drawer, try keeping one of these cheap little magnets on your counter.  It will catch the stray pins and keep them close at hand when you’re trying to secure a bun or hair section.  You can buy one for a few dollars at any craft store or in the craft section of Walmart.

A Pony Loop: Okay so I made up that name…I have no idea what this thin metal ring is called, but I find it indispensable.  I use tons of these little, clear elastics in my girl’s hair and used to keep them in a basket in the bathroom.  The problem was they never seemed to stay there.  They end up on the floor, down the sink, and any number of other places.  A few years back I found one of these little rings and decided to use it to help me win my battle with wandering ponies.  As a side benefit, the ring travels incredibly well.  Whether you’re trying to do a french braid on the way to church or packing for a trip to Grandma’s this little ring will save you tons of trouble.  I haven’t been able to find them for ages then, at Walmart today, I noticed them attached to a package of Goody-brand pony tail holders.  I snatched up two just in case they disappear from the market again.

A Seam Ripper: I have one of my brilliant blog commenters to thank for this one.  When I published my post on pixie flips last year a reader named Toshia recommended using a seam ripper to remove the little clear elastics from hair.  I loved the idea and made a run to Walmart that very day to pick one up.  One year and countless pixie flips later I still use it as a painless alternative to yanking.  Needless to say, Toshia, if my daughters could thank you they totally would.

Well, there you have it.  Three very cheap ways to make your mornings a little easier.  If you’ve got other easy hair tips to share or sites to recommend I hope you’ll add them to the comments area.  Heaven knows my girls would be thrilled if I could pick up a few more pain-free solutions.  Just thought I’d pass it on.

It’s kind of amazing how quickly the kitchen floor can go from clean to crumb-covered. Even if the mess is isolated to a certain spot (like that pesky area under the stools) – the kitchen gets so much foot traffic that the initial mess seems to spread within minutes. My solution? Catch the mess early with a Butler’s Broom – or better yet, make your kids do it. I bought this handy little tool in the cleaning supplies section of Wal Mart for around $10. Its short size makes it very kid-friendly and allows it to tuck away neatly on my pantry door. It’s perfect for sweeping up small messes and reaching into tight corners. As a bonus, the handle-mounted dustpan saves you from bending down and it’s large enough to hold even the bigger kitchen clean-ups. I’ve used mine several times a day for the past two years and - although it’s starting to signs of wear - still works like a charm.

My Grabber was another Wal Mart find that I can’t live without. On any given day, I probably pick up dozens of random items off my floors, tables, sofas (and pretty much any other horizontal surface). I guess it might have something to do with the 4 people in our family that are less than 40 inches tall. You long time readers might remember the stash boxes I created to help deal with this pick-up-after-yourselves problem. Although the stash boxes and our weekly stash box challenge help a ton, I still hate bending over a zillion times a day to pick up what remains. That’s where this handy tool comes in. Designed to help people with disabilities extend their reach, the Grabber is perfect for Moms looking to streamline their clean-ups.  It’s narrow and lightweight which makes it incredibly convenient for grabbing kid shoes, papers, matchbox cars, couch cushions and pretty much everything else that wanders out of place each day. Best of all, the long handle virtually eliminates the need to bend over and provides extended reach for when your son decides to stash his rotten apple core behind the way-too-heavy-to-move-by-yourself armoire.

I loved having my Grabber during pregnancy – especially during that last trimester when I couldn’t bend over to tie my own shoes, let alone pick up Polly Pockets. If you’ve got a baby shower to attend in the near future, I highly recommend skipping the sea of traditional pastel baby presents and picking up a Grabber instead. Trust me, yours will be the first thank you card she’ll write! You can find the Grabber at various sites online or in the “as seen on TV” section of your local Wal Mart for around $10. Just thought I’d pass it on.