We recently revamped our laundry room. It’s a TINY space and needed to become way more functional for us. So the husband installed some shelves, and a new hanging rack, and we got to organizing. A hat bin here, soap surplus here, hooks on either side, Laundry Tongs. Wait, what? No, you read that correctly: LAUNDRY TONGS.
1. Laundry Tongs
You see, I’m what some people like to call vertically challenged, a shorty, fun-sized. I’m short. Being short can make it really difficult to reach the bottom of my washing machine. Those last socks or undies are almost impossible to reach. I’ve actually fallen INTO my machine before! But no longer! We went to a restaurant store and bought an industrial pair of tongs, like heavy duty. Now they hang right next to the wash and both the kids and I use them to remove clothes from the washing machine! It has made life SO much easier. The kids can independently move the laundry from the wash to the dryer. Win all around!
2. Laundry Turtle
Next up, the Laundry Turtle. This is a new acquirement for our family but it is truly life-changing. This little device assists in getting ALL the laundry out of the dryer in one fell swoop! It’s a flexible disc with a stretchy material on the inside. You lay it over the clothes in the dryer & then just scoop them all up! Whether you’re a fold them all right away kinda family or a Mt. Laundry kinda family, this little Laundry Turtle will get all your laundry to the folding site with no sock left behind! It saves my back but it’s also another step toward independence for my kids! They are often responsible for changing the laundry and ever since we added the Laundry Turtle emptying the dryer has become a one-kid job! Buy the real thing, or search on Amazon, either way, you won’t regret it!
3. Laundry Folder
If you haven’t seen a pattern yet, I’m big on letting my kids participate in household tasks. We have a 10 yo, 7 yo, and a 5 yo. All of them can load and run the washing machine, in pairs they can move clothes to the dryer and run it, and they move clothes from the dryer to the clean laundry pile I mean, the couch for folding. A few years ago, my sister-in-law posted about these laundry folders that help her littles fold and I was sold! Off to Amazon I went and bought one for each of the kids as well as an adult-sized folder for the husband! And we’ve never looked back! I’m far from a Type A mom. If the kids fold clothes, I am NOT refolding it behind their backs. It will get put away folded, and I will sleep soundly at night. The kids enjoy racing with their box folders to see who can fold their clothes the fastest and get them put away. It takes a dreaded task, making it a little more fun and a little more mindless. Thus saving my sanity just a little more!
4. Found in the Wash Bucket
Okay, this is more of a craft project. I don’t have a fun link for you on this one, but it is my favorite décor in my laundry room! Enter, the Found In the Wash bucket. It’s exactly what it sounds like, a bucket above the Wash & Dryer to dump all the things forgotten in pockets. Mine is plastic because I’m a realist and my kids help with the laundry. My mom used to get so frustrated sorting through laundry, finding all the treasures we forgot to remove from our pockets: special rocks, paper clips, candy wrappers, chap stick, pens. You know the drill. I decided to make it a fun little task. So I took a cheap fishbowl and a paint pen, wrote “Found in the Wash” on it and the rest is history! We fill it up, laugh at each other for what we forgot to remove from our pockets, and move on. I’ve taken to photographing the bucket as it fills, and once it’s filled. Silly, but it’s memories of rock filled pockets that I know I’ll miss one day. And it really has been interesting to see what insane things my kids keep in their pockets. A bottle of lavender oil? A pool squid toy? Rocks? Ribbons? Ponytail holders? Coins from international travel? It’s all been found. It’s all been added to the bucket. It’s all made memories.
