Guest Picks: Pretty Laundry Room, Dirty Task
— Sasha from Lemonade Makin' Mama
I love these laundry hampers. A few of the gray dotted ones would be absolutely darling nestled up beside the washing machine. Of course, the trick is getting your family to actually pre-sort and put their clothing into them.
Why didn't I have this laundry marker all these years? With several children close in age and wearing similar items, this would have been so handy! Of course, now I need it to mark my own items since my closet seems to be becoming fair game.
Laundry isn't the most fun thing in the world, but if you're forced to talk sweetly to wrinkled collars as you douse them with starch, you may as well do it on a pretty ironing board cover. It's the bit of eye candy we forget about for some reason. These soft blues and grays make for soothing ironing (as soothing as ironing can be, anyway).
If you're short on space, this little baby is a perfect way to organize and store your iron and ironing board and get it out of your sight — which you may not want to do if you invested in a cute ironing board cover.
A drying rack is one of those often overlooked yet handy items. My guess is that once this is installed in my laundry room, I'm going to find a lot of non-laundry uses for it, but it's definitely going to come in handy when I have rows of snow pants and mittens needing to dry. And of course, those delicate sweaters and jeans. The beadboard is my favorite touch but I love the whole design; it looks like something from my grandmother's day.
An elegant addition to your laundry room, this set of apothecary jars could hold your washing powder, clothes pins and even things like coils of clothesline. You may find yourself in your laundry room a lot more if it has things that are this cute in it.
I'm a lover of wordy art. This sweet little piece on a taupe background will work perfectly into the color scheme of most laundry rooms, and add a bit of fun to a seemingly mundane chore. Every mundane chore needs a little bit of fun.
If you love vintage items as much as I do, this set of three vintage hangers is sure to make your heart sing. Hung on the wall, they are a reminder that many before you have done (and finished) laundry and survived. Plus, they're cute.
Not only are they great for kid crafts, they are truly functional for line drying your clothing. I think of these as the cupcake of laundry — you don't always need them, but why not keep them on hand?
Use this as a soft place for your feet while you iron, switch loads and fold clothing. And I'm betting every time you look down, you will smile at this fun design of loopy flowers in a soothing color palette.
Don't forget to add some nice lighting to your laundry room. Even if you are lucky enough to have a window in the room, one or more of these simple pendants will make your work light (pun intended).
Looking for the perfect, soft gray paint? Look no further than "Light French Gray" by Sherwin Williams. Their ecofriendly "green sure" paint is just right for most tiny spaces, such as your laundry room. I love this color and it's low odor makes me feel good about using it around my kids. The missing socks, I can't help you with.
The possible uses for a big, hand-blown glass jar are endless in a laundry space. You might begin a loose change collection, a rock collection, a crayon collection — you see where I'm going with this, right? Or, you could throw every lone sock into it, so that you won't find one as soon as you toss the other. How handy is that?
There are countless things that need a common space in a laundry room: Small pair of scissors for snipping loose threads, items found in pockets that would be better off if not washed, keys and even notes on stain removal. This neutral linen-covered pin board is the ideal size and flexible color for most any laundry area.
There are many different types of hangers a person should have for a well-outfitted closet. However, it seems like every time I pull a delicate blouse, or strappy top out of the wash, I don't have the proper hanger for drying. These bamboo hangers feature tiny notches on either end, created just for those slippy straps and delicate materials. I'm going to keep a handful stashed above my washing machine from now on.
Endless loose buttons find a way into my dryer and if I don't have a little bowl or jar to tuck them into, by the time I get around to sewing the missing offenders onto each item, the button is long gone. Find an extraordinary bowl, like this handmade aqua leaf bowl, and you'll always know where the missing buttons are — even if it takes a few months to pull out your needle and thread.
Often, the laundry room is the natural place for storing cleaning supplies. Why not use something functional and cute for this purpose? This wooden tool caddy will hold everything in a tidy array and makes for easy transportation as well as pretty storage.
You never have enough places to hang things in a laundry room. Bags for delicates, misplaced umbrellas, totes and the like. Hang this row of sturdy cast iron hooks beside your washer and dryer and you'll have not only a place to put things, but a quick and easy way to keep the floor clutter-free.
If you feel like a little splurge for your freshly-washed linens is in order, spritz on some laundry fragrance by CLEAN. That "fresh off the line" scent is the reward for a job well done.Next: Places to Store the Washer and Dryer
Here's my game plan for spring: Buy one of these babies for every member of my family, line them up on laundry day and as I fold and sort clean clothing, I'll just stack each person's items into their baskets and scrawl their name on the chalkboard. Then, when they don't put their clothing away, it will still look nice and like I tried.
Q