Laundry room makeover

I'm so excited about my new changes to the laundry room and my laundry system! I have been reading a book called "Smart Martha's Catholic Guide for busy moms" and I was seriously disappointed (but also encouraged) b/c I had been really excited to read her chapters on dealing with toys and toy storage, but as it turns out it was as if I had written the book myself- she has nearly identical systems and thoughts on toys as me! I don't mean that to sound arrogant, like I could have written the book, it was just a freakishly weird coincidence.

However, I found a nugget that I really liked in her laundry section. She uses big pullout drawer type bins- one for each person, and as she is folding, she puts the folded clothes in the bin and that person pulls out the full drawer and puts it away. I don't have the budget for those big expensive pull out bins, but I do have a lot of plain laundry baskets, and I also had the big wooden storage shelves behind the laundry table, but they were filled with stuff. So I did some rearranging, and some donating to Goodwill, and voila, now i have safe (off the ground so Sammy can't fling things around) storage of folded laundry! I usally sorted each person's (or Sam & Leo, Robbie & I together) into a separate basket already, but then those baskets would sometimes be hanging around on the floor, and get redumped, or often I just have time to do some at a time and then I have to make multiple trips up and down with a little at a time.

If nothing else, even if I don't get to the putting away, or having the kids put away (and I have been step by step methodically teaching the older two to put away carefully without letting the things unfold- this really pays off!) it will make things lots less of a hassle if they have to run to the basement to get something - they can just check in their labeled basket instead of having to root through everything. I also got an old pull down ironing board that my mom didn't want, and a hanging garment, (which is adjustable height so will double as a portable dress up station for the kids dress ups when we have friends over.) where I can immediately hang things out of the dryer and hopefully avoid ironing things that shouldn't need ironing but for being left in a basket to get wrinkled. I'm excited to try to keep up now and only have to fold one or two loads at a time in little bursts, instead of the constant "boom and bust' of having clean put away laundry! I'l llet you know how it goes!