A continuing compendium of tips and tricks from Home & Garden Television:Tips for organizing your laundry room.1. Corral All-Weather Gear Hats, gloves, sunglasses and scarves usually end up all over the house or shoved in the coat closet. First identify what's important and group similar items. Then purge any glove missing its partner. Assign by corralling all your cold- and warm-weather essentials and containerizing with labeled baskets for each member of the family. Store these where your family normally takes them off after coming indoors.2. Contain Your Cleaning Supplies A common source of frustration in the laundry room is finding a place for all those cleaning supplies. Solution: Store cleaning supplies in a carry-all caddy. The caddy is ideal for wire shelves because it prevents bottles from tipping over.3. Create a Pet ZoneIf your pet's possessions are slowly taking over the household, consider creating a pet zone in the laundry room. Things to put in the space: a bed or crate; a peg rack for leashes and collars; and food dishes on a non-skid carpet or in an elevated dish. Be sure everything's placed out of the flow of traffic for the room.4. Go Vertical to Dry ClothesThe too-small laundry room often suffers from a serious lack of hanging space, resulting in clothes draped over the dryer, cabinets and doors. Vertical space is often the most overlooked area in these rooms. Install a retractable clothesline or buy an inexpensive freestanding drying rack.5. Pre-Sort Dirty Clothes in HampersCut down on laundry time with an organized method for pre-sorting clothes. If space is available, add three laundry hampers for whites, lights and darks.6. Create a Laundry Room "Lost and Found"More than socks go missing in the laundry room each year. Add a mug or basket near the washer to contain items found in pockets. For those elusive socks, keep another basket handy for strays. Reunite all items with their owners each week.Courtesy of Caren Baginski and Julie Morgenstern's, "Organizing from the Inside Out"(For thousands of other ideas visit www.hgtv.com. Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service.)
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