When you’re encouraging your kids to keep their rooms tidy, there is no better way to do it than to make it seem like a game…think Mary Poppins - “a spoon full of sugar, makes the medicine go down, in a most delightful way”!!

These fun hampers are the perfect way to engage your kids, and teach them to put their dirty clothes in the right place. I love so many things about these Bongo Buddy hampers by Redmon, besides how adorable they are they come in a variety of animals and colours to fit in any decor. So many in fact, that you can find one that both you and your kids would appreciate and adopt. I also love that they are collapsable - you can take them with you when you go somewhere for the weekend! You still want to keep some semblance of order when you are on vacation and there is nothing I hate more than garbage bags of dirty laundry, or worse - dirty clothes everywhere! The portability of these was the ultimate sale for me.

I am certain your children will find it a much easier task keeping clothes off their floor when they “feed” the animals their dirty clothes. I hope you enjoy these and find the perfect one for your decor! Be sure to comment and let us know your FAVE buddy.

Start Shopping for Bongo Buddy Hampers >>

This will be the last tip for our laundry week. I promised everyone a list of my favorite tried and true stain removers, and here it is so get your shopping list ready.

For general stains, I love to use OxyClean spray. For the most part, I find it extremely effective and love that it does such a good job. There is one major problem with it though - you can only spray things before putting it in the wash. If it stays too long, I have found that it bleaches some fabrics and has put HOLES in others (tiny little holes, but all over). I unfortunately learned that lesson the hard way. Don’t be scared off though - as long as you don’t let it sit for a couple days you should be just fine.

My other FAVOURITE is Sunlight Bar Soap. I think it has been around about a hundred years, but it is the only thing I know of that gets baby “explosions” out of their clothes. It requires a little elbow grease, but it will get any stain out - especially if treated fresh.

Another love of mine, is the Javex Bleach pen. The bleach pen is one you have to be careful with - you can’t let it sit longer than 10 minutes and realistically can only be used on white things that need a spot treatment. My recommendation is to have a list of stain removal tips (laminated is best) beside your laundry soap, for an easy handy reference. The biggest thing with stains is to deal with it right away, (use the Sunlight bar on anything, then hang the garment to dry, or throw it immediately in the wash so it doesn’t mildew), and to make sure that it does NOT go into the dryer until the stain is gone. Sometimes I will wash and air dry a stained garment 4 times before it finally comes out. Just be patient and work your Sunlight bar like crazy! Good luck treating your stains!

These are great references to print off, laminate and have beside your laundry soap:

Martha Stewart’s Stain Removal List

Martha Stewart’s Supply Checklist

All week we’ve been featuring tips and finds about making laundry easier and more fun. In this episode Maja talks about her sweet obsession with doing laundry, and covers the basics for setting up a good routine. She also shares a few ideas for making your laundry room work better for you.

We want to encourage alot of discussion and sharing of your dilemma’s in this area, let’s all help each other in making the laundry room one of the Happy Places in our homes (it’s possible, we’re almost sure of it!).

For today’s tip I am going to share my secret to the best smelling laundry! Seriously, I have had people comment on how my clothes smell for years and it has NOTHING to do with Gain detergent (sorry Gain lovers, but it is much too overwhelming for me - if I can tell what laundry detergent you use while standing behind you in line… it is way too powerful! It shouldn’t override your shampoo scent and perfume. I did buy it once - never again.) If Gain tickles your fancy that’s great, but if you want to walk on the wild side with me read on…

I am a huge fan of the basics, but put these working together and you’ve got the best smelling combo for show stopping clothing. Here’s the list: Ultra Tide, Ultra Downey, Javex Bleach (only on whites and towels - it gets that gross mildewy smell out of your washcloths every time), and Bounce Outdoor Fresh Scent Dryer Sheets. Using this combo together will make your clothes clean, and smell wonderfully fresh! You will seriously love it.

Tomorrow’s tip will be on stain removers. Happy washing!

Maja has been sharing some great tips and finds over the past week to make doing your laundry more enjoyable. I had to also share this fun and inexpensive find that I discovered today from Organize-It online.

These sweet little disks are called the “SockPro Wash Organizer Disks” and cost $3.99 for a set of 10. The great thing about them is you just slip a pair of dirty socks through the middle of the disk, then toss them into the washer or dryer…voila…your clean socks emerge from the dryer as a set! They come in several different colors, so you can even assign colored disks for each member of the family.

If you’re anything like me, our laundry room is the bermuda triangle vortex for matching socks. I’m really excited to give the SockPro disks a try. Happy Laundering - Daria.

Click here to view this cool product>