Discover Your Interior Design Style

My friend posted about this online quiz for determining 

your interior design style and I had to pass it on...

I was 67% Zen Style and 33% Contemporary. Both emphasized CLEAN spaces and clean lines. I added full descriptions of these styles and their design tips below for my own reference, but here's the link so you can read up on YOUR style. SO FUN!!!

Click Here for:  The Style Quiz

Zen Style

Goodbye clutter, hello clean! However in Zen Style, unlike some other contemporary design, the consistent level of natural materials keep the spaces from feeling cold and sterile. Zen Style has a nice mix of rustic with chic so that there is an incredible level of ease and sophistication about the space. Plants and greenery are very important in helping achieve the warm and natural feel of the space. When at all possible, natural lighting is used in spaces to help create the openness in the space.

Materials

Natural materials with their calming effects, are very prominent. Indoor water features, natural tatami or sea grass floor coverings are often used on top of wood or natural stone flooring. Bamboo is very popular in its living and dried form, as are dark hardwoods. Floral arrangements are very common and orchids and bonsais are very popular for their simplicity and beauty. With Zen Style, you will often see very clean lined furniture paired with rustic and sometimes ornate antiques (or replicas). However, the key is minimalism so the more ornate pieces are tempered by the lack of nearby items.

Colors

When it comes to color, subtle is key. Shades of gray, brown, green and white are common because of their simplicity and calming nature. Color, or lack there of, is intended to highlight the openness of the space and simplicity of the design. Very often you see light fabric and upholstery paired next to dark hardwoods, and this subtle contrast is enough to provide interest while still remaining subtle.

Space Planning

When it comes to furniture arranging, less is more. And a lot less is even that much more! Think minimal and avoid clutter at all cost. Furniture pieces are usually clean-lined and many times are low to the ground. Intimate spaces are created with furniture groupings as well as carefully placed floor mats and area rugs. You will often see floor cushions for additional or even the main seating.

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Contemporary

So fresh and so clean! Antiques? No thanks! Vintage collections and clutter of any type? Not for you! You like your space new and sleek. Each piece is chosen carefully as if it was a piece of art, and your love of minimalism is expressed throughout each room. Furniture has clean lines and geometric shapes are preferred. You're not afraid of color; in fact bold color options only highlight the minimal items you choose for your home. But, the key is clean! To master the minimalist interior you not only have to be selective in the few furniture items you bring into the space, but you must also find a way to hide all of the real life items as well.

8 Tips for Decluttering the Sentimental Stuff

I'm still in the process of decluttering our basement, so I'm sharing these tips about getting rid of "Sentimental Stuff."

1. Photos: We all have boxes of pictures waiting to be organized into albums. Luckily, the Digital Age has made this easier to tackle. When photos are digital, they're preserved for the ages on a DVD. Plus, you can create photo books in minutes. Sites such as shutterfly.com and snapfish.com walk you through every step of creating a photo book, from uploading and organizing photos to adding captions. (And they're affordable - for example, a 40-page notebook-size photo book is $19.95 at blurb.com, and smaller flipbooks are just $4.99 at snap fish.com.) That way, you can ditch the clunky, mismatched albums and boxes of disorganized, never looked at photos.

2. Children's artwork and school work: Each child in our family has a file in our filing cabinet labeled by their year in school. I put in their artwork, school work, team sports pictures, awards, etc. during that time frame. If something is 3 dimensional, or too big for the file, it gets displayed in the house for a few weeks and then we take a photograph of the child holding the item, and the photo is kept. Then periodically throughout the year, I toss the meaningless math assignments and spelling lists, keep a few good samples of artwork, tests, awards and photos and create an album to be treasured. A photo of your child holding their work is pretty precious and much more valuable than the trail glitter the project left. ;D

3. Kids' rooms: The dolls and the trophies don't have to live with you forever. One family reportedly has the antidote for children going away to college. They buy an appliance box at a moving-supplies store, and make an agreement with their college-bound kid to store everything he or she wants to keep that fits in the box until after college. In four years, most of that memorabilia won't seem important. Hopefully you can to edit the children's stuff as they age to a few key objects and present them with one special box or trunk. One mother said, "I really want them to have their history accessible to them in a fashion that isn't overwhelming." A small collection of scrapbooks/photo albums should do the trick.

4. Souvenirs: Charlotte Steill is a professional organizer who said a lot of clients have trouble getting rid of travel tchotchkes - the majority of which end up in boxes rather than on display. Again, she suggests taking photos of the objects and adding them to the trip's photo album.

"You have the memory, but not the three-dimensional object taking up space," she said. For special items, place them in a shadow box that hangs on the wall along with a few favorite photos from the trip.

5. Books: "I find a lot of people hold on to books for sentimental reasons," Steill said. One client purged his beloved law-school books after making shadow boxes from his favorite textbook covers. The rest of the textbooks were recycled. For years, I was horrified at the idea of getting rid of a book. I felt like some sort of Nazi book-burner. I finally dumped the guilt and donate the books! Donate to the local library, Deseret Industries or sell them online or at a yard sale or to a used book store. Visit booksforsoldiers.com to send paperback books to those in the service. I'm really starting to gravitate to digital books. The kindle or Audible app on my ipod touch is lot easier to pack for a vacation than bulky books that I MIGHT have time to read.

6. Parents' belongings: Baby Boomers are grappling with the belongings of parents who have downsized, moved into an assisted- living home or passed away. Julie Hall, an estate expert and author of "The Boomer Burden" urges people to cut back their own clutter before burdening loved ones. She also said aging parents should talk to their children about what items they want with them, and leave detailed documents about their final wishes.

"My goal is to make both generations aware that the burden is not our parents, the burden is their stuff. Their children don't know what their things are worth or what to keep and what to sell," she said. Have an appraiser evaluate items before anything is distributed or sold. Capture the home and contents with still and/or video cameras, for warm memories while helping loved ones let go of all but a few cherished heirlooms. "Keep the stuff that really, really means something to you, and let the rest go," Hall said. "Let people make new memories."

7. Family heirlooms: One woman inherited her mother's collection of china figurines. They just weren't her thing at all, but her mother had loved them. She finally decided to set them out at an estate sale and take solace when buyers fell in love with them. Organizers have this test for keeping heirlooms: If having it around me makes a client feel really happy, then keep it. But if it's up in the attic when someone else could use it, give it away or sell it.

8. Correspondence and documents: There's no way you can hang on to every Christmas card or letter. Treat holiday cards like kids' art. Keep only the best or only the photographs. Then make a holiday album you store with the seasonal decor to remember great holidays past. I've even seen craft ideas that use old Christmas cards to make tree ornaments.

If you're cleaning years of paperwork out of a den, a shredder is heaven-sent. Remember that almost any bill or statement can be retrieved online, so there are few essential documents you must keep. Keep your tax records for the previous three years, warranties or valuable receipts, but little else.

7 Tips for Daily Decluttering

I ranted last Thursday about decluttering two rooms in our basement, so with clutter-killing in mind, I'm sharing the following tips. I pulled this straight from a blog called "Simple Up." One woman's journey of decluttering the childhood home she inherited still filled with her family's things...


1. Make time, and dig in. Even 10 minutes a day of decluttering can make a big difference, and once you get things started (and see how much better you feel afterward!), you'll be more motivated to keep going. Another way to tackle clutter would be to weed out a set number of things each week--say, 6 items of clothing you don't wear anymore or 6 things in the kitchen that you never use or have too many of. I usually leave a "donations" box out for additional items that I find throughout the week.

2. Let go, already. If you've been holding on to something just because you *might* need it, consider how long you've had it without needing it so far, and how likely (or unlikely) it is that you really will need it in the future. Is it really worth the space it's taking up? If you've been holding on to something for sentimental reasons, realize that letting go of a thing is not the same thing as letting go of a memory--you can get rid of Grandma's antique tea set without losing or disrespecting your memory of her.

3. If you still can't let it go, it's ok. Find a place to keep it that is worthy of the object's value to you. Put it on display in a prominent place in your home, or keep it tucked away in proper storage (*not a musty box in your garage). Don't just cram it in anywhere--if you have to, make room for it by getting rid of something else.

4. Organize as you go, putting like things together. That way you can figure out what exactly you do have, what you have too much of, and what you shouldn't buy any more of.

5. Visualize what you want your home to look like. What do you want each space to be used for? Move, or get rid of, the things that don't belong.

6. Keep purging (and organizing) until your stuff fits in the space you want it to fit in. If it is taking a lot longer than you expected (and these projects usually do), hang in there! Take time to appreciate the progress that you're making, however slight it may seem.

7. After a space has been successfully cleared; keep it that way. Say no to knick-knacks and free junk. For that matter, you may want to look at all of your spending habits and figure out if what you're buying is really helping you or if it's just adding to the mess.

Enough Stuff!!!

As a child, I was a HORRIBLE pack-rat.
I hoarded papers, toys, magazines, letters, ticket stubs, and just about anything I touched for more the 5 minutes. ;D And then I fantasized about all the STUFF I wanted to have when I grew up.

Moving away to college necessitated my first big PURGE. You can't pack much into those shared apartments, and my parents wisely didn't want my stuff lying around for years.

After Matt and I were married, we moved 8 times in the first 10 year of our marriage. I'm convinced that packing and moving that often will cure anyone of their attachment to STUFF!

I learned very quickly that if I hadn't looked at or used something in a year's time, then I didn't really need it, and I REALLY didn't want to pack it! In the process of all that moving, I've had a lot of time to philosophize about the nature of STUFF.  I've come to think stuff has a life-force of its own.

Stuff begins to own you instead of you owning it.

In fact, the more stuff we have, the more I feel like a slave to it. I have to clean it, organize it, keep it in good repair, and clean it up again and again.

The challenge I face these days has to do with the fact that we have a big family. Kids just propagate stuff, and five kids (soon to be 6) drag stuff into the house exponentially. Of course, we all need clothes, shoes, and some personal items, but much of the stuff they bring home is just junk. I've become the sneaky mother who tosses the happy meal toys and dollar store trinkets that trickle into the house incessantly. I think I've become an expert on noticing which stuff is getting played with and used, and which stuff is just littering the floor. I like to keep a few quality samples of school work and artwork, but not every scrap of paper that they bring home. I've learned that the import part of most assignments was the EXPERIENCE not the finished paper product. In fact, my attitude towards gift giving has turned toward giving great experiences, and wanting to minimize the STUFF that flows into the house. (I like to take pictures to preserve the memories and then store those digitally!)

We're coming up on our 6th anniversary of living in our current house. The longest we've ever stayed in one place. When this baby is born, half of our children will have joined our family in this house, and I'm about to undertake the colossal task of cleaning out the storage room and the craft room to create an additional bedroom for the kids.  Some things will be moved to the new "barn," but I'm hoping to donate or dump the rest.

Six years is a lot time to accumulate STUFF in these two rooms, in spite of my best efforts. I guess I'm using this post to vent some steam as I stare into the jaws of this beast and prepare my plan of attack.

Some organizing books say to toss anything not used in 6 months, but that standard won't work for the Christmas decorations. So I think I'll give things a year if they're holiday related and everything else should come in handy at least seasonally. I'm pretty sure that the water storage needs to be dumped and refilled, and I KNOW that the food in the 72 hour kits is outdated. I'm starting to feel like every tote in that room will send me on a tangent for a full day, and I think there are nearly 90 boxes, bags & totes in those rooms. Ugh! And I shudder at the thought of all the scrapbooking supplies.

I better stop typing and just get cracking or I won't be finished before the baby gets here.
"STUFF ...  this means war!"
Wish me luck.


How do YOU like to manage the flow of STUFF at your house?

Grandparenting from afar...

I know that one day my little ones will be grown and gone. Even though that time seems far away, I still like collecting ideas about grandparenting.

Sometimes families are lucky enough to have grandparents close by, but that isn't always possible. My kids are fortunate enough to have wonderful grandparents who use a variety of tools and methods to stay in touch. One set of grandparents does lives close and arranges for visits, and attends soccer games and school productions. One of the kids grandma's meets us for great mini-trips. Both of which are a LOT of fun - My kids love it! Thank you!


However, this post is about something that another set of grandparents does....

Care Packages!

About every month, the kids get a package in the mail with something fun to say "We Love You!" and "We were thinking about you!" 

• A package of gum and a note that reads something like ...  "We're stuck on you."
• Personalized magnets shaped like giant pencils (sent at the beginning of the school year) that read, "Look what Gabe did at School!"
• A kit to make candy airplanes with smarties, a stick of gum, a rubber band, and lifesavers. The gum is re-wrapped to say, "It's plane to see my Grandma & Grandpa love me!"
• A kit to make cupcakes and secretly give them to a neighbor (A great teaching opportunity even from afar.)
• A calendar sent in January filled with pictures of family members and family activities.

This month the kids got candy necklaces and a note saying, 

"We're so 'LUCKY' to have such wonderful grandchildren!"

These packages have been so much fun. 

Some simple. Some elaborate. 

Some fun. Some meaningful. 

Always saying, "We love you!"

I want to make sure to do things like this for my grandkids one day.

Thank you, Grandma & Grandpa!


***Hot off the press: I prepared this post last week, but guess what came last night?
An Easter care package! 
It included toy magnets, decorations, games, and cookies.
SO FUN - THANKS AGAIN!!!

Keeping Track of Medication

I don't know about you, but when my kids go on prescription medication, I have a devil of a time keeping track of it.

Three days into the prescription, the doses start blending together in my mind and I'm left wondering,
"Did I already give you your meds this morning?"
or "Did we forget the meds last night?"

Then I'm stressing about missed doses or overdosing.
And if multiple children are taking multiple meds, there's just no way I can keep track of it in my head. I cannot remember!  

So, I usually make a simple chart and tape it to a cupboard door or above the sink. I like to note the number of days for the prescription, the time of day for the doses, and the day of the week.

I put a pen on the bread box for easy access, and every time I administer a dose, I just cross it off on the chart.

Seven days to go for Zach's ear infection, and no more mystery - Whew!

Taming Disk Chaos

This mess isn't ours but it's close ;D

I don't know about you, but we have a ridiculous number of disks in our house.

Music CDs...

Computer CDs...

Audio Books...

Movie DVDs...

Home Movies...

Wii Games...

On and on....

Almost nobody at our house will bother to put a disk back into its proper case, so we end up with piles of disks on shelves and in cabinets. The cases are lost under the couch or worse... stepped on and broken. I'm tired of the mess, the disk hunting, the scratched disks and the time spent matching disks to cases, so, I decided to simplify.  I bought these beautiful DVD Books on Amazon.com. They each hold 48 disks, and I assigned each book a category:

1. Early Childhood DVDs (Baby Einstein, Signing Time, etc.)
2. Kids' Movies
3. Mom & Dad's Movies
4. Educational & 2nd Discs (bonus features, etc.)
5. Home Movies
6. Religious (Church videos, Veggie Tales, etc.)
7. Music CD's
8. Audiobooks
9. Wii Games
10. PC Games

I sorted the disks accordingly and chucked the cases. For the music CD's I kept the songbooks and slid them into a disk slot above or below the CD. For certain church videos, I kept the guide pamphlets and slid them into a slot by the discs as well. I printed labels for each book and slid them into their frames.

These books take up infinitely less space than all of those cases! 

And they look beautiful on my shelves.

Because disk clean-up is simplified and convenient, the kids are little more willing to put the disks away when swapping them out of the machines. So far, so good. :D

Time Management

Yes, I know you're laughing hysterically at the thought of me posting about time management.

Clearly this blog is a tool for focusing on my needs for improvement. If you know me, you know that I'm frequently 5 or more minutes late.  I try to be on time - I really do TRY!!! It's just that I was born a week late, and I swear it's thrown me off schedule ever since! ;D

But, enough excuses. The time is overdue for me to get this part of my life in order.

So, super-readers, what do we do when we have a problem?

We LOOK in a BOOK!!!

Did you know I invented the show "Super-why?" Just like Al Gore invented the internet.

What was I talking about? Oh ya! Time Management... Do you see the problem?
I'm easily distracted. And I live with 6 delightful and sometimes infuriating distractions,
and last week, we were late for EVERYTHING! I'm feeling rather pathetic about it, so I decided to review one of my favorite books:

Time Management from the Inside Out, by Julie Morgenstern.

The lovely Ms. Morgenstern says that people who are chronically late don't mean to be rude, but they just tend to fall into these categories...

1. The "I-didn't-think-of-that-ers" who don't fully comprehend how long it takes to get somewhere or accomplish a task. They know their appointment starts at 9 am, but they didn't think of how long it REALLY takes to drive there, they didn't think of traffic, and they didn't think of the time to load kids, park, walk, use the elevator, etc.

2. The "Nothing-to-Do-Panic-ers!" They can't stand the thought of sitting around with nothing to do, so they try to do "one more thing" before going out the door, and hope that they'll arrive exactly on time. Then, of course, their "one more thing" takes longer than expected and they're late.

When I first got this book, I sadly fell into BOTH of these categories,  For example, I used to think it should take 10 minutes to get ready for the pool. WRONG!!! So wrong!  It takes us 30 minutes: 5 for dressing, 5 for gathering supplies, 15 for slathering sun screen on everyone, and 5 to load the van.

Next we have "nothing to do panic." Even as I type this, the thought of arriving at a meeting early and sitting there for 10 minutes with nothing to do, makes my eyes fling wide and I gasp for breath.  As the hyperventilating begins, I think... How will I keep the kids entertained and not climbing on the walls? What about my giant "To Do" list that cries out to me as I JUST SIT THERE?!?! I will go INSANE from the unproductivity and BOREDOM!!! Aaaaahhhhahhhaahah!!!!

You can tell, this is still a problem.

But Ms. Morgenstern has some wonderful suggestions for the chronically unpunctual and overloaded "To Do-ers" like me.

• Time how long it takes to do things: People tend to think that tasks they enjoy take no time at all (i.e. You think calling your friend will take 10 minutes, but you always gab for an hour.) People also think that tasks they don't enjoy will take a LONG time. (Picture Max being told to clean his room when all he has to do is put his pajamas away and make his bed, and he cries, "That will take a MILLION years!!!") So we dive into the 'fun' tasks and procrastinate the disliked ones, without comprehending the real time involved. 

Timing your activities is a great tip for planning every part of your day! When you know how long it takes to get things done (and you can even factor in the 10 interruptions from your kids.) Then you can plan your days so much more effectively. You can STOP overloading the 'To Do' list and dump the guilt, because you recognize that there are only 16 waking hours of the day, and you won't get past 'To Do #5.'

• To overcome 'nothing-to-do-panic' Bring Something To Do: keep your purse stocked with little things to do like a set of note cards, a book, a crossword, an ipod, a phone, or just SOMETHING to quell the panic. And then you'll feel liberated to get out of the door on time (or gasp - early!) and know that you've got something to occupy your mind and time. 

Ahhhhhhhhh, my breathing is starting to regulate already, and I'm filled with all sorts of punctual desires!

So, my goal for this week is... BE ON TIME! I'll have to give you a report on Friday.

Kids' "Stations"

My refrigerator was maxed out! 

Every exterior inch of it was covered in artwork, announcements, school papers, invitations, and reminders. Half of which ended up under the fridge or in the garbage because they committed the sin of being within Jared's grasp. We struggled to keep track of whose paper was whose,  what's coming up next, and what needed to be done to prepare. There were too many people using too small a space.

Something had to be done!

I had the idea for each of the school-age kids to have a 'station' where their own artwork & awards could be displayed, invitations & papers could be stored temporarily, and "To Do" lists or notes to that child could be written.
After searching, I found these great quality organizers by Expo at Walmart.com.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Expo-Combo-Dry-Erase-Board-Black-Wood-Frame/14150598

Each station is 18" high x 24" wide. They have a pocket for papers, elastic cross-bands for holding small items, and a magnet dry-erase board. I bought a packet of vinyl lettering from Hobby Lobby and mounted each station and a child's name on a small wall facing our dining room. It's out of the public eye, but it's visible at meal times, when we often discuss what's going on for the day or the week.

I put these up in December as a Christmas gift to myself ;D, and they have been SO helpful! I have a place to put the kids projects or homework when it's time to set the table for dinner. The kids hang their own pictures and even write their own "To Do's" or reminders on their boards; and if a paper goes missing, we can often find it in their station. It's so much easier to keep track of what's going on with the kid's individually (like who has a birthday party on Saturday, a talk on Sunday, or who needs to use their Pizza Hut Book-it coupon.) I can easily file school papers at the end of each week and toss outdated invites or newsletters. I'm liking these so much, that I may go ahead and buy stations for Jared and the bambino on the way, just to keep them uniform in the future.

Happy organizing!

Let's Talk Laundry!

Let's face it, the biggest complaint I hear from Moms is, 
"The laundry is a BEAST!"


THE GOALS:

• Reduce the workload for Mom (less washing and ironing.)
• CONVENIENTLY push more responsibility back onto the other family members.
• Rid the house of laundry clutter: No piles of dirty laundry on the floor, OR piles of clean laundry on the couch or bed. 

Our laundry system has evolved over many years, but I'm feeling pretty good about the way things are working now, so I hope that you find an idea or two to help tame the laundry beast at your house.

RULE #1:  If it looks clean and it smells clean, then it is clean!

With kids who wear uniforms to school, we go through multiple outfits every day, and everything isn't dirty after one use. I've also read that washing machines can be harder on clothes than the wearing them, so less unnecessary washing means that clothes fade less and last longer.

My kids have been well rehearsed in this rule, and when they clean their rooms, they're expected to hang the clean clothes and put the dirty ones in their laundry baskets.

Tip #1: Keep a laundry basket in each bedroom. 

Jared insisted on posing with his laundry basket
- he kept stepping in front of the camera and saying, "Teese!"

Ideally, keep a laundry basket in each closet where it's out of sight and easy to use. I got this tip from my mother-in-law. It naturally leads to tip #2

Tip #2: Everyone is responsible for sorting their own laundry and taking empty hangers to the laundry room. 

My kids learn to sort laundry around age 3. It's good for them! They develop those preschool sorting skills and it reinforces their understanding of colors and the concepts of light and dark.

Tip #3: Have laundry baskets for lights and darks in the laundry room.

They can't sort the laundry if they don't have a place to put it. So, I have two baskets for sorting; The whites go in the white basket, and the colors go in the blue basket. I also have an old set of wire shelves that we use for hanging empty hangers.

I've taught my older three kids how to use the washer and dryer, and I have them rotate loads on occasion. But for now, I take responsibility for cleaning the clothes. To reduce ironing work and prevent piles of clean clothes everywhere, I take care of the laundry right out of the dryer and...

Tip #4: Hang & fold everything right out of the dryer.

Tip #4b: Folded towels, sheets, dish-cloths, etc. go into another basket on top of the dryer, whose sole purpose is to collect clean clothes and help me put them away easily. (This is also a good 'laundry helper' job.) The rest of the clothing gets put into my FAVORITE TIP... 

Tip #5: Laundry Drawers!

I discovered this from magazine I read three years ago, and I LOVE IT! I bought two sets of these plastic, 3-drawer units from Walmart (about $15 each.) I lashed them together with heavy duty packing tape, and labeled a drawer for each member of the family. As I fold underwear, pajamas, swimsuits, socks or anything you keep in bedroom drawers, the items go into that persons laundry drawer. *These drawers are also AWESOME for all the little treasures that you find in peoples pockets! Or for a stray belt or shoe or whatever that ends up in the laundry by mistake.  

When kids say, "Mom, I'm out of underwear." I get to say, "Did you check your laundry drawer?" They're so used to this response,  that if they run out of anything, they just go check the drawer themselves. *It's their cue that its time to collect their clean clothes and put them away.

The previous owners of our house installed this clothes rack, but I've used a variety of racks for this purpose.  All pants, shirts and skirts are hung immediately and I even made little dividers out of poster board to sort the clothes as I go.


The laundry drawers and hanging rack accomplish one beautiful thing...

Tip #6: Everyone is responsible for collecting their clean clothes and putting them away! 

That's something I've always hated about doing the laundry... the endless marathon of running clothes to ten different closets and dressers ~ ugh! Once or twice a week, I'll call everyone to the laundry room to collect their hanging clothes and laundry drawers. Then they return their emptied drawer to the 'dresser.' 

One last tip...

Tip #7: The sock basket.

Socks are still one unruly member of the laundry process, because matches don't always end up in the same load. So, as I'm folding & hanging things from the dryer I just throw all of the socks into a basket, and then match them and put them in drawers once or twice a week. (Actually, sock matching is a 'laundry helper' job. I supervise.) Then the socks go into each laundry drawer. 

There you have it - a ridiculous amount of information about the taming of our laundry beast.  I realize that some people may think there's an awful lot of 'stuff' in this process, but we have an awful lot of laundry. 

All told, my family of 7 uses 7 laundry baskets (4 in the bedrooms & 3 in the laundry room), 6 plastic drawers, 2 hanging racks (1 for clothes & 1 for empty hangers,) and a small basket for socks. 

The laundry chaos in my house without these tools is terrifying, and I love, LOVE, LOVE how they keep us organized and tame the BEAST!