Laundry is just one of those never-ending chores. Sometimes a small ‘make-over’ to your laundry space can make this daunting chore just a little bit more fun!  Here are some ideas to inspire you.

Love It! “No Sock Left Behind” – Don’t know if your washer and dryer eat socks like mine do – oh, who am I kidding, whose washer and dryer doesn’t eat socks!?!  Inspired by Rambling As Usual Blog.

Baskets under the washer and dryer! Love this idea smaller laundry rooms!  Inspired by Show and Tell blog.

How about a drying rack for your clothes? Re-nest blog has 15 inspiring ideas for drying racks.

And I LOVE this upcycling idea – an old ladder turned into drying rack! I found this idea on Pinterest, but not sure original source to give credit too!

How about a new place to keep your ironing board? Check out some of these brilliant ideas at Houzz website.  Here’s one of them:

Love this practical idea in which you can place them either side by side or stack on top of each other. From Ana White blog.

And if you want a major uplift to your laundry room…how about these laundry rooms?! I had no idea laundry rooms could be so beautiful! Found at Light Innovations blog.

Or this one from Junk Garden Girl’s blog…

So, is your laundry room in need of inspiration? Or do you have some inspiration to share with the rest of us?

Last year a new neighbor gave me her phone number on paper that included each member of her family printed around the outside.  Since she has 6 children in her family, this was incredibly helpful for me to keep track of everyone!  I can’t tell you how many times I have referred back to this piece of paper.  So, of course, I soon decided that all of my friends needed these too and set out to find my own to buy.  I love them!  One stack of paper has lasted me a whole year.  These are great as gifts for new parents who are thrilled to see the name of their precious baby written anywhere, thank you gifts for friends that help you out in a pinch, teacher gifts, and those people on your list that seem to have everything!  Once I saw all the fun things you can buy I ended up getting other personalized papers too.  It’s just so fun!

I bought mine through cloud 9 Papers and if you do too, mention the Good Stuff Guide now through Valentine’s Day and get 15% off!  Place your orders by calling 720-570-1168 or  email ann@cloud9bliss.com.   They ship really quickly too, so for you last minute Christmas shoppers, if you order by Wednesday you are in luck!

And cloud 9 has graciously extended this offer to all of their paper products, this includes accessories, baby, holiday, save the date, weddings, party, personal items and announcements. Check out http://www.cloud9bliss.com/papers.html for examples of all that they have.  They are beautiful!

Many thanks to Megan!  If you have a great idea to share, email heidi@thegoodstuffguide.com!

I know I seem to tirelessly plug Mpix but I just cannot get over the high quality products they offer at such reasonable prices.  I care so much about family pictures, it has meant a lot to me to find a way to affordably preserve our archive of family photos.  I’m not alone in my appreciation for preserving our family history in photographs- many people treasure family pictures and that’s why I am such a fan of these fun ways to give special images as gifts:

I love these fun $10 ornaments that are even cheaper if you order in greater quantities!

These photo magnets make it so easy for friends and family to put your smiling faces up on their fridge… starting at $2.95!

For under $20 ($16 if you order 3 or more!), these accordion minis are a great way to share multiple pictures without taking up a lot of space or requiring you to purchase a frame.

Perhaps my favorite are these stunning growth charts for $40 that infuse your child’s personality into the time honored tradition of charting their height through the seasons.  What a fabulous keepsake these make.

That isn’t all, you will also find great prints, small clings, key chains, small soft cover books, playing cards, calendars, coffee table books, and more.  Head on over to www.mpix.com and set up an account. If you care about pictures like I do, you’ll love what you find there. And just because they love how much I love them, Mpix is offering The Good Stuff Guide readers 15% off from now until December 11th!  You have through Sunday to load your cart and enter the code GOODSTUFF15 at checkout for 15% off.

In all your gift shopping, don’t miss the fantastic holiday cards available from Mpix!! We ordered holiday cards from Mpix this year for the first time and I was thrilled with the cards we received.  I have shopped around for years with different photo processors and I will never order anywhere else again!

I hope you all capture some wonderful images of your families this holiday season… I know I’ll have my camera ready!

If you are looking for, well, great and useful home storage and organization solutions, you’ll find one stop shopping at www.greatusefulstuff.com.  This site is full of good ideas and well designed products to help you keep clutter at bay in your home.

I recently acquired this tie holder for my husband and let me tell you it has been a closet sanity saver for us!  It fits neatly in with his shirts and we haven’t had a tie avalanche with it yet!

I also love these shoe boxes:

My heels (seldom worn) all reside on the highest shelf of our master closet.  Doing away with manufacturer boxes and storing them in these neutral boxes with see-through sides will not only be so much more functional, it will look so much nicer!

I can’t forget to mention these mesh wire baskets, reasonably priced at $14.99, that will do wonders for your hall closet, laundry room or under counter space.

Check out the g.u.s. website and find other affordable solutions for:

cord spaghetti
closet avalanche
kids room chaos
tech travel trauma
guests with no room
photo pile-up

You’ll love what you see!

After spending 4 days in Northern Cali and 2 weeks in Colorado, we’re back for one last week in Michigan.  (I’ll recap with all of our photos on Wednesday…) When we return to our house (if we still recognize it), we will have been gone more than 7 weeks.  Crazy!

And I think we’ll do it again next summer…  It’s been wonderful to spend so much time with family.

Today, to help you with your back-to-school organization efforts, I’d like you to meet the Organized Family Menu Planner:

This handy meal planner has 52 weeks for you to get your family’s meal planning perfectly organized so you can plan ahead with your grocery shopping.

The interior pages feature tear-away grocery lists so everything you need is in one place.

I also like that there are special pages for parties and holiday dinners where you just need everything seriously organized.

One great bonus is the big open pocket envelope, perfect for extra recipes and coupons.

I love fall for back-to-school organizing!!

Giveaway

One lucky, lucky winner can win an Organized Family Menu Planner simply by leaving a comment by Tuesday, August 23rd.  I’ll choose the winner using Random.org and announce it on Wednesday.

Because I just LOVE comments, here’s how to gain extra entries (please leave them as separate entries):

1. Do you subscribe by email or RSS to The Good Stuff Guide? I love my subscribers, so you get an extra entry. Wahoo!

2. Email 5 of your friends about The Good Stuff Guide and tell them what a rockin’ website this is. We’d love to have them join us!

3. “Like” The Good Stuff Guide on Facebook and receive the latest news and your chance at additional giveaways. (I LIKE you too!)

4. “Share” any recent post from The Good Stuff Guide on your Facebook wall by clicking ‘Share’ under our Facebook posts with links to The Good Stuff Guide site.  This makes a visit to our site just a click away for all your Facebook friends – the more the merrier…

(Feel free to do them all – that’s a total of 5 entries!)

Get ready for randomness, friends….

1. My eldest started full gear for hockey this spring.  While most of you are enjoying the warm weather, I’m grabbing our winter coats to bundle up for the rink.

This boy is totally and completely geeked to be playing.  Let me tell you, there are a lot of pieces going on there.  And this is just the start for me…

Younger adorable is skating too.  I could eat him up he’s so cute.

2.  In addition to hockey, we also started full pad lacrosse (which of course is slightly different equipment – I’ve been hoarding coupons to Sports Authority)

Notice the knees – try as I might I can NOT get those knees clean.  I’ve tried soaking them in the bath and scrubbing them with baby wipes, they will not come clean.  Ideas?

Younger adorable digs the playground next to Lacrosse practice.

3.  We’re also playing golf (1X per week) and soccer (2X for elder and 1X for younger) and starting tennis soon.  Can you say overscheduled?

4.  As I was touring through random homes online (I’m an MLS stalker), I found the most profound, drop-dead amazing laundry room I’ve ever seen.

Be still my heart, because you are racing like Secretariat.  You’ll see this again sometime when I’ve added to my folder of fabulous rooms.

5.  Speaking of, we watched Secretariat for our Sunday Family Movie Night.  Every one of us loved it.   I highly recommend it for all ages, though we did fast-forward a couple of emotional scenes that tend to bore the adorables.

6. My boys are still allowing me to dress them in matching shirts.  This makes me crazy happy.  Sometimes they even come out already matched.

I know I have a limited window with this.

7. My planters are rocking my world this spring.  It stopped raining for 5 minutes today and I ran out to take these:

I found these Gardenia trees at Costco for $29.99 and I couldn’t resist.  Of course I needed new planters and *luckily* I found these Toulon planters at Ballard Designs.  (These are the medium size).  Then I planted various creeping white annuals on top and instantly you have a Happy Heidi.  Elder adorable has the chore of watering them daily – I’m terrible at this. He’s done a good job so far.

These are the planters in the backyard: they consist of pink geraniums (1 big one), 3 white snapdragons, 3 “Big Blue” Lobelia and 6 white Alyssum packed in there like sardines.  It’s love, friends.

8.  I’ve had the most obnoxious urge to make these Chocolate Oatmeal Big Ole’ Hunk a Love.  So far I’ve resisted, but I can’t guarantee I’ll hold out for much longer.

What’s new with you?

Facebook only Giveaway today!!

Win a selection of *funny* Knock Knock office supplies. Winner will be chosen at random.

To enter, answer this question: What home projects do you have on your to-do list? You can also “Share” ANY recent post from The Good Stuff Guide on your Facebook wall for an extra entry! (Let us know you did so in the comments…)

Here were the first 14 comments – add yours in the comment section.

• Chelsea Herriman Finish the 3 season porch, paint the kitchen, plant the garden and finish landscaping… the list goes on…

  about an hour ago · LikeUnlike
• Chelsea Herriman I also shared that fabulous “water feature” article! Thanx for such interesting content =)

  about an hour ago · LikeUnlike
• April Armstrong finding a home! Then, all the projects that come along with that. Otherwise, packing my room and patching the holes in the walls.

  about an hour ago · LikeUnlike
• Jennifer Berger Brown finish garden and unpack boxes frm the move!

  59 minutes ago · LikeUnlike
• Kirsten Larsen Paint the living room, organize the kitchen cabinets, finish the guest room, clean up the yard- busy summer coming up!

  59 minutes ago · LikeUnlike
• Danielle Parker Pollack Finishing the nursery after baby arrives!

  49 minutes ago · LikeUnlike
• Isabelle Valiquette Painting all the deck !!

  36 minutes ago · LikeUnlike
• Jen Moore Painting and decorating new toddler bedroom.

  25 minutes ago · LikeUnlike
• Lynsi Sybert Garvin Oh!! I want to win this!! I love Knock, Knock’s stuff!! I have so many projects but the biggest is re-tiling our shower.

  23 minutes ago · LikeUnlike
• Lesli D Chandler Painting the kitchen, girls bathroom and our! Whew! And organize laundry room! No fun!

  20 minutes ago · LikeUnlike
• Bridget Minor Reynolds Work on yard drainage issues, plant new bushes, organize junk drawer, organize linen closet…

  17 minutes ago · LikeUnlike
• Jessica Turnbull Ernst gardening my front flower bed

  17 minutes ago · LikeUnlike
• Jessica Turnbull Ernst painting the interior of the house

  17 minutes ago · LikeUnlike
• Jessica Turnbull Ernst regrouting my shower

  17 minutes ago · Like

You have asked, and now it’s here.

The new 2011-2012 Desktop Planners from momAgenda have arrived.  These planners start with a bang with the school year in August.

Check out this new Giraffe print, which I’ll be ordering stat:

It’s LOVE, I tell you.

Last year, I chose this Zebra print, which makes a return this year:

I received “oohs and ahhs” and compliments on this planner everywhere I went.

Or if you’re more of a traditionalist, it also comes in Fuschia, Turquoise, or Soft Gold.

I’m entering my 5th (or is it 6th?) year of using a momAgenda, and I’m hooked.

Since I only have 2 adorables, I place all of their activities up in my normal scheduling.  I use the bottom area for all of my to-do’s and reminders for the week.  I also use the calendar to schedule out my posts and planning here at The Good Stuff Guide.

And nothing replaces the joy of getting all moved into to a brand spanking new planner for the year.  I have chills just thinking about it.

And – hooray! – here’s a giveaway:

Giveaway

One lucky, lucky winner can win a momAgenda Desktop Planner simply by leaving a comment by Friday, April 22nd. I’ll choose the winner using Random.org and announce it on Saturday.

Because I just LOVE comments, here’s how to gain extra entries (please leave them as separate entries):

1. Do you subscribe by email or RSS to The Good Stuff Guide? I love my subscribers, so you get an extra entry. Wahoo!

2. Email 5 of your friends about The Good Stuff Guide and tell them what a rockin’ website this is. We’d love to have them join us!

3. “Like” The Good Stuff Guide on Facebook and receive the latest news and your chance at additional giveaways. (I LIKE you too!)

*New*

4. “Share” any recent post from The Good Stuff Guide on your Facebook wall by clicking ‘Share’ under our Facebook posts with links to The Good Stuff Guide site.  This makes a visit to our site just a click away for all your Facebook friends – the more the merrier…

Good luck!

Take 10% off all orders of $65+ at momAgenda! Code: MOM10OFF65 Offer Expires 4.30

If you’re a Giveaway lover, don’t miss next week’s Mother’s Day WEEK of Giveaways which features 6 *amazing* giveaways you will not want to miss!  Think BIG!

I hope you had a wonderful weekend.  Lots of sports around our house the past 2 days: hockey and soccer outside as well as NCAA basketball and hockey on television.  Every single team I picked for my basketball bracket has lost – am I the only one???  Hockey bracket still has a hope and a prayer.

Anyhoo, I’ve been so excited about today’s giveaway…

Have you heard of Picaboo?  They make gorgeous photo books, cards, calendars and prints.

Last week, they released new 8 X 8 and 12 X 12 Square books into their lineup of book options.

Wouldn’t this be gorgeous on your coffee table?

Many of you are planning spring break travels, (and there may be a few of you who, like me, still haven’t done anything with my photos from 2010!), so I thought tons of you would just love this giveaway.

My problem is consolidating more than 600 photos from 2010 – I’m terrible at editing smiling adorables.  I want them all!

But once I have that under control, Picaboo’s software (a free download!) makes it super easy to create your book.  You can choose how many photos you’d like on a page, the backgrounds which lie behind your photos, different book sizes, etc.

Picaboo’s quality is also unsurpassed.  Reinforced bindings, 100 lb. premium glossy paper.  This book is for the ages, friends!

Giveaway

One lucky, lucky winner can win a Square 12 X 12 Picaboo photo book simply by leaving a comment by Friday, April 1st. I’ll choose the winner using Random.org and announce it on Saturday.

Because I just LOVE comments, here’s how to gain extra entries (please leave them as separate entries):

1. Do you subscribe by email or RSS to The Good Stuff Guide? I love my subscribers, so you get an extra entry. Wahoo!

2. Email 5 of your friends about The Good Stuff Guide and tell them what a rockin’ website this is. We’d love to have them join us!

3. “Like” The Good Stuff Guide on Facebook and receive the latest news and your chance at additional giveaways. (I LIKE you too!)

*New*

4. “Share” any recent post from The Good Stuff Guide on your Facebook wall by clicking ‘Share’ under our Facebook posts with links to The Good Stuff Guide site.  This makes a visit to our site just a click away for all your Facebook friends – the more the merrier…

Good luck!

And many thanks to Picaboo for this wonderful giveaway!

Here’s the problem: I see the first couple of cans, then it’s a huge jumbled mess.  Behind that big jar of Jif right there are 4 more because they got caught behind things, and I didn’t know I had them and bought more.

The bottom baking area was also a huge repository hidden away.  When I stock up on extra brown sugar, etc during sales, I couldn’t see them after I stowed them away.

Here’s where you can see how really deep these shelves were, which was great for storage, but not for retrievable storage…

Then ShelfGenie entered my life.

Joe came and talked me through the process, then the installer came to measure my cabinets.  Then all was quiet for about 2 weeks while my custom glide-out shelves were handcrafted.

Then this little miracle occurred….

See those 2 boxes there?  I just couldn’t wait to get everything organized and I took these before I remembered that you’d like to see the shelves without all of our consumables on them.

This is the middle shelf pulled all the way out.  I could sit a 75 pound kid on there just fine.

I wouldn’t do it, but I could.

But if I did, it wouldn’t break.

(And that’s probably the information you’re after.)

And here we are all loaded up: all 4 jars of pasta sauce, 5 bags of flour (!), 3 brown sugars, 5 jars of Jif, and 9 different random boxes of pasta I didn’t know I even had.

Obviously, I’m so much happier to open this now organized pantry.  It’s uber user-friendly.  I also hope it makes me a much wiser shopper.

Here are some other ideas from ShelfGenie:

Words aren’t necessary for this…

These folks may already have been neat.

I store our games, puzzles, etc in a similar hutch and this would be pretty incredible…

Can you imagine the change from the old pantry?  We don’t even need to see the before.

This one was actually the most dramatic change for me.  There’s even an extra empty shelf!!

Do you have glide-out shelves in your kitchen/pantry/laundry/bathroom?  How have they helped you?  If you want them, where would you use them first?