Latest / Repcolite Home Improvement Show / Laundry Room Organization Ideas That Actually Work (Plus How to Paint Rusty Metal Furniture)

Transcript

Laundry Room Organization Ideas That Actually Work (Plus How to Paint Rusty Metal Furniture) · Repcolite Home Improvement Show

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Hey, everybody, thanks for tuning in. You're listening to Home
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: in Progress sponsored by Repcoal Like Paints and Benjamin Moore,
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: and thank you for doing that. I'm gonna thank you
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: right off the bat for listening, and thank you in
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: advance for recommending the show to friends and family and
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: helping me grow the audience. Remember that this is a
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: podcast as well as an on air show. So if
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: people that you're talking to, you know, look at you
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: like you're a little crazy when you say you got
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: to check out the show and you tell them it's
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: on Saturday mornings at eight, if they don't want to
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: wake up early on a Saturday to hear it, they
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: can always find it wherever they get their podcasts, you know,
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: So just go search for Home and Progress they can
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: find it, subscribe and all of that. So share the
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: show if you would. I'd really really appreciate it. All right.
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: Coming up on the show this week, I'm going to
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: be answering a listener question about painting some outdoor metal
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: furniture that's starting to rust. There's a lot of practical
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: stuff in that, so that's going to be a really
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: good one. We'll cover a lot of ground with that.
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: I'm also going to be talking about laundry rooms. You know,
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: not so much about paint and all of that for them,
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: not yet, but more about some things to think about
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: that are going to help you make your laundry room
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  Speaker 1: work better for you and your family. You know, if
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: the laundry piles up, if you find you've got baskets
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: and baskets and clothes that you think maybe came out
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: of the dryer a while ago, but you're not sure anymore.
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: If that's your situation, I think I can help a
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: little bit. At least. We're going to get to that
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: that's coming up. But first I have embarrassed myself again.
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: If you remember last week, I told you about something
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: embarrassing that I did in church. If you missed that,
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: check out the podcast. You can listen to that in
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: all its glory. But this week I want to start
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: with something else that I just did. And this time
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: there's a greater home improvement point tucked away in it,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: so it's not completely throwaway stuff here. Anyway, here's the deal.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: I got a phone call from one of my Benjamin
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: Moore reps the other day and I was busy, right,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: I was busy doing stuff so it went to voicemail.
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: He left a message, and about five minutes later or so,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: I was free and I called him back. Nothing earth
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: shattering here, you know. When I called him back, of course,
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: he ended up being busy, you know, the whole phone
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: tag thing, and the call went to voicemail. Still nothing
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: that the modern business professional can't handle. Right, It's just
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: a voicemail, you know, It's really nothing that pretty much
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: anybody can't handle. It's basic. Pretty much anybody can leave
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: a voicemail. I can't. I completely messed it up. I
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: left the longest, absolutely dumbest message I think I've ever
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: left with anybody. And here's why. The message picked up
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: and said, hey, you know I can't come to the phone.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Leave a message and I'll call you right back. And
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: then dead silence. Okay, dead silence. I'm sitting there waiting
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: for a beep. There's always a beep, right, And I
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: waited for an insane amount of time, and then it
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: hit me, maybe there's no beep. So I started talking,
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: you know, to leave my message, and that's when the
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: beep came in. And then from there, utter train wreck.
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: I completely, one hundred percent lost my train of thought.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: And I rambled for over two minutes, just nonsense. It
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: was so bad I reached out and asked for the
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: audio back so that I could share it. Here is
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: just a sample, you know, a greatest hits collection of
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: my one single message. You know, just just enjoy this
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: just for a second. Hey, John, this is Dan, just
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: calling you back. You called a little bit a go.
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: I was busy.
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: I couldn't get your phone or couldn't get to the call.
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: If you want to call me back, I've got some
• 3:46
  Speaker 2: meetings that I'm going to be in.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: Well, this sounds like I don't want to talk to you.
• 3:49
  Speaker 1: I do want to talk to you.
• 3:51
  Speaker 2: It'll be good to talk to you.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: My number six one six. You know that because you
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: already called me anyway.
• 3:58
  Speaker 2: Hope you're well. Hope thing is better than well, it's
• 4:02
  Speaker 2: not better, it's fine, everything's fine.
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: Oh my gosh, John.
• 4:06
  Speaker 2: I just wish there was a delete button for messages
• 4:10
  Speaker 2: because this one's really bad. I'm like stuck. I can't
• 4:14
  Speaker 2: get out of it. John, delete this message please and
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: don't play it for other people. I am so sorry
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: for eating up so much time.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: I'll talk to you later.
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: The reason it didn't go well The reason I really
• 4:25
  Speaker 2: struggled with this message. I hope the beep doesn't come
• 4:28
  Speaker 2: and cut me off before I get done. The reason
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: it went so bad is because your beep has a big.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: Long delay. Anyway, I just had to share that because
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: I thought it was hilarious after the fact and after
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: a while, but also because that moment, you know, when
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: I thought i'd missed the beep, started talking, and then
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: the beep came and completely threw me off. That moment
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  Speaker 1: is every single home project ever, for the most part,
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: because projects rarely go the way we think they're gonna.
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  Speaker 1: You know, we watched the tutorials on YouTube. We see
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  Speaker 1: all the clean cut you know, and I'm not talking
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: about cuts in the wood. I'm talking cuts in video.
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: You know, we see exactly what they want us to see.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: We see the director's version. And then we get to
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: our own homes and we're working on our walls, our
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: cabinets are plumbing, you know, we've pulled apart our snowblower,
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  Speaker 1: and suddenly the steps don't line up, they don't make sense,
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  Speaker 1: the parts look different, or the calk it's not applying
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: as smoothly as it did in the video, or the
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: grout's too thick or too thin, or drying too fast. Whatever.
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  Speaker 1: The thing that was supposed to take a half an
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: hour feels like it's unraveling. It's falling apart. Things aren't
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: going as expected. You know, that's the beep coming in late.
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: But the surprise of that late beap is only half
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: the problem. The other half is often what we end
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: up doing next the it's my message. It's the message
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: I left because the beep threw me off my game.
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: You know, when this happens in a home project, what
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: do we do? Do we spiral? Do we rush? Do
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: we start making emotional decisions? A lot of the times?
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: Pretty much? Yeah, that's exactly what happens. We panic, get
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: thrown off our plan, we get nervous, we second guess,
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: we make knee jerk adjustments to the process, and things
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: get out of hand kind of quickly. So let's talk
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: about some steps to help you avoid that on your
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  Speaker 1: next project. First thing, double the time. All right, whatever
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: the tutorial tells you, whatever time you think a given
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: thing is going to require, assume it's going to take longer.
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: You know, remember the person on the video is doing
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: this most of the time, doing this for like the
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: twelfth time. You know, you aren't pretty much when we're
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: doing it. Most of the time, it's our first time
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: tackling that project, and we're doing it in real conditions,
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: in our real homes, with our real limitations. I'm sure
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: if we could see the outtakes on tons of those
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: you know, tutorial videos, we'd see all of the fumbles
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  Speaker 1: and the flubs and the mess ups and all of that,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: because those things are there, you know, most of the time.
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  Speaker 1: I guess I can't say all the time, because nothing
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  Speaker 1: all the time happens, but most of the time those
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  Speaker 1: flubs and mess ups are there, we just don't see
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  Speaker 1: them because they get cut out. Remember that as you're
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  Speaker 1: working and expect to run into those things. When you
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  Speaker 1: tackle the project, when you budget more time, you're going
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  Speaker 1: to end up removing a bit of the panic. And
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: panic is what causes bad decisions, not really a lack
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  Speaker 1: of skill. It's the panic that really gets us. Okay,
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: that's the first thing. Second, and closely related to that one,
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: is start your project at the right time. That means
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: not pulling the toilet, you know, the only toilet in
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: the house at ten o'clock at night on a Friday
• 7:32
  Speaker 1: when you've got little kids. You know, I literally did
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: that first time ever. I pulled a toilet, first time ever.
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: I was installing my own vinyl flooring, first time ever.
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  Speaker 1: I was going to reseat a toilet. I did all
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  Speaker 1: of that at ten o'clock. Started it at ten o'clock
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  Speaker 1: on a Friday night, because in all my brilliance, I
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: thought that would give me a full Saturday to just
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: kick back and relax. You know, don't do that. It
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: was an utter train wreck, and I won't say more
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: about it other than that the toilet came out so
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  Speaker 1: easily that I was amazed, you know, I felt like
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  Speaker 1: a home improvement god little g at that point. And
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: then the kids, literally right at that moment started dancing
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: in the hallway, and I realized I'd never asked any
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: of them if they had used the bathroom before I
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: removed the only legit opportunity for using the bathroom, you know,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: in the whole house. Let's just say we ended up
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: getting all new tupperware containers after that event. Anyway, don't
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: start at the wrong time. That means not starting too late,
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: but it also means not starting when the store closes
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  Speaker 1: in an hour. You know, I've been there as well.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: I've started doing plumbing late in the afternoon, hit the
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: inevitable snags, the surprises that we talked about, and I
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: found myself realizing in a panic that I needed more tools,
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: more equipment or supplies, and it was borderline closing time
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: at every single store that had what I needed. I
• 8:53
  Speaker 1: had to make a mad, stressful dash, and it's just
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: not worth it. Don't do that. Start at the right time,
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: when you've got the day in front of you, when
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: the stores are open if you need them. And also,
• 9:03
  Speaker 1: don't start when you're overwhelmed, you know, already frustrated or grumpy.
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: Sometimes we get a little grumpy. I get grumpy, You
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: get grumpy. Don't start a project when you're grumpy. Things
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: don't end well if you can help it. You know,
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: not always are we going to be able to start
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: a project. You know. I'm not Pollyanna. I don't live
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: in a lollipop world. I get it. We have to
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: start projects when we're grumpy sometimes, but if you can
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: help it, try to avoid that. None of that lends
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: itself to great results, all right. Third thing, get the
• 9:31
  Speaker 1: tools that you need ahead of time. If a tool
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: shows up and half the tutorials that you watch get it.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: That extra scraper, you know, the extra roller covers, the
• 9:40
  Speaker 1: right roller, nap, the better brush, whatever it is, the
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: drill bit that you might need if you have to
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: stop mid project because you're missing something. That doesn't just
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: cost time, it costs momentum and momentum that's emotional what
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: that's emotional fuel, right, It's what keeps us moving. The
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: fewer interruptions that we have, the deady year we stay. However,
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: with that said fourth point, assume you're going back to
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: the store anyway, all right, Just accept it. You're gonna
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: forget something, or something's not gonna work the way you
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: thought it was gonna or you're gonna run short on
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: something else, plan on going back, or better yet, have
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: someone on hand who's expecting to be the runner so
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: you can keep working. And this person should be. If
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: you've got a person in your home that you guys
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: don't work well together, you know you kind of you know,
• 10:29
  Speaker 1: maybe you get on each other's nerves when you're working.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: Maybe this person isn't as handy as you wish they were,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: but you don't want to tell them that make them
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: the runner. They can run to whatever store you need,
• 10:40
  Speaker 1: they can get lunch, they can get you you know,
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: whatever you need, and they're still helping. They're being very helpful,
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: and you can keep working just whatever you need to do.
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: Plan on having to make another trip, and don't let
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: that catch you off guard, all right, So get somebody
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: to do that. Plan on doing it yourself if you
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: have to, just plan on it, because when it catches
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: you off guard and you realize, wow, I really need
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: XYZ in order to do this the right way, the
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: normal reaction at that point, since we're working, is to
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: power through. Right. We try to make the project work
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: with the tools that we have rather than the tools
• 11:13
  Speaker 1: that we need. We don't run out for new roller
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: covers or the right brush or the tape or maybe
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: you know my specific situation. Once the basin wrench when
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: we're pulling a sinc. We try to make do with
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: what we have, and usually that adds tons of time
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: and produces really sketchy results. So plan on the extra
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: trip and it won't cut you off guard. The next thing,
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: know when to hang up right in my voicemail disaster,
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: smartest move would have been the stop talking. In some
• 11:41
  Speaker 1: projects it's exactly the same thing. Decide ahead of time.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: If I've tried to fix this twice three times and
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: it's only getting worse, it's time to stop. If I'm
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: so frustrated that I'm starting to rush, I'm going to stop.
• 11:53
  Speaker 1: If I've been at this longer than I plan that
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: I'm tired, I'm going to stop. Make that decision ahead
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: of time. Most real project is don't honestly happen because
• 12:01
  Speaker 1: someone didn't know what they were doing. They happen. Well,
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: that happens too, But a lot of the times, the
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: ones that are the most frustrating because they were so avoidable,
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: those happened because someone kept going after they should have paused.
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: I know that's not always possible to pause. A plumbing
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: issue usually has to be seen to conclusion. You can't
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: leave water leaking and just take a break. But with
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: so many projects, you know, paint projects. Let's say I've
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: talked to people who've worked way into the night, you know,
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: way past the point when they were making good decisions anymore,
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: all in the hopes of getting things the way they
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: wanted them. And then they wake up and they assess
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: what they did, and they realized that if they just
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: stopped earlier, the fix would have been easier. No one
• 12:42
  Speaker 1: to stop and give yourself permission to call it for
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: the night and come back tomorrow. May not look as
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: bad in the morning, and even if it does, you're
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: fresh right, you're better equipped to deal with it. Finally,
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: this might be the most important one. Expect things to
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: look worse before they look better, you know. Don't let
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: that trip you up and cause a chaos spiral. First
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: coats they can cover unevenly. A lot of the times,
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: it can look bad when you get that first code on.
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: Don't panic at that point. Patch jobs they look obvious
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: before you've sanded and primed them and painted them. New
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: paint colors can look shocking until the whole room is finished.
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: There's an ugly middle in pretty much almost every project,
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: you know, if you're judging the outcome at the halfway point,
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: A lot of the times people panic and then they
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: make worse decisions. Don't do that. If you trust the
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: process and let it move through its stages, you stay
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: steady and you usually end up with better results. Just remember,
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: projects rarely go exactly as planned. That beep is going
• 13:42
  Speaker 1: to come late sometimes, But if you're planning on the surprises,
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: planning on a late beep, You're not going to end
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: up in a spiral. All right. Metal furniture. I've got
• 13:50
  Speaker 1: a listener out there who's got some metal furniture. It's rusting.
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: What does she need to do to get it ready
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: for glorious weather? That's hopefully it's not just around the corner,
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: but hopefully it's lurking around the corner. How do you
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: get those pieces ready for the great spring and summer
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: that are coming. We'll talk about that in just a minute.
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: Home in Progress is brought to you by Repco Lite
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: Paints and Benjamin Moore. You know, people often think of
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: paint as just another line item on the project's supply list.
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: But here's the thing. Everything you do, every hour of prep,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: every stroke of the brush, all comes down to the
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: quality of the paint. The paint is the project. Make
• 14:24
  Speaker 1: sure it's the best before I jump into this next
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: particular segment. I love getting your paint questions. You know,
• 14:30
  Speaker 1: if you've got something that you're wrestling with at home,
• 14:33
  Speaker 1: send it to me at radio at repcol Light dot com.
• 14:35
  Speaker 1: And if I use your question on air on the show,
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: I'll send you a gift certificate for a free gallon
• 14:41
  Speaker 1: of Benjamin Moore or Repcolite paint, So it's not a
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: bad deal for a little email, all right. Today's question
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: comes from Patty. Patty's asking just to summarize quickly about
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: repainting her ants metal patio furniture. It's been sitting outside
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: for years it started to rust. She wants to tackle
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: the project this winter and wants to know what's the
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: best way to refinish rusty exterior metals so it actually lasts. Well,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: here's the key thing to understand when you're working on
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: you know, material like this rusty metal paint isn't going
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: to fix rust. Prep is going to fix the rust,
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: or at least deal with the rust. Paint is going
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: to protect from future rust. So if you skip the
• 15:16
  Speaker 1: prep step, you're really just covering up a problem that's
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: going to come right back. So step one, you've got
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: to clean the furniture thoroughly, soap and water works. If
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: it's greasy or if it's got years of build up,
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: use a degreaser like TSP something like that. Basically, you
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: want everything off of that surface, dirt, mold, mildew, pollen, spiderwebs,
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: you name it, all of it. Rinse it well after
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: you've got it washed, and then let it dry completely.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: And then comes the less glamorous part, right, because painting
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: metal furniture is pretty glamorous. But there is a less
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: glamorous part, and that's dealing with the rust, specifically, so
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: wire brush the rust. You've got to scrape off every
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: bit of loose, flaking metal. If you've got a drill
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: with a wire wheel attachment, that can make this go easier.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: But go after that rust, get it off, and after
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: you've done that, stand the area so that you feather
• 16:06
  Speaker 1: the edges between the bare metal and the existing paint
• 16:09
  Speaker 1: because you're gonna have areas where the paint is still there.
• 16:12
  Speaker 1: Make sure it's smooth. You don't want sharp ridges that
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: show through later. Now, once you've got that done, here's
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: an optional, but really smart extra step, especially if the
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: rust is significant, use a rust converter. We carry one
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: at our stores called must for Rust. Basically, you just
• 16:26
  Speaker 1: spray it directly onto rusty areas. You'll let it sit
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: and it chemically converts the rust into a stable surface.
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: Is that extra step required? No, That's why I said
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: it was optional. Is it helpful insurance? Absolutely, so think
• 16:39
  Speaker 1: about it. That's must for rust. Now, after you've got
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: it prepped, prime it. And yes, strongly recommend priming these things.
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: At Repcolite, we've got metal clad rust inhibitive primer. It's
• 16:50
  Speaker 1: an oil based product, and oil based primers perform extremely
• 16:54
  Speaker 1: well when you're dealing with corrosion. And I know with
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: BOC regulations and all of that, Repcolite is still allowed
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: to sell oil based products and this is a great
• 17:03
  Speaker 1: one to still get while you can. Now you can
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: spot prime the bare metal areas, or if the piece
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: has a ton of wear, just prime the whole thing.
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: Because it drives to a flat finish and even though
• 17:13
  Speaker 1: it's oil, it can be top coated with pretty much anything. Okay,
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: so get it primed and now you got to go
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: to finish paint. There are a number of options out there.
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: One is Benjamin Moore's Command. It's a water based product
• 17:24
  Speaker 1: that's got phenomenal adhesion and durability. It's going to dry
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: really quickly, which is nice if you're working in a
• 17:29
  Speaker 1: garage during the winter and you want to keep moving.
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: It's going to level nicely, it's going to cure really hard.
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: Another option is Repcolite's during Enamel DTM direct to Metal.
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: It's water based, comes in a satin finish, and specifically
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: it's designed for metal applications. You know, it's got rust
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: resistance built in. And even though it says direct to metal,
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: I still like priming first when rust has been present,
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: because that combo of priming and then hitting it with
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: a rust inhibitive paint is going to give you better
• 17:56
  Speaker 1: long term performance. All right, So there you go. You
• 17:59
  Speaker 1: clean it thoroughly, you remove the loose rust, you sand
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: it smooth. You consider using a rust converter like must
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: for rust. You prime with a rust inhibitive primer, and
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: then you apply two finished coats of a good high
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: quality product. Do that and the metal furniture is going
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: to get a second life. So Patty, thanks for the question.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: I'll be reaching out with that free gallon gift certificate,
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: and again if anybody out there has a question, email
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: radio at repco Light dot com and if I use
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: it on the air, I'll send you a gift certificate
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: for a free gallon of Benjamin Moore, a Repcolite paint. Okay,
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: what's the situation in your laundry room right now? Are
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: you all caught up with wash and you're just waiting,
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: chomping at the bit for somebody to use up some
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: towels so you can start the process again, you know,
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: start getting the washer going. Or do you have piles
• 18:39
  Speaker 1: and piles of laundry just sitting there waiting for you? Now,
• 18:42
  Speaker 1: that could mean you've got a busy family, or it
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: could mean that your schedule's really full. But it could
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: also mean that your laundry room isn't working for you
• 18:49
  Speaker 1: the way it should. We're going to talk about how
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: to fix that right after. This home in progress is
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: brought to you by Repcolite Paints and Benjamin Moore. Think
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: about it. You spend hours prepping sandy and then finally painting.
• 19:01
  Speaker 1: Don't throw all that work away with an inferior product.
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: The paint isn't just another supply. The paint is the project.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: Make sure it's the best. Now we're gonna talk about
• 19:11
  Speaker 1: laundry rooms. In fact, I've got so much to say
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: about laundry room set. I'm gonna break it into two
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: parts and we'll hit the other part next week or
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: the week after, kind of depends. What does it depend
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: on you ask, Well, it depends on how sick of
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: it I am by the end of the show today.
• 19:28
  Speaker 1: You know, I'm not a big fan of doing laundry.
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: I hate it. I hate it immensely, and I don't
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: really know that I'm gonna love talking about it. But
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: I am going to talk about these spaces, you know,
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: even though they're not flashy, because we spend so much
• 19:44
  Speaker 1: time in them, right, and really, how much of that
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: time is good time? Not much of it is what
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: we'd consider good time. For me, it's really bad time.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: I mean, first off, there's the abject fear that I'm
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: gonna wash somebody's precious something, you know, whatever, that it
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: is in the wrong with temperature or with the wrong
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: items or whatever. You know, I've done that a couple
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: of times in my sordid laundry past. And let me
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: tell you, it's a horrible feeling when you hear somebody say,
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: who washed my you know, fill in the blank. You
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: know they're not asking because they're going to thank you,
• 20:21
  Speaker 1: right at least, you know that now. The first time
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: it happened to me, I really thought I was going
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: to get thanked, who washed my whatever? And I said, oh,
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: I did. I did that, I washed your you know whatever.
• 20:35
  Speaker 1: And I can't remember what it was anymore. I just
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: know that I very quickly, very quickly realized that I
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: wasn't getting to thank you at that moment anyway. So
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: I fear that. I also hate the confusion, you know,
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: the chaos, baskets and baskets of clothes, and I don't
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: know whether they're clean or dirty. You know. One time,
• 20:54
  Speaker 1: one time I was walking, I walked into the bathroom
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: because the laundry in our house is in the site bathroom.
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: You know, a lot of you have that. So I
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: walk into that room and there are all these baskets
• 21:05
  Speaker 1: of things, you know, just full of clothes, and none
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: of it's folded. Is it clean? Is it dirty? I
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: don't know that it come out of the dryer. Does
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: it need to go into the washer? Anyway. I'm looking
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: at it, and all I could think to do was
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: do the sniff test. And then one of the kids
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: walks in, and I've got my nose crammed into the
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: armpits of somebody's T shirt, and we just kind of
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: stared at each other for a little bit before the
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: kid ran out of the room, telling everybody to come
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: and see what Dad was doing. Now, anyway, I hate
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: the whole laundry room thing for all of those reasons,
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: but also for the sake of this intro. I hate
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: the laundry because my son is an electrician. And perhaps
• 21:44
  Speaker 1: that doesn't make any sense to you at all, all right,
• 21:46
  Speaker 1: you know what in the world does that matter? Why
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: would you even bring that up? Well, I bring it
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: up because every single pocket that he has on, every
• 21:56
  Speaker 1: single item of clothing, all of these things are filled
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: to the brim with sawdust and screws and wire nuts
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: and pieces of electrical tape and all kinds of other
• 22:07
  Speaker 1: assorted goodies. You know, they're filled before he puts them
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: in the washer, never empties them, they just go straight
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: into the washer. And then after he washes them, the
• 22:17
  Speaker 1: pockets are mostly empty, mostly empty after they've been washed,
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: but the washer is now filled with those things. And
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: then when he puts them in the dryer, that's when
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: the rest of the stuff comes out of his pocket.
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: And then when they come out of the dryer, my
• 22:30
  Speaker 1: dryer is filled with all of those things. It's an
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: incredible mess, and it makes me detest laundry with the
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: passion of a thousand burning suns. Now that's my situation.
• 22:43
  Speaker 1: What's yours. Well, whatever you're dealing with, whatever I'm dealing with,
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: I think that I can help make it better. So
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: that's the point of these upcoming laundry segments, not to
• 22:52
  Speaker 1: create magazine perfect, marble countertop fantasy versions of laundry rooms,
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: but to go through some real practical solutions that will
• 23:00
  Speaker 1: help you manage the never ending mountain, at least for me,
• 23:03
  Speaker 1: of clothes, dirty clothes, without losing your mind and your sanity.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: All right, let's get started with the big picture. And
• 23:11
  Speaker 1: I've been diving into what the top design experts are saying,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: people who literally have built their careers and their lives
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: and made their fortunes on making design accessible. And you
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: know what they all agree on. They all agree, and
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: I'm sure this won't come as a surprise, they all
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: agree that the best laundry rooms aren't about esthetics first. Instead,
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: the best laundry rooms are first and foremost about flow.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: You know, It's about creating a system where dirty clothes
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: come in, they get processed, and they go back out
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: to your family without creating bottlenecks or chaos. It's about
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: creating a system where you can move through the jobs fluidly, smoothly, easily,
• 23:49
  Speaker 1: all of those things. You know, when we're designing a kitchen,
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: we design kitchens with this in mind. Have you ever
• 23:56
  Speaker 1: heard of the kitchen triangle. It's the sink, the stove,
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: and the fridge, you know, the points between those three items.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: You're supposed to design your kitchen with a focus on
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: creating efficiency of movement between the cooking, the prepping, and
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: the cleanup zones, minimizing steps, avoiding obstacles. Kitchen triangle. Flow.
• 24:13
  Speaker 1: You want the room to just work for you. Well.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: In a laundry room, I really don't know how often
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: this is thought about, but think about flow. Think of
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: your laundry process, you know, think of it like a river,
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: you know, like a big, peaceful river.
• 24:27
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 24:28
  Speaker 1: The clothes need to float down that river smoothly to
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: somebody else's house where they'll wash them and then send
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: them back to you. Now, that would be the great
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: river that I would love to imagine. But that's not
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: really what I'm talking about. I'm talking about how your
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: clothes need to flow down this river, this you know, figurative,
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: imaginative river, and they know they need to go from
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: start to finish without getting stuck anywhere. Right, dirty clothes
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: need to flow in, they get processed through washing and drying,
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: and then clean clothes flow back out to your family.
• 24:57
  Speaker 1: When that flow gets interrupted, that's when you end up
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: with chaos. So looking at your space, where does the
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: flow typically break down? Well, for most families, it's going
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: to be at one of three critical points. The entry
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: point where the dirty clothes come in and need to
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: get sorted, the processing zone where washing and drying happens,
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: or and this is the killer for most of us,
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: the exit point, you know, where laundry needs to get
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: folded and put away. That's where everything dies at my house.
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: You know, if your laundry and you want somewhere to
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: go to die, go to die in that zone because
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: that's where all the other clothes. That's where all your
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: friends are laying there dying. You know, are you clean? Yeah,
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: I'm clean, but nobody will put me away. I'm just
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: gonna lay here and die. That's what it's like at
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: my house. What's your situation look like, Well, you diagnose
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: that and think about it. We're going to take a break,
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: but then when we come back we're going to start
• 25:48
  Speaker 1: the process. You know, we're just going to look at
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: the beginning point and we're gonna start sorting out what
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: you need to do to make sure that that first
• 25:55
  Speaker 1: entry point isn't the place where things get slowed down.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: If you're struggling there, we're going to get you some fixes,
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: and we're gonna do that. Right after this, you're listening
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: to Home in Progress, where the projects are real, the mistakes,
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: they're educational, sometimes painful, mostly educational. And the only thing
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: more stubborn than that old wallpaper on your bathroom wall
• 26:17
  Speaker 1: is your determination to get it fixed, probably sponsored by
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: Repcolite Paints and Benjamin Moore Paint with a purpose, people
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: who care and everything you need to get the job
• 26:26
  Speaker 1: done right. And we're taking a deep dive into laundry rooms,
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: because what's more fun than that on a Saturday morning, right,
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: deep dive into laundry rooms. And maybe your laundry room
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: is perfect. I didn't even think about that, but maybe
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: that's the case. Maybe yours is literally perfect, and your
• 26:42
  Speaker 1: laundry process is flawless, and nobody ever wonders at your
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: home where their underpants went or that one sock I
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: had one kid this week saying, where is my sock
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: with the blue stripe? Good grief. You're just lucky there's
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: two socks. Wats it up together. I don't care if
• 27:01
  Speaker 1: they match. At least you have two socks to wear.
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: Now you want a specific sock. I don't know what
• 27:07
  Speaker 1: you're thinking. That doesn't happen in this house. You're just
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: lucky to have two. Maybe for you. There's never a
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: laundry basket sitting in the room that has a confusing
• 27:16
  Speaker 1: collection of clothes in it. You know, are they clean?
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: Are they dirty? Who knows? Do I just have to
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: run them through the dryer to get them unwrinkled, or
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: will that be baking in some kind of stink? You know,
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: so that it's permanently, you know, imbued in the clothing
• 27:30
  Speaker 1: because they were never washed in the first place. Maybe
• 27:32
  Speaker 1: that's not you. Maybe you have no laundry dilemmas at all.
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: But if you do, we're trying to help. And the
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: key that we discovered in the last segment, the key
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: to a successful laundry room and process is making sure
• 27:44
  Speaker 1: that the room flows, that it's efficient, and that your
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: process works. You know that it's working for you now
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: we're starting at the entry point. You know, we're helping
• 27:53
  Speaker 1: break this all down so you can make good decisions
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: and maybe make some changes if you need them. So
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: I'm starting with the entry and this point is all
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: about making it effortless for dirty clothes to enter the
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: system already organized. You know, that's the ideal, that's what
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: we're shooting for here. Now. Most people have one giant
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: hamper somewhere or a number of giant hampers, but they
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: all contain the same thing. Basically, it's everything, you know,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: and then on laundry day, you get those and you
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: dump it all out and you start sorting it into
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: piles on the floor. You know, the lights, the darks,
• 28:28
  Speaker 1: the whatevers. You know, you're doing all of this sorting,
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: and right there, you've created a dam. You know, in
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: the river we talked about, the laundry process should be
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: like a river. You just created something that stops everything.
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: It slows you down, it stops the flow. You're spending
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: energy on a task that could have been happening automatically
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: all week long, and it could have been accomplished by
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: multiple people. Here's something that professional organizers say works better,
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: way better than that. One big hamper you know, containing everything,
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: use pre sorted hands or bins where the sorting process
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: happens as clothes go into them. Okay, not rocket science here,
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: none of this is. And it's all about implementing. You know,
• 29:09
  Speaker 1: we've heard these things before. It's time to stop just
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: hearing them. It's to implement, you know, make that change,
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: and then you'll start to see, you know, good results coming.
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: So basically, what I'm getting at is you've got multiple
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: hampers that allow the clothing to be sorted by lights, darks, delegates,
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: whatever you decide you need to do for your situation.
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: So basically three hampers where family members toss their dirty
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: clothes in based on color. When the hamper with the
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: light clothing is full, you've got a complete load ready
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: to go and it's already sorted. You know, the flow
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: is continuing smoothly at that point, there's no bottleneck. Now
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: would that work that kind of a system. Would that
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: work for your family? You know, don't just read about
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: it on blogs or hear about it here. I mean,
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: you guys are intelligent. I don't have to say that,
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: but I am also I'd like to think of myself
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: as somewhat intelligent. I have run in to lots of
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: things on blogs and stuff that people experts say, work this,
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: this works, employ this in your home, and so I
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: do without really thinking about whether that's reality for my home,
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: and then I find out that it doesn't work, and
• 30:14
  Speaker 1: then I discard the whole process. Think about this, Is
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: this something that would legitimately work for your family? You know?
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: Would everybody be diligent? You know? Could they be made
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: to be diligent, you know, through extreme measures? Or I'm
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: not you know, I'm not advocating for extreme measures. I'm
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: I'm saying, stern speaking, Can stern speaking, make all the
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: folks in your home be diligent to this process? You know?
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: These are really profound questions to ask yourself. When I
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: tried this with my family, I discovered that the answer
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: is no, and people could not be made to be diligent.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: Just didn't work. Here's another thing I learned. Don't get
• 30:52
  Speaker 1: too outspoken and naggy about them not being diligent, because
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: when I did, it only took one kid literally three minutes.
• 31:00
  Speaker 1: It's to find all my white underpants in the hamper
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: for dark clothing. So even I wasn't diligent. It wasn't
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: a system that worked for us. Now option too another system.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: I like this one a lot better. It's sorting by person,
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: and this has really worked well in my home. Each kid,
• 31:15
  Speaker 1: each family member, gets their own hamper, and when their
• 31:18
  Speaker 1: hamper is full, that's their load of laundry. It's all
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: on you, bucko. In this case, you're not pre sorting
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: by color. I get that, it's just everything that that
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: person wore. And for the purists out there, the laundry purists,
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: that may sound horrific and may make you get all
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: stressed out because you like order and all of that,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: and you would never wash all your clothes together, well,
• 31:39
  Speaker 1: let me tell you, I get it. You know, I
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: used to like order too, But honestly, I like the
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: fact that the kids are doing their own laundry way
• 31:47
  Speaker 1: better than I care about order. And getting them to
• 31:50
  Speaker 1: wash a hamper of clothes that they exclusively wear has
• 31:54
  Speaker 1: turned out to be way easier to me for me
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: than getting them to grab a hamper of generic life
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: or darks or whatever and wash that. And besides, for
• 32:03
  Speaker 1: everyday clothes washing with cold water, we haven't seen a
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: problem with color bleed or anything like that it's really
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: worked for us for this first part of the process,
• 32:12
  Speaker 1: and honestly for a couple of the kids, this has
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: worked through the whole process. You know, it's really simplified
• 32:18
  Speaker 1: the laundry for us. You know, just having them take
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: their own things from start to finish has minimized the
• 32:24
  Speaker 1: overflow severely. So that's my favorite sorting option, but there
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: definitely are still others out there. Another one I won't
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: talk about it long, is to sort by fabric type
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: or usage. You know, one bin for towels and one
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: bin for sheets, one bin for regular clothes, one for
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: workout gear or you know, really dirty play clothes. The
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: key to all of this, all of these systems is
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: this pick one approach that fits your family and make
• 32:47
  Speaker 1: it so obvious that nobody has to think about it.
• 32:50
  Speaker 1: You know, somebody takes off their shirt, they know exactly
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: which hamper it goes in. They toss it in, and
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: it's done. The flow keeps moving. One last caveat or
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: tip here, especially if you go the route of having
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: each person in the family responsible for his or her
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: own laundry. Less hampers or laundry baskets for dirty clothes
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: is way better than more. Less is way better than more.
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: I've got a couple kids who have one laundry basket
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: for their dirty clothes. That's it. They stay on top
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: of things. When they only have one, you know, it
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: gets full, they take care of it. I've got another kid,
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: my electrician son, who's commandeered three or four baskets, and
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: of course he's filled all of them before he even
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: thinks about needing to do laundry. And then it's an
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: epic endeavor. I mean, it's a weekend project to get
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: the laundry done. So less hampers way better. All right,
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: figure out your sorting method and what's going to work
• 33:42
  Speaker 1: for you. Now you need to figure out where those
• 33:44
  Speaker 1: hampers go. Now, if you're sorting by laundry type, lights, darks, delegates,
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: those hampers of course need to live in or really
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: near the laundry room, you know, right at the point
• 33:54
  Speaker 1: of entry for your system. Line them up along a wall,
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: tuck them under a counter. I've got a little closet
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: that they all set in that works really well. Get
• 34:03
  Speaker 1: a rolling cart. If you can't put them in the
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: laundry room itself, get a rolling cart with multiple compartments
• 34:09
  Speaker 1: that you can move around as needed, and if you
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: are sorting by lights, darks, delicates things like that. Make
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: sure that your containers are really clearly labeled. You know,
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: I'm talking big obvious labels here, not just for the kids,
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: for everybody, including you. At the end of the day,
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: you know, when your brain is literally fried from all
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: the other things you had to do. Picture labels work
• 34:28
  Speaker 1: great if you've got young kids. Color coding can work.
• 34:31
  Speaker 1: Whatever you do. You just figure out what you need
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: to do to make sure that everybody understands what each
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: basket is supposed to hold. You know, don't just assume
• 34:40
  Speaker 1: that people are going to know that. Now if you're
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: doing individual hampers for each person, again, you got to
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: kind of think about how your household's flow pattern works.
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: So if people bring the clothes to the laundry room daily,
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: then keep the hampers in the laundry room and again
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: clearly labeled. If the clothes pile up in bedrooms until
• 34:58
  Speaker 1: laundry day, then hampers would stay in the bedrooms and
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: people would just carry them down when their fall. The
• 35:02
  Speaker 1: big thing is, you know, you're gathering it through all
• 35:05
  Speaker 1: of this, but the big thing is accessibility. Make it
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: easy to use. Can a six year old understand the
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: process and take care of things and do it to
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: the best of their ability? Is it easy enough for
• 35:15
  Speaker 1: a teenager to do it without over taxing them? Right
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: with all the extra expectations that we've got. If it's awkward,
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: if it's difficult, if it's perceived to be awkward or difficult,
• 35:26
  Speaker 1: people won't do it. You won't even do it. I
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: won't even do it. And then the flow breaks down
• 35:30
  Speaker 1: right at the beginning. So make sure it's easy to do.
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: That's the thing. All right. That's enough laundry stuff for
• 35:37
  Speaker 1: the day. We're going to talk about the other zones.
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: The processing zone, which sounds so fancy, right, I was
• 35:43
  Speaker 1: working in the processing zone in the laundry room. It's
• 35:46
  Speaker 1: basically the getting things washed and dried part. You know,
• 35:49
  Speaker 1: it's not not as flashy as its zunds. We'll talk
• 35:51
  Speaker 1: about that, you know, the kind of things that slow
• 35:53
  Speaker 1: that down, and then we'll talk about how to create
• 35:55
  Speaker 1: the perfect exit point, the folding and putting away stage
• 35:58
  Speaker 1: that I loathe again with the passion of a thousand
• 36:01
  Speaker 1: burning suns, maybe even one thousand and five burning suns.
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: We'll talk about that. We'll talk about countertop folding station solutions.
• 36:10
  Speaker 1: If you don't have a folding area in your laundry room,
• 36:13
  Speaker 1: there are folding station solutions that you can build for
• 36:17
  Speaker 1: you know, both front loaders and toploaders. We'll talk about
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: some product storage strategies, say that three times fast product
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: storage strategies, and we'll talk about how to keep everything
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: moving smoothly. But for now, think about your entry point.
• 36:30
  Speaker 1: You know, howard dirty clothes entering the system. Is it
• 36:33
  Speaker 1: smooth or is there a bottleneck at that point? Make
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: one small change this week, you know, maybe add those
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: sorting hampers or relocate a hamper and see if it
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: improves your flow. Try the whole everybody washes their own
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: closed thing. If you're not already doing that, see once
• 36:48
  Speaker 1: what happens. It might be that thing that gets you
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: moving in the right direction. All right, that's going to
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: do it for this episode. If you want to catch
• 36:55
  Speaker 1: it again, you can find it online at repcolight dot
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: com or remember, you can find it as a podcast,
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: So do that search for home and Progress and subscribe
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: and you'll never miss an episode. But before I wrap
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: everything up for the week, it is Valentine's Day today,
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: and that fact is not lost on me, And so
• 37:14
  Speaker 1: I wanted to talk about a few little, fun little
• 37:17
  Speaker 1: factoids that you can carry around today and impress your
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: friends with later. All Right, First one, they're all short.
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: First one, the actual Saint Valentine. There were apparently several,
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: but the actual Saint Valentine was executed on February fourteen,
• 37:32
  Speaker 1: around two hundred and seventy a d One legend claims
• 37:35
  Speaker 1: that he was performing secret marriages for soldiers who were
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: forbidden to marry, and that got him in trouble with
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: the Roman emperor. All right, so there's one fun little
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: factoid about Saint Valentine's Day. Another one, I love this one.
• 37:47
  Speaker 1: In the Victorian era, people sent vinegar Valentines. Have you
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: ever heard of these? I had not vinegar Valentines. They're mean,
• 37:55
  Speaker 1: insulting cards to people that you don't basically don't like,
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: actually printed cards that you could buy at the store,
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: featuring mean illustrations and nasty poems, and you could send
• 38:05
  Speaker 1: one to a rejected suitor and annoying neighbor, anybody who
• 38:10
  Speaker 1: got on your nerves. They had messages like 'tis all
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: in vain, your simpering looks, or they called people ugly
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: or lazy or boring. You know. Imagine walking to your
• 38:21
  Speaker 1: mailbox on Valentine's Day and getting a card that basically said,
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: you're terrible. Everybody dislikes you, and we're all talking about it.
• 38:27
  Speaker 1: It's the original hate mail kind of thought. That was funny. Anyway,
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: Please don't send those to me. You send those to
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: your friends and rejected suitors and all of those people. Anyway,
• 38:39
  Speaker 1: whatever you do today makes your paints a part of it.
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: Maybe a paint Valentine is something that you should consider sending.
• 38:45
  Speaker 1: You know, I don't know what that would look like,
• 38:47
  Speaker 1: but I bet people would like it. Just saying we're
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: open till three today, if you feel so inclined, will
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: gladly help you figure out what a paint Valentine would
• 38:55
  Speaker 1: look like. All right, have a great weekend everybody, and
• 38:58
  Speaker 1: I'll see you next week for Home in Progress. I'm
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: Dan Hansen. Thanks for listening.
• 39:03
  Speaker 2: M