...oh, and...

Sheets and towels. I almost forgot.

Sheets: Are they stained? Are the pillowcases stained or frayed. GET RID OF THEM! Do you realize that on eBay you can get high threadcount ("luxurious") Egyptian cotton sheets and towels, if you feel like really treating yourself? In any case -- sheets/pillowcases/duvet covers/etc. with stains or frays MUST GO. (I have a dog and cats. So I have one "old" flat sheet that goes on top of the bed, because no matter how much I watch them, somehow "someone" gets on the bed during the day. But it's not a frayed or stained sheet -- even this one -- it's one where the matching fitted sheet had to go.)

This goes for kids stuff too -- are you somehow teaching your kids to be "attached" to material items so much that they won't "relinquish" stained/non-fitting/threadbare "favorites"? Why? You need to think about that -- but this isn't a child psychology post, so I will just leave you with it. If a kid imbues a shirt or a blanket with "special powers," then s/he doesn't feel those "special powers" are in him/herself. This is a problem. (Does your James have a ratty-but-favorite/lucky poker shirt? Same deal here -- again, more than I want to deal with right now, but everyone has to know that clothes don't hold the memories/luck/etc. -- the wearer does!)

And towels: Faded? Threads sticking out? Brad Pitt (or Sean Connery or Tom Cruise or your James of choice) knocks on your door, because his car/motorcycle/helicopter has run out of gas outside, he has been fixing it, and "Ma'am, I just wonder if I could use your restroom to wash up before heading for the Oscars? I would be immensely grateful." What's he going to find in the bathroom? Hmmmmmmmmmm?

We'll talk later about keeping your house clean, but if the towel he uses looks like it leapt out of the rag bag to drape itself over the towel rack, what's up with that?

I stick with white towels -- they don't fade, and you can bleach them or spot-treat them and it nearly always works. I'm famous for cleaning my face and wiping mascara on towels and such. (Duh) Sure, with a white towel you see it right away -- but that means you can get it into the laundry and spot-treat it.

If your bathroom "decor" doesn't lend itself to white towels, then I still suggest you use them. How? Like this:

First, when you fold your towels, fold them in thirds lengthwise (1/3 in, the other 1/3 over that). Then, when you hang the towel, it won't have the "edge out," it will look finished.

In your "non-white" bathroom, take that towel that's folded in 1/3s, and fold it in 1/2 over your arm. (Just like you would over a towel bar.) Now, instead of putting the bar "through" that fold, take the towel, and tuck the "ends" down the back of the towel rack, so the "fold" is now hanging in front. What this does is to make the towel 1/2 the length it would be if you just hung it over the towel rack like normal.

Take a hand towel that matches the bathroom color, and fold IT in 1/3s (again, so that the sides of the towel are folded in back). Now, hang that hand towel over the regular white towel, so that it runs down the middle of the towel.

If, let's say (like mine), your "guest" bathroom is red. This means you have two white towels that are hanging on the "regular" towel rack, but they are 1/2 the length that they usually would be -- and they have a red handtowel on top. I then have a small basket of rolled up red hand towels on the side of the sink -- these are the ones that guests that use that bathroom during the day use after they wash their hands (so as not to mess up my "red/white towel" thing going on the towel rack, naturally). But if a friend stays overnight, he or she has a wonderful fluffy clean white towel to use -- and I don't have to worry about having a ton of regular-sized towels that I can't "rotate through" my house. All my "body sized" towels are the same -- fluffy white what I would call "nice hotel" towels. They actually absorb the water, too (fancy that -- ever been a guest in a house where that fluffy towel won't take the water off you??). So for the red bathroom, I wind up rotating out the hand towels (since the ones on the rack get used more seldom than the ones in the basket), and when they start to look frayed or faded, I go and buy another set of 5 hand towels at Macy's (always the same towels -- again, they are absorbent, last long, and work well), and ALL of the old hand towels go into my rag bag. So when Brad/Tom/Pierce/Sean stops by MY house, he can scrub up all he wants...then again, that towel might just not make it into the rag bag at all (grin).