The phrase "laundry" induces a picture of busy washing machines loudly shaking and rumbling, the round window displaying wildly rotating smalls and murky, sudsy water.

In the days when they were more prevalent many people would have probably pictured a launderette, with women of all ages (usually) sitting down on a bench seat, idling away the time while the two shilling cycle ran its course. Then it was out with the cargo, a fast check making sure that a solitary sock hadn't become stuck in some obscure corner of the equipment, then over to the tumble clothes dryer for the big finish.

Actually in its literal sense the word "laundry" doesn't, or at least didn't, refer to the clothes themselves, nor to the place in which these were washed, but to the actual process of transforming them from the sullied articles they had been hitherto into the clean, fresh-smelling, fluffy items that, presuming stated process was effective, will have appeared at the end of it all.

We still have launderettes, but thankfully for most of us the washing machine is a fixture of virtually all households these days. It allows us to accomplish our essential work whilst attending to other things, in the comfort and warmth of our own homes without the inquisitive prying eyes of others and safe from the unwanted attentions of the local knicker thief.

Whilst the household appliance is without doubt far more convenient, for the people whose task it is though, the limited space available to most does lead to further problems of its own. Notably there is the predicament of transportation and storage. The huge baskets that the patron of the launderette would use to move items from one machine to another are not practical adornments for the majority of kitchens or bathrooms. Something more suitable is called for.

The need thus created is answered by the canvas laundry bag - a neat, foldaway, washable item in which clothes may be transported back and forth from the washing machine but, more to the point, in which they can be stored between washes.

A fast search online will show you numerous examples of some excellent and hugely useful foldaway laundry bags, baskets and bins. These can variously be hooked up, positioned on the ground and easily carried by use of a handle.

Whilst on the topic of storage space it is not only laundry items that can be quickly and unobtrusively stored around the bathroom or elsewhere in your home. Bathroom storage bags make it simple for us to stack away items, making our homes look far more tidy and giving back a lot of our own valuable space.