Tips for Organizing a Linen Closet

Tips for Organizing a Linen Closet

We are in week 2 of  the $100 Room Challenge and here are my tips for organizing a linen closet this week.

Welcome to Week 2 of the $100 Room Challenge, this week’s focus will be on storage baskets my favorite tips for Organizing a Linen Closet and all the mess.

Don’t miss a week, here are the past weeks post for your review:

 WEEK  1         WEEK 2        WEEK 3       WEEK 4

*Please note that this post may contain affiliate links for your convenience. These involve no extra cost to you, but may result in me receiving a small commission – for which I am very grateful! You can view my full advertising disclosure here. If you are just joining this post I will give you a quick recap: This challenge takes place twice a year.  January and September is when Erin invites us to redo a room in our home using only $100. As you can see the premise of this challenge is real simple: one month, one space, and $100. If you want to know more about the $100 Room Challenge, check out Erin’s post to see how the concept was inspired, and it’s colossal growth since she decided to start it. Here is a quick reminder of what my linen closet currently looks like before we get to organizing. There are plenty of sheet sets and towels that will need to tamed with a few strategically placed baskets or totes. First thing I will need to do is streamline the items that will actually continue to live in this linen closet.

The Talk, about Decluttering:

Decluttering is very  important part of  organizing a Linen closet. I say this, because my mother had a slight tendency to be a little bit of a hoarder. Not out of control like the ones you see on television shows, but she did hold on to a lot of things for sentimental purposes.  I am pretty sure that this particular trait was genetically passed down to all of her kids.  So, for me it has become a daily battle. To combat this issue I have read every possible decluttering & organizing book know to man. Here is what they taught me:

  • Do I need that?
  • Is it useful?
  • What does this item mean to me?
  • Is it worth the space it takes up?
  • Will it be valuable at some point?
  • Is it sentimental or irreplaceable?

These are all questions that swirl around in my head whenever I try to clean out or organize anything. Thank God for my dear sweet husband that does not have these tendencies at all. In fact, he is always saying “if you never had anything nice to begin with, there is nothing really worth keeping; you use it until it wears out and then you replace it.”  Clearly he came from humble beginnings so his philosophy of purging was very different than mine, which was “keep it all until you are ready to part with it.” So, now you know my secret for staying organized and for the past 20 years it has worked like a charm.

5 Simple Steps to Declutter Your Linens

  1. CLEAN THE SLATE– The first step is to take everything out of the Linen Closet. This will allow you to sort the items currently located in there. Plus, we will be all ready to dress up those wire shelves next week too.
  2. THE PURGE– I recommend going through your linens and purging all the non-essential items you are not currently using. This will include: items that are mismatched, faded, worn, or simply out of style. This is a ruthless task and you must remember to make your decisions honestly.
  3. MAKING SETS– Pair up all matching sheet sets by size, color and pattern. Make sure you have all the pieces needed to make the bed. I recommend 1 extra sheet set per bed. For our bed, I have 2 additional pillowcases in addition to a standard sheet set.  So, I must make sure our sets contain 4 pillow cases. As a side note, I have tried to implement the method of placing the folded matched linens sets inside of a pillowcase for storage. It does a good job keeping the sets together, but it still looks a bit messy to me. So, I will need to place the sets into a basket which will hide them from sight.
  4. TAKE STOCK- This is also the perfect time to take stock of how many replacement items you need. Assess your bath towels, hand towels and washcloths to see how many you need to replace. January and February is always the best time to hit all the “white sales.”
  5. DONATE- I always end up with a random, brand new, flat sheets, that matches nothing. This is from where I buy a set of sheets, just for the fitted sheet to cover the box springs of our mattress. Since it is usually a complementary color to match our duvet or quilt, I always feel guilty about not using the flat sheet.  I diligently store the leftover sheet in the linen closet, thinking that one day I might need it, but the reality is I will not. This is the perfect opportunity to donate these brand new, never used sheets. I personally like to donate to my local Humane Society Thrift Store which supports our local “no kill” shelters.

Selecting the Baskets

Once you have simplified your inventory; know what you have left to go back inside your Linen Closet.  This will give you the numbers  you will need for selecting your baskets or totes. I have looked at a few different ones on online and I will tell you that baskets and linen totes do not come cheap, especially for the pretty ones that I like. For this post I think I will go over a few of my tips on picking the right basket for the job.

 I absolutely love the look of the farmhouse style wire baskets.  However, I have to keep in mind that they will not hide those not so perfect sheet folds.  Instead, I have selected several of the baskets that contain linen liners that would do a great job of hiding the sheets and still give that finished look.  While I do like the the wooden crates, they are are a little bit too tall to fit between my existing shelves.  So, I guess they are out.
I think, since all of the vendors are local, that I will just have to take a field trip out to see my favorite ones in person.  I love the internet and I do find it very convenient for somethings, but I do still like to touch, feel, and see the quality that I am purchasing. Plus, the instant gratification is not bad either. Feel free to weigh on your favorite by commenting below.
    
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56 Comments

  1. Cynthia Arden

    I love this idea, and can not wait to see what you come up with for your “dreaded” linen closet, LOL that is so funny you put it that way, I think we all feel the same way. Although I must say it was not so horrible to begin with. maybe you should have fake messed it up a little more, LOL.

  2. Purging and organizing are half the battle for me, and the not so fun part. Still, it does feel good when it’s over, like exercise. 🙂 Now the fun begins.

  3. I love all baskets. I don’t use any baskets for my linens as I am pretty sure that I would just chuck the laundry in them, never to be tidy or neatly folded again. I do use them to store medicine on one of the shelves though. Always handy to have different types and sizes of baskets on hand.

  4. Great tips! I love the feeling of having a clean and organized closet!

  5. I have yet to start the purging task. Dreading it. 😉 But this gives me inspiration for my own linen closet.

  6. Taking everything out of the closet is a great tip! It’s amazing how long unwanted and unused items hang out back there! LOl

  7. I know I won’t even discuss some of the things way in the back, LOL

  8. Thank you I really needed an “At A Boy” after that project.

  9. I am the same way about decluttering. My Dad kept everything!!!! There was paperwork that we needed after he passed away to get a military funeral for him but we couldn’t find it. I vowed we will never have that problem in my house. I am all about no clutter too. I can’t wait to see what you do next.

  10. Love all those decluttering tips! Looks like that closet got the clear-out. Excited to see which bins you decide to use for storage. I think hiding those folded sheets is definitely the way to go. Even it you can get them to look descent, they never seem to stay that way 🙂

  11. Thanks Erin it feels great to let go of things that no longer have a purpose in your life, to make room to focus non the things that do.

  12. It is funny how moments like that sculpt the new generation without us even knowing it at the time.

  13. Great decluttering tips! We just did the same thing in my son’s bedroom.

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  15. Roxi Tomos

    Great delivery. Solid arguments. Keep up the good effort.

  16. Maysz

    I really like your blog.. very nice colors, layout and design.

  17. Linen closets always collect so much stuff purging is always a requirement in our home, sometimes daily.

  18. Catalina

    Thank you so much for all the great tips on cleaning out and purging the linens closet, it always seem like this is a catch-all in my home.

  19. Hope

    Hi this post really resonates with me. My linen closet always looks like a bombs has gone off inside. I guess purging is my answer. I got to get on that.

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    I really like your blog.. very nice colors & theme. Did you make this website yourself or did you hire someone to do it for you? Plz reply as I’m looking to design my own blog and would like to know where u got this from. thanks

  21. M.Redden

    Love the $100 Room Challenge it is one of my favorite challenges, you have shown some interesting money saving ideas here for wore shelves.

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  23. Nancy @ Slightly Coastal

    I delight in seeing these results for the competition.

  24. Lattia C. Horn

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  25. Chatter Box

    Nice post. I am checking in constantly at this blog and I am always impressed! Extremely useful info 🙂 I was looking for this type of info for a very long time. Thank you and best of luck to you.

  26. Trisha Miguel

    Wow, wonderful blog layout! How long have you been blogging for? You made blogging look easy. The overall look of your website is magnificent, let alone the content!

  27. Zella

    5 stars
    I actually do love each of the ideas you’ve presented for this post. They are really convincing and can certainly work.

  28. Alexandria

    5 stars
    What a great post I learned so much from all your tips! I now really want to organize my linen closet.

  29. Rae Moore

    5 stars
    Wow I love this space and the pretty baskets. I can not wait to try this in my own closet.

  30. Lorri

    5 stars
    What a lovely linen closet filled with great organizational ideas.

  31. Gretchen Matos

    5 stars
    I’m really loving the wonderful tips and ideas you are presenting here. These are such goods ideas and the wood panels look great.

  32. Shelby

    5 stars
    Appreciation to you for all the great organizational ideas!

  33. Rochelle

    5 stars
    This is so packed with great information to get my linen closet organized I can not wait to get started.

  34. Cecelia

    5 stars
    It’s very easy to get good information on this matter here, when I found this article at this web site I was so excited to try all the tips in my own home!

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  37. Carmela

    This is such a great blog, I. love all your ideas, please keep it going!

  38. Tory

    Hurrah! This is such a great idea and great post filled with tons of organizational tips.

  39. Sandy

    5 stars
    Incredible! This is such a great idea for a mess linen closet, yours is beautiful!

  40. Laurel Gilliland

    Amazing blog! I have so enjoyed reading this post.

  41. Marcela Mattocks

    Your linen closet is so organized it gives me so much hope for my hot mess, I really love the idea of added wooden shelves well.

  42. Agnes Alvarez

    Hey I’m initially here and I really found this post useful & it helped me out a great deal. I hope to offer something back and help others like you aided me on my blog someday soon, hope you can stop by soon!

  43. Nan

    This is such a great post with so many innovative ideas for a linen closet, you showed us a lot of stuff not just how to buy baskets.

  44. Billie Wakelin

    Your blog is so relevant! Finally I’ve found a thing that helped me, thank you so much!

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  47. Lilian

    I am not too much of a internet reader to be honest, however your blogs are very nice! I’ll just bookmark your website to come back later on, since I like to organize,cheers

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