What is it about the new year that brings the urge to get organized? I guess once the excess of Christmas is packed away and our busy schedules simmer down to a dull roar, it’s easier to address those areas of our home that could use some much needed attention.
Did you host guests over the holidays? We were blessed to have family and friends stay with us. Today was the day I stripped down the guest room bedding and did the laundry. As I was putting the bed linens away I decided it was high time to get the linen closet organized.
Truth be told, this isn’t the first time I’ve tackled the linen closet. It’s actually the third or fourth time. So I asked myself why I can’t seem to keep it neat and tidy. Before I did anything I knew I had to figure out why it never stays organized and address the root cause of the problem. Otherwise I knew I would be back at square one in a couple months time.
- Too many items crammed onto shelves.
- Not having anything labeled so you can’t see what you have at a glance.
- A complicated time consuming organizational system that’s difficult to maintain.
- Rarely used items are in the way.
- The idea that it has to be “Perfect”.
I’m assuming you have run into the very same issues, so let’s address them for the very last time and get that linen closet organized once and for all! As much as I love organizing, I don’t have the time or the energy to do it over and over again. Once I organize a space I want an easy to maintain system in place so it stays that way.
Let’s address some of the most common problems that prevent us from keeping the linen closet organized for the long term.
1. Too much stuff.
It’s almost impossible to keep an area organized when you just have too much darn stuff crammed into a space that is just too small for all of it. Wouldn’t it be fabulous if we could snap our fingers and have a huge walk in linen closet with loads and loads of shelves? Back to reality, we have to be practical and figure out how to make the space we do have work for our needs.
The first thing to do is to purge…purge…purge! Take everything out of the closet and take a good hard look at what you have. Do you really need three sheet sets for each bed in the house? How many extra blankets do you really need? Consider pairing down to just two sheet sets for each bed. One set is on the bed while the other set gets washed and put way until the sheets need to be changed again. Keep the sets that are in the best condition and donate the rest to an animal shelter. Yes, I’m giving you permission to get rid of the stained, ripped sheets that you are keeping for emergencies. Seriously? You don’t need them…get rid of them!
The same goes for blankets. Keep a thick warm one for each bed and a lighter weight blanket for the warmer months. Keep your favorite ones and donate the rest. Unless you live in Antartica, then you may need more than one warm blanket on the bed in the dead of winter.
Creative Storage Solution: Do you have a dresser in the room? Clear out a couple drawers so you can store extra sets of sheets and blankets right in the room where you will be using them.
2. Label Items.
When you neatly fold items and stack them on your shelves it only stays that way if you can remember what each item is. Are those sheets for the queen bed in the guest room or are they for the king bed in the master bedroom? Is that a king or standard sized pillowcase? Once you unfold them to find out, you will just wad them up and shove them back into the closet if they aren’t the ones you need. You’ll be in a hurry or tired and won’t fold it back up neatly. Close the closet door and you forget all about it until the next time you need sheets for the bed. No shame, I’ve done it more than I care to admit, hence my having to organize the linen closet for the fourth time in two years…sigh.
As I thought about it I did a search on Pinterest for inspiration. Let me just say that there are some really beautifully organized linen closet ideas on Pinterest! But what I really need and want is a system that is easily customizable for my changing needs, something that’s inexpensive, and it has to be super easy to maintain. I came up with this idea using everyday items I already had on hand.
Supplies:
- Paper tags or cardstock
- Twine
- Clothes pins
- Thumbtacks
- Scissors
- Hammer
- Nail
- Marker
Once you have sorted through all your linens and paired them down to the essentials, its time to label them so you will always be able to tell what everything is once it’s folded and put away in the closet.
I used paper tags to label each item. I strung a bit of twine through the hole and attached the tag to each item with a clothes pin.
I folded and then spread out everything on the bedroom floor and grouped like items together, all the queen comforters in one pile the king comforters in another pile and attached labels to each item.
Brownie points if you include the size of the comforter. The next time you are looking to purchase a duvet cover you will know exactly what size you need.
Don’t have any tags? Make your own. Cut sturdy card stock to desired size, use a hole punch to punch out a hole in one end, and voila you have a tag.
3. Make the Easy Way the Right Way.
You’re doomed to fail if the system you set up is complicated and time consuming to maintain. It’s gotta be easy to maintain so it stays neat and tidy all the time.
I have to be honest, organizing the closet will take you some time to do. But the initial investment of time spent setting it up will save you loads of precious time and stress down the road.
4. Store Most Used Items Front & Center.
This may seem like a no brainer but it took me two years and four tries to finally get this right. If you have to move the Christmas linens out of the way to get to the everyday linens the Christmas linens will never go back as neatly as when you organized the closet. Your hands will be full, you will be in a hurry and you are just going to shove them back in all willy-nilly. Be honest…I know I’m not the only one who does this.
Store seasonal items in the harder to reach spots and the everyday linens where you can easily access them throughout the year.
TIP: Use thumb tacks to attach labels to shelves. It’s easy to remove and reposition them when your needs change.
5. It Doesn’t Have To Be Perfect.
Give yourself some grace, it doesn’t have to be perfect. Yes you read that right! Don’t let perfection stop you in your tracks! So often we don’t even start a project because we want it to be “perfect”. That image of perfection instantly overwhelms us and we give up on the idea before we even get started. Or even worse, we get about half way into a project and give up because it’s just too overwhelming to finish the task and we end up with an even bigger mess than when we started. The goal is to get everything stored away neat and tidy, so that it’s easy to find what we need when we need it, with a system is that is effortless and easy to maintain.
Are all my pillow cases ironed and folded to exactly the same width? No, but they are neatly folded, easy to access, and I can see at a glance exactly what I have. That’s a win in my opinion! Don’t get me wrong, perfectly folded sheets (I always struggle with the fitted sheets…ugh), all pristine white, with nary a wrinkle, stacked in perfectly aligned rows are gorgeous!
But in reality we don’t have the time or the energy to maintain a “perfect” linen closet that is Pinterest worthy. Let go of perfection and shoot for organized, neat, and tidy instead!
I have to confess, I’ve opened the linen closet door at least half a dozen times today, just so I could admire how neat and tidy it is. LOL!!! There’s just something that makes me smile when I open a door, a cupboard or a drawer and I’m greeted by orderliness. It creates such a lovely sense of order and calm that just makes me happy.
One last bonus tip to share! Tap a nail into the wall somewhere inside the closet. Sshhh…don’t tell my husband! He hates it when I put holes in the walls. It’s only a tiny one and hidden inside the closet so it’s no big deal…right? Use it to hang tags when you are using one of the items on your beds. That way you won’t have to make endless tags (we all know that won’t happen in the future). When it’s time to store those linens, you will have the tag right where you need it, when you need it!!! Who knew a little old nail could be so handy?
HANDY-DANDY TIP: Figure out an easy way to store items right where you will use them.
So the next time you are stuck at home on a rainy day, spend a couple hours organizing your linen closet. What else are you going to do on a rainy afternoon? Trust me, when you are done you will be so happy that you invested the time to do it. Who knows, you may find out you’re a weirdo just like me. The urge to check it a few times a day just to admire how lovely it looks may strike you too…LOL!
Did You Try Any Of These Tips?
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Deuteronomy 6:4-5
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