Linen Closet Organization

My linen closet is the ONLY in-built storage in our 1970’s brick and tile 3 bedroom home. There’s 5 of us living here, plus 3 cats, but I don’t store linen for them. So that’s a lot of towels, sheets, duvet covers, spare blankets etc. The linen closet was showing the strain and really, needed an organization makeover. A hard working linen closet storage area becomes a jumble of sheets, towels and extra bedding, when it’s not organized

How To Organize A Linen Closet

1. Closet Organization Plan

Really, the first thing I did was pull all those towels, sheets, pillowcases etc out from the linen closet. But it was based on a plan following these two principles for organizing a space.

My two closet organization rules:

• Declutter and organize the linen so that everything fits neatly into the closet storage area. No pushing or shoving needed!
• Only keep what’s in good condition and what I like. From experience, I know that if I don’t like the color or feel of a set of sheets I tend to by pass them and use the ones I do like.

2. Empty The Linen Closet

3. Organize The Linen Closet Shelving

How deep is my linen closet? My linen closet has 4 shelves that are about 18 inches deep and 30 inches wide. My aim was to have the linen fit, without opening the door and having everything falling out on me!

I decide to keep the closet organization similar to what I had used previously. Each shelf (except the top one) would have 3 different types of linen. I planned to use the same wire baskets (mine were originally from Kmart) I already had in there, as a division on each shelf. Ha, ha – the wire baskets are hard to see amongst all the mess! (see pic 1)

4. Declutter

A couple of single sheets in good condition got donated (there were too many sheets for the space) and one of our bed sheets and a duvet cover went for use as painting drop sheets.

5. Then Fold and Put Everything Back

The end result… O.K. my linen closet organization is not necessarily Pinterest worthy! This is real life linen storage for bedding and towels for 5 people. But the linen now fits the space, and it is much easier to find and put away. That’s what matters most!

How To Store Blankets

I have our winter duvet (we are using the summer one currently) stored in a large blanket storage bag, to keep out the dust, in a drawer in our bedroom. However the kids’ spare blankets and duvets are kept in the linen closet. It was one thing I seemed to find myself shoving in with a prayer that the blankets wouldn’t ALL fall on top of me. I also found the kids would pull ALL of the blankets out to get to the blankets they wanted for cubby making in the living room. Again, a big mess!

My solution this time… konmari folding! Yes, all the blankets and spare duvets are now stored vertically rather than piled on top of each other. (You may have noticed that’s also how I folded the linen I have in the baskets.)

So far, I am lovin’ the new linen closet organization! It is amazing how just a few small changes; getting rid of a few things, folding & storing bedding vertically, using baskets and a having a place for everything, has made a big difference to the linen closet being neat and functional.

Quick Readers Question: How many towels do I need?

When organizing any space in my home, I choose to follow the container concept mentioned in Decluttering At The Speed of Life rather than aim for an exact number of items. Mainly because I struggle with letting go of things even after decluttering my whole home. Keeping as much as I can fit into the storage space for me is a lot less painful than deciding to get rid of perfectly good towels so that we have a minimal amount!

Saying that, I roughly have about 3 towels per person, including the one in use. Sheets for the kids I have as many as I can fit. The spare bedding comes in handy when a vomiting bug afflicts the household. We have one spare duvet cover for our bed, and a few sheets.

How do you decide how many towels & bedding to have?