Linen closets are a necessity in most homes. But having an organized linen closet can sometimes be a hard task to manage.
For many moms, the linen closet can quickly become a place where we hide things when guests are about to come over. The linen closet is known to become an orphanage of sorts for things found around the house.
Why Do You Want an Organized Linen Closet?
Having an organized linen closet is important as it will save you time and energy when looking for things in the future.
Related: Full Declutter Plan
For busy moms, we don’t have the time to search and tear apart an entire closet just to find what we need. Keeping the linen closet organized will help to make sure we can find what we are looking for when we are looking for it.
Steps to Achieving an Organized Linen Closet
1. Remove everything from the closet
As with every good declutter and organization project, you have to start with a clean start. Remove everything from the closet and wipe down the shelves.
2. Make sure adequate shelving is hung.
Linen closets generally are not meant to be large enough for a person to walk into. This allows homeowners to fully utilize the space for storage. If your linen closet has unused space, consider hanging additional shelves for added storage.
3. Place items on shelves with the most used in the middle.
Remember that organizing your home is about making your home work better and more efficiently FOR YOU.
No one wants to reach high above their heads or bend down every day to get what they need from a closet. Avoid this headache by keeping the items you use most frequently on your middle shelves.
In our house, this is our bath towels, hand towels, and washcloths. These are items that are reached for most frequently, so having them easily accessible is important.
Place items onto the shelves with the most used items in the center and the lesser-used items below and above. Keep your least-used items at the top or bottom of the closet
4. Keep like items together.
There are no hard and fast rules that say a linen closet has to store just linens. In fact, in most homes, no linen closet is just linens.
But no matter what you store in your linen closets, be sure to keep like-items together. By doing so you will make finding what you need easier in the future.
5. Use baskets to house smaller items
Linen closets often play home to a family’s overflow of hygiene products including toothpaste, shampoo, and hand soap.
To avoid a mess of random bottles, use baskets to keep each item together.
Keep things organized further by adding a label to the front of each basket so you know exactly what is inside and you don’t have to dig around to find what you need.
Use a small basket to keep washcloths and hand towels neatly organized as well. Again the whole goal of this is to avoid messes that are usually associated with smaller items.
6. Store bed linens how they are used.
Bed linens are a fickle thing for many homes because each household uses them differently. So how they are stored is going to be dependent on how your family uses them.
Storing Bed Linens by Full Sets
For instance, some homes have guests staying over frequently and need full bedding sets readily available. If this is the case with your home, I recommend storing the linens together as a set.
Depending on how many guest beds you have you should only need an extra set for each.
Full bedding sets can be stored together inside one of the set’s pillowcases, in vacuum-sealed bags, or a basket.
Any of these methods will allow you to store the bed linens as a set and find them quickly when needed.
When it is time to change the bed linens you will no longer need to dig for a sheet and matching pillowcases. Everything you need will be right there!
Storing Bed Linens by Type
Another method of storage involves storing linens by their type. This involves sheets of each size stored together, pillowcases stored together, and so on. Each type of bed linen gets its own storage space.
This is how bed linens are stored in our home. This method is used primarily because we have children and children are messy. There have been many times where a sheet will get soiled but the comforter and pillows are unaffected. In these instances, only the sheet needed changing.
I prefer to store all of the children’s bed linens together by type to make finding what I need easier.
For this method, I recommend a combination of clear totes or baskets and vacuum-sealed bags. Keep each type of linen in easy-to-access containers.
7. Store Bedding Supplies at the Bottom
Once you have organized your bedding supplies in the way that works best for your family, make sure you find a permanent home for them and/or the containers they are stored in.
As I mentioned above, you will want to store your most routinely used items on the shelves in the middle for easy access. With this in mind keep your bed linens in an area that is easy to access such as the bottom shelves.
8. Use Labels and Clear Containers
Totes, baskets, and containers are wonderful for organizing small items. And you can add another level of organization by placing labels on your storage containers.
Labels help you and your family know quickly where to find (or put away) things and when more of an item is needed.
Additional Tip: Though any color container will work, clear containers help make seeing what is inside easier. This will help everyone know where to find what they need without yelling for mom.
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