This month, on my Deep Cleaning Schedule for Your Whole House, I have four different “rooms” or small areas to organize. If you haven’t been following my Deep Cleaning Schedule yet this year, go check it out and download it. You can jump in with us this month! One job this month that we’re focusing on here is the linen closet. Keep reading for linen closet organization ideas, how to deep clean the linen closet, declutter, and more!
September Deep Cleaning and Organization Jobs:
So, first up for September, we are going to organize the linen closet. If you don’t have an actual linen closet, maybe you keep your linens in a bathroom cabinet, you can organize whatever area in your house you store your linens.
Linen Closet Organization
I love organizing and (try) to keep things organized throughout the year. But with kids that grab towels and knock the rest down, a husband that doesn’t fold things towels the same way I do (pet peeve of mine and my OCD tendencies!), and times when I’m rushing to put things away, things don’t always stay organized as well as I’d like them to. Which is why I follow my Deep Cleaning Schedule. Once a year I give every single area in the home a good re-organization.
The linen closet is one of those areas that was in need of major purging and organizing. As you can see, it was getting pretty overcrowded and sloppy looking.
1. Clear Closet and Sort Items
The first thing I do to organize my linen closet is take EVERYTHING out. I look at every item and decide what I want to do with it – either keep it, move it somewhere else, throw it away, give it away, or sell it.
When deciding what to do with items, ask yourself:
- Have I used this item in the past year?
- Will I use it in the next year?
- Is it sentimental?
- Is it in good condition?
I had baby blankets, burb cloths, and other baby linens that I’ve been hanging onto “just-in-case.” My youngest is 4 now, and my husband and I don’t have plans of having another baby (at least not right now). So, since I haven’t used them in the past year and I have no plans for using them again, they needed to go. There’s no use letting items take up space in your house when you’re not using them. I put some of the boys’ special baby blankets in their memory boxes and put the rest in a pile to get rid of.
There were also WAY too many throw blankets. I went through and sorted them into groups. There were several cheap throw blankets that we just didn’t use much. I kept the ones that were the comfiest, cutest, or had sentimental value and put the rest in the “sell” pile.
One method you can follow when decluttering is Marie Kondo’s method. According to her, you should keep things that bring you joy and say “thank you” and “goodbye” to the things that do not.
I don’t totally agree with her method. While it’s great to have a house full of only things that bring you joy, there are things in our house that don’t necessarily bring me joy, but I still need them. I advocate being more practical. So, even if it doesn’t bring you joy, if it’s something that you use frequently and need, I think it’s alright to keep it!
This is the pile of stuff I set aside to get rid of. It’s mostly baby stuff, some curtains and blankets, and toilet seat covers that don’t fit our toilets (we’ve been in our home for 7 years; so it’s definitely time to get rid of those!).
I’m gonna try to sell the linens on Facebook Marketplace, where I’ve had some luck in the past. If they don’t sell after a few weeks, to Goodwill they will go!
2. Clean the Closet
If you’ve been following my Deep Cleaning Schedule, we already cleaned the walls, baseboards, and door earlier this year. If you haven’t done those go ahead and clean them now. Or if you did already clean those, but they need to be wiped down again, go ahead and do that. I just spot clean throughout the year as needed, because with kids there are bound to be dirty walls and doors.
Then vacuum the floor. We just have a tiny bit of carpet in our linen closet. But I went ahead and vacuumed it well.
Once the linen closet is clean, it’s time to start replacing your items.
3. Organize Items on Shelves
Before you start putting the linens you’re keeping back on the shelves, think about how you want them arranged.
Consider:
- What would be the easiest way to store my items?
- Which items do I use the most?
- Which items do I use the least?
- Are there items my kids need to be able to reach?
The items that you don’t use very frequently, store up top. The items that kids might need to get, like bath towels and washcloths, store towards the bottom, where they can reach (without climbing!).
Here’s how I organized my shelves – from top to bottom:
Top Shelf:
Here I placed decorative and sleeping pillows that we don’t use often. We’ll get them down when someone spends the night and we need to set up the blowup mattress or a pallet on the floor (we don’t have an actual guest bed anymore).
2nd Shelf:
On this shelf I keep extra pillowcases and sheets. They’re still up high, because these aren’t items we use often. Normally, when I wash sheets, I just put the same ones back on the beds. These are backup sheets and/or sheets for the blowup mattress.
I keep matching sheets together and arrange them by size. I used my handy label maker to make labels for each sheet size that we have – Twin, Queen, and King. That way, when I need to set up a bed, I don’t have to unfold all the sheets and hunt for the right size.
3rd Shelf:
On this shelf, I store all our beach towels, bath towels, and a beach blanket.
I have all the multicolored beach towels first. Then the bath towels I arranged by color. I think linens and clothes look pretty and orderly when they’re all folded the same direction and are arranged by color (I do white, cream, gray, and black, and then rainbow order-red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, violet). That’s something that brings me joy! 🙂
4th Shelf:
Underneath the bath towels, I keep hand towels, washcloths, one extra shower curtain (I got rid of some other ones), and laundry bags for traveling.
Again, I arrange the hand towels and washcloths by color order. I also fold them and face them all the same way. Anything you can do to make it look nice and orderly!
Bottom Shelf:
On the bottom shelf, I keep one extra mattress pad and extra comforters. Even though I don’t use these frequently, it’s nice to have a few extras to make pallets on the floor when need. They’re also used for camping out in the family room!
Floor:
Before I had WAY too many blankets on the floor. I got rid of several (and probably need to go through again and get rid of a few more). In this basket, I keep smaller, throw blankets that we can grab when we’re cold.
That’s it! Let me know how you organize your linen closet. Do you keep other things in your linen closet, besides just linens?
In the next post, we’ll tackle the next area of the home to organize in September – the pantry!
Check out this video for more tips on organizing your linen closet, my updated linen closet organization ideas, and how to fold fitted sheets!
