Hi friends, last week I opened my linen closet and realized it just wasn’t working out for me anymore. I went back to the blog to see when was the last time I organized it and realized I hadn’t done a full, pull everything out and dump it on the ground, overhaul since July 2013. That system worked for me for quite some time which impresses me. I organize when something annoys me so clearly this didn’t annoy me for awhile 🙂 So why now you ask? Well as I was pulling everything out and on to the floor it became clear to me that with my daughter now off to University, I was down less sheets and blankets to store. I also had a growing supply of organizing pouches (seriously it’s an addiction folks!) that needed a limiting container so I could institute some boundaries before things got really out of hand.
When a life change comes your way don’t just keep trying to make your lifestyle fit your current organizing systems, instead rethink your systems to fit your lifestyle.
So that’s what I wanted to do. I wanted to find some smaller bins that would free up some space so I could add an additional bin for my organizing pouches and travel cases.
Here’s how it looked before. You can read all about the before HERE.
Once everything was out on the floor, I sorted “like with like”. This gave me a clear picture of where I had too many of any one item and helped me make some purging decisions (ask yourself these questions!). It didn’t take long to fill my donation station up!
Side note: my linen closet is pretty central in my home so making space for a donation station there in the bottom of it works really well for me. Nothing fancy, just a cardboard box but it does the job! Have a place to purge your stuff DAILY!
Next I headed off to Walmart where I scored four nice size blue bins for $5 each. I was so happy, a pretty color AND I didn’t break the bank, whoot! One bin holds the boy’s sheet sets, one bin holds mine and my husband’s sheets, another holds towels and finally the last one holds and limits (!) my lovely pouches and travel cases. I like to be prepared people.
Here’s how it looks after:
Another side note: Want to know why I use bins to store my sheet sets? Because that way I don’t have to see how terrible they look when I’m done folding them. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Life’s too short to care about folding fitted sheets. Amen to that!
I would have ideally loved to have three blue bins across on both shelves but the bracket in the middle sticks out limiting what I can put there. So I was happy to see the two wicker baskets turned sideways worked in this space. One holds hand towels and the other face cloths.
The drawer system was still working nicely so I didn’t feel a need to change that up at all. They hold my cleaning rags, aprons and neck heat wraps.
Another change did occur on the very top shelf though. While I had been helping my 16 year old son do some organizing in his room earlier, we freed up some long shallower type bins that I was able to re-utilize here on the top shelf of the linen closet. These are holding some of the special blankets my kids own that were handmade for them with love when they were babies.
Oh and the old cream/brown canvas bins that I was using in the linen closet were re-purposed in the guest room closet to organize some things there that my daughter left behind to store for her. Are you getting a picture of how all this went down. From my son’s room, to the linen closet to the guest room closet, it was a pretty successful week of organizing! Here was my purge pile when all was said and done.
Got a closet that isn’t working for you? Follow the PROCESS steps like I did here and you’ll have a fully functioning closet in no time I promise.
If you’ve got any questions for me about what I did here, let me know.
Bye 4 now!
Whitney @ Come Home For Comfort says
Beautifully done! I agree that nobody has time to make their fitted sheets look perfect – I store mine in the guest room dresser drawers for that same reason!
Alicia Key says
great ideas!
Heather Mills says
I happened across some organization baskets on clearance today in a local store! I am going to have to go back and get a few for my linen closet!
Becky L says
I need to get my linen closet organized better. I got rid of some things but i need to get rid of some table cloths I rarely use. I like the blue bins you used for sheets too. Good idea!
Laura Wittmann says
Thanks Becky! Happy purging to you 🙂