Linen Closet Organizing Tips

A clean house is an organized house, and that goes for both visible and shut-in spaces.  Often, however, we let the insides of our closets get overstuffed or disorganized – and the linen closet is a major offender.  Out of sight and out of mind, right?  Only until you open that closet door and have to stuff the clean sheets anywhere they’ll fit or search through piles of unsorted towels and washcloths to find that one thing you’re looking for.  In the process, of course you leave the closet even messier and less organized than it was before.

An organized linen closet not only looks pleasing to the eye, it also makes the retrieval of linens and towels easier for family members and guests.  With that in mind, choose an afternoon to empty out your linen closet, and consider these organizational tips from Martha Stewart and About.com: 

• Get rid of any items you don’t need or use.  As with any organizational project, the first step is to de-clutter.  If you haven’t used an old beach towel in years, it’s time to donate it to a local thrift store or charity.  The same goes for sheets that no longer fit any of the household beds, pillow cases that you don’t use because they don’t match anything else, and washcloths that have been shoved to the back of the closet because no one ever needs or uses them.
• Consider shelf height.  If you have the option to build new shelves or re-set the ones you have, Stewart makes the following recommendations: A shelf height of about 10 inches is good for sheets (if you go much higher, you risk over-stuffing that closet with extra sets), and bulky comforters, extra pillows, and wool blankets might need 18 inches or more of shelf space.
• Install shelf dividers.  Shelf dividers will help you organize your linens – for example, you can separate towels from washcloths, blankets from comforters, and sheets and pillow cases by size.  A quick Google search will bring up many shelf divider options; check out the designs available at Organize-It.
• Label your shelves.  It might seem a bit obsessive-compulsive, but labeling your linen shelves is a very helpful step.  It will be so much easier to find the items you’re looking for if you have an area labeled for bathroom towels vs. beach towels, for example, or holiday napkins vs. washcloths.  If guests find themselves searching for a bath towel or pillow case, labeling will make it easy for them to find what they need.  Stewart suggests such labels as "guest room," "master bathroom," "cocktail napkins," and "crib," and notes that you can also label cloth napkins with the number of pieces in the set after wrapping them loosely in cellophane or acid-free tissue.
•  Consider going all white.  An all-white linen closet looks especially neat and appealing, but if you’re attached to colors, sort items by color and store them that way.
• Treat antique linens with special care.  Stewart recommends sending out antique linens for specialty cleaning, so that they’ll be returned “clean, finished, and packaged in acid-free tissue paper, which helps keep fabric from yellowing.”  They can then be folded, hung, or rolled on cardboard tubes for storage until you need them again.
• Iron or steam your linens.  There’s no way around it; ironed linens look neater when stored, and create more space in the closet.  If the thought of ironing is beyond what you can bear, consider a clothes steamer like the Shark Gs500 Garment Care System Silver.
• Fold!  The best closet intentions can fall quickly by the wayside if you don’t fold your linens neatly.  eHow.com offers a series of videos that show how to fold everything from pillowcases, towels, twin blankets, and fitted bed sheets to flat bed sheets and Queen size quilts.  Unclutterer.com offers these tips for folding large bath towels: lay or hold the towel front size down, fold lengthwise into thirds, fold the long strip in half bringing the shorter edges together, and then fold it again.  Folding smaller towels involves the same process without the final step.
•  Re-stock.  Once you’ve gotten rid of your unneeded items, set your shelf heights, installed shelf organizers, labeled your shelves, ironed or steamed your linens, and folded everything neatly, it’s time to place your items back in their appropriate spaces.
• A final step: prevent Pests.  If you’re concerned about moths, Stewart suggests that cedar blocks on the shelves will help deter them.  She also notes that you can add sachets if you enjoy fragrant linens.

Voila!  You now have a beautifully organized linen closet.  Now, the trick is to keep it that way.  Commit yourself (and your family) to carefully ironing, folding, and replacing linens after every use.  Check the closet weekly; if you notice that towels or sheets are becoming disorganized, pull them out, fold them carefully, and replace them in the appropriate space.