Organizing your Linen Closet

 

The linen closet can be a dreaded place when it comes to putting laundry away. In our house, it has always been a place where we knew we could do better, but never put effort into maintaining a decent organization system. We showed improvement over the years, but it was never like the pictures you see on Pinterest. 

Our house is NOT Pinterest perfect by any means. There are some areas where I strive to be Pinterest level organized. I have caught myself feeling bad that my home didn’t look like my Pinterest boards. Don’t fall down that trap! Your home, just like mine, is amazing just the way it is, and with a few tips and tricks, you will feel that Pinerest proudness. My boards and pins are such an inspiration for the house we have now, and the house we are planning to build in the future. I hope my posts help you feel better about not having a Pinterest perfect house and learning to use your space effectively by maximizing your organization!

Now, onto an area that needed a ton of work. Our linen closet is right next to our guest bathroom. This is a picture of the location. The door in front is the bathroom, and the accordian door on the left hand side is the linen closet. It was a VERY hard angle to get a before picture.

Here is the before picture of my linen closet.

We have a running rule in my friend group that you don’t judge a friend by their linen closet. It is NOT easy to keep organized. One skill I did not acquire before turning 30 was how to fold a fitted sheet. It was something I knew I probably should learn, but was unsuccessful at each attempt. In turn, when I had to fold and put away a fitted sheet, I had mastered a fold-and-roll technique so it wasn’t just a blob on the shelf, but it had some rhyme and reason to the unkempt madness. 

I had a pretty good handle on folding our towels. This isn’t all of our towels (it was doggy-tubby day yesterday). Normally we can fit 3 rows of towels across. They tend to look pretty neat. I added the baskets to control the chaos of dish towels and cleaning rags. I have a ton of microfiber cloths we use for cleaning on a daily basis, so having them loose or just folding on the shelf wasn’t working. The baskets looked cute, but it is a tight fit to have 3 across the top. When I go to reach the baskets I have to use a step stool, or I stand on my tippy toes and tilt the basket and cross my fingers that everything inside doesn’t topple down on top of me. 

Sheets, blankets and comforters can be such a hassle, especially when you are only five feet tall. If I don’t have Bruce to help me, or a chair to stand on, I tend to tuck and roll and shove that thing onto a shelf and hope for the best. Not the best method, but effective when you are in a hurry or have a toddler climbing into the dryer for fun. 

Organizing Tools

I knew the baskets I had in the closet already were not going to be enough to tackle this job. I scoured the internet for a solution and found these baskets here. 

These baskets are trapezoidal; taller in the back, shorter in the front and tapered on the sides. They are designed for closet organization. When I found them, I knew I had struck gold. The tapered front makes it so easier to grab what I need while keeping everything neat, without needing to tip the whole basket down. 

How I Organized the Chaos

I started by taking everything out of the closet and putting it on the dining room table. This was helpful so I could see what needed to be sorted and folded. 

I started with one section at a time. The pillow cases were super simple to begin with. I found a folding method and sorted them by color.My folding technique: fold in half horizontally, fold in half vertically, then fold in thirds. We have primarily grey sheet sets, so this grey ombre with a touch of color is a snapshot of our personalities.

 

Madden needs a blanket for nap-time at school, and he has a few crib sheets that were used in his previous classroom for the mats. He hasn’t used the crib sheets in a while so I decided to purge those. His blankets were simple to fold and set to the side. We added his weighted blanket in later, after it got a good clean. 

To keep things simple, we separate sheets based on room. Madden gets his own area for sheets and Bruce and I get our own as well. This makes it easier for Bruce to figure out where to put them away or grab from when changing sheets. It’s aesthetically pleasing as well when you look at your linen closet! I refolded the sheets and sorted them based on whose bed they go on. 

Folding a Fitted Sheet

Now, I had to take an hour-long Professional Development break here. I could no longer move forward without learning how to fold a fitted sheet. I was determined; today was the day I was going to be an adult that could check this skill off her bucket list. I had pinned a few posts that I immediately tried to decipher. I instantly got frustrated when it didn’t look like what was described in the blog post. I am a visual learner, so I switched to Youtube. Then I found this angel who saved my agony. It was like something clicked in my brain as she went through the steps. She filled in all the little gaps everyone else was leaving out. In the teacher world, this was perfectly explicit direct instruction and modeling. She deserves a gold star. Check her video out here for an awesome tutorial! Here was my first attempt, not perfect, but I eventually improved!

Check out my Instagram and Tik Tok to watch me model how to fold a fitted sheet!

Back to the Chaos

Now that I knew how to fold a fitted sheet, I was able to fold and organize the rest of the sheets, and tackle the blankets as well. I organized each item into its own basket and started placing them on shelves. 

I am so content with the final result! I may play around with the organization of the comforter and blankets. For now, the basket is keeping everything together and providing a space to keep them neat. 

Tips and Tricks for Folding and Organizing

• Do your folding on a flat surface, especially when folding your fitted sheets. I have limited space for folding, so for a big job like this, I used the dining room table. 

• Play around with folding techniques. There are so many ways you can fold a towel or blanket to fit your linen closet measurements. I have seen the hotel folding method and tried it out. It is a great method, it just didn’t work with our bath towels and linen space. I fold my towels into thirds, then into thirds again. This has been my tried and true method for 7 years!

• Use baskets you have around the house before going to buy more. If you are trying to stay on a budget and can’t drop a ton of money on new organizing bins, that’s okay! I bet you have something around the house that will be perfect. Check out Marshall's and Homegoods before you buy something pricey! I have found so many amazing baskets and organizing bins at Homegoods for dirt cheap!

Comment and Subscribe!

Comment down below with your folding tricks for the linen closet! Let me know when you learned to fold a fitted sheet, or if you still do a fold-and-roll method!