Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Getting It Together - the Linen Closet

Up until very recently, we've never had a linen closet. All the bed linens lived on the closet shelves in the various bedrooms, which worked...sort of. Everything had a home, but it was messy and hard to reach and I'm the only one who could put things away or get them out.
We had this closet downstairs that had once been used as a games closet, but once the games moved to another location, the closet was suffering from a distinct lack of purpose...until I saw this:
I was inspired. I love the way ordered, contained stuff looks, especially when I've never seen the stuff in question (in this case, sheets) look ordered and contained.
While mine is not yet labelled or color-coded or stored in matching baskets (though I will do that someday!), what I've got works for us:
On the top shelf are extra pillows (it seems that I could do with replacing some of those...), followed by duvet covers in the pink basket, pillow cases in the brown box, and a couple of extra blankets on the next shelf. Below them are the flat sheets, boys' on the left and girls' on the right, and the fitted sheets are on the bottom shelf. All the sheets are currently stored in underbed boxes, since that's what I had on hand. In fact, everything in there is what I happened to have. I'd love to go and get some nice-looking, color-coordinated containers, but at the moment, frugality and the desire to shop without my children wins out over looks. The whole point of this exercise, for me, is to be able to find my stuff and keep it tidy, and this meets that need for now.
Who else has some top tips on how to keep their linen closet neat and tidy? Inquiring minds want to know!

1 comment:

Liz said...

Fab linen closet. Well done. Keeping the closet tidy? I don't use crates at all. I just have clearly defined piles of like items, and am careful when putting things in and out. Because it is tidy, I am blessed that my children also seem to try and keep it tidy when getting things in and out too.
I've also heard about storing the duvet/sheet/pillowcase for a particular bed inside one of the pillowcases, so you have a 'bed set' to grab. Might be a good one.
Don't use tubs, as I want the linen to be 'air-able' IYSWIM.
HTH