Organized Linen Closet for Real Life

Organizing your Linen Closet needs to be functional. I’m going to show you how to have an Organized Lined Closet for Real Life!I love looking at all the beautiful organized linen closets on Pinterest, but in all reality, they aren’t realistic. 

I don’t know anyone who has a beautiful Pinterest worthy minimalistic linen closet, only dreams of one.

In my fantasy world, every corner of my home would be in perfect order 90% of the time. But, like you, I get busy or I have better things to do than to fuss over every room. 

I will usually let a closet go until I can’t stand it anymore and then I choose to completely reorganize it on a day I really don’t have time. I always start out with lofty goals of creating an organized space that would be magazine-worthy, one that would make Martha Stewart weep with joy and then reality hits. The reality is…. I need an Organized Linen Closet for Real Life! 

Organized Linen Closet for Real Life

Have you noticed that most of these Pinterest and magazine worthy pantries or linen closets, really aren’t realistic or functional?  Because who can actually fold sheets a pretty way? 

When I get into my organizing mode, I suddenly want everything in my closet to match and I want it as uncluttered as much as possible. Because closets are supposed to be pretty right? (well if you’re my sister in law Debbie, then yes, your closets are pretty. She actually decorates her closets….. yes, YOU Debbie! I have total closet envy)    

Well my closets are NOT pretty, but I do require them to be pretty functional and in my world, the two rarely collide.

I hadn’t pulled everything out of my linen closet for about a year. And within the past year, it was looking pretty bad. This is what happens when you have a husband and son who think if they can shove it in and if doesn’t fall, it’s all good.  And then I would walk by and just shut the door.

How to Organize Your Linen Closet

• Pull EVERYTHING out
• Sort everything into piles based on what they are. I basically had bedding, table tops, cleaning rags, swim towels and toilet paper.
• Create a space for donation and or garbage.

After going through everything, re-evaluate if it’s something you actually need any longer, how you use it, how often and where.

Ask yourself a few simple questions.  These usually help me weed through items pretty quickly.

• Is it functional?
• Do I need it?
• Do I use it?
• Do I like it?

I realized that my son and his friends usually use all the extra throw blankets in our daylight basement, so I moved them all downstairs, which free’d up a ton of space in the closet.

After I was finished sorting, I realized there were so many things that I was keeping out of familiarity, not even giving it a second thought that I didn’t even like it or use it. I’m really trying to eliminate anything in my home that isn’t completely functional or well loved. 

Time to get rid of a few things. Just look at this donation pile!

I had way too many sets of sheets, and some didn’t even match my bedding (you have to have matching sheets, right? ) ……… and you only need 2 sets per bed. I had way too many sets of napkins and they weren’t even the cotton kind that I like. Bye bye! And cleaning rags…. OY! I don’t need that many cleaning rags, because obviously, I don’t clean THAT often!

Linen Closet Storage

I headed to Target and picked up the least expensive storage bins I could find. There are also Dollar Store Organization bins you can find at a bargain price. I wanted the fabric cubes and for some reason, the blue were a dollar less and then I couldn’t pass up the taupe ones because they were on clearance.

I knew I wanted to label the storage bins, not only because it would look nice, but I was hoping that perhaps my husband and son will actually READ the labels before shoving things in.

I also used some baskets I already had from IKEA.

I always check out what World Label has first. They have SO many amazing labels for anything and everything, and my friend Lia Griffith designs for him!

I used some round ones from World Label for my Party Pantry and the ones I chose today are actually shipping labels. If you want them for shipping, Russ makes it so convenient by having adhesive backed, pre-cut paper for all the printable labels on his site. This is also what I did for my Thanksgiving Left Over labels. I ordered the labels in the Kraft paper, all pre-cut and just printed up what I needed. So easy. No cutting, just peel and stick.

Download Organizing Labels Here

I loved that these labels were editable so I could type in what I wanted. After printing onto white cardstock, I cut each one using a paper trimmer, then used a hole punch and twine to tie them to each basket.

Everything is clearly marked, so we will see how it works.

Doesn’t that look much better?  And it’s functional! I have bedding, sheets, all things table top and napkins, beach towels, and plenty of TP.

It’s amazing how much better you feel when something is organized.

What do you need to organize? 

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