Linen Closet Organization Hacks: 9 Brilliant Tips, Tricks and Ideas

Reorganizing your linen closet probably isn’t at the top of your to-do list! But this task can really free up time and mental energy – here’s why and how.

The Last Time We Reorganized our Linen Closet

For us, it had been about 10 years since we organized our linen closet. With raising five kids,  writing books and speaking around the country, we had little time to think about this type of organizing task. We truly had lost track of what was in the linen closet.

 Watch the video at the bottom of this page where Annette explains the process

When you have a plan or strategy for HOW you’ll reorganize your linen closet, the task doesn’t seem so overwhelming.

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Related Article: How to Get Blood out of Sheets and Clothes

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Here’s what Annette did with our Linen Closet.

1. How to Start a Linen Closet Reorganization

The first thing Annette did was to pull EVERYTHING out of the linen closet. This is so important – trying to do a touch-up job to neaten is one thing, but if you’re going to truly streamline your linen closet, you’ve got to evaluate every single thing you have in there. You’ll see why in a few minutes.

2. Sort What You Have in Your Linen Closet

Annette then took all of the contents of the linen closet to our family room. She sorted it into two piles: Sheet sets (sheets, pillowcases, and bed pads); Towel sets (bath mats, bath towels, hand towels, and washcloths), and miscellaneous items such as shower curtains, dust ruffles, blankets, etc.

Sorting could be done on a dining room table, a card table, or a large folding table, but the key is to have a place where you can lay out multiple piles to see and organize what you have.

3. Store Your Sheet Sets with This Hack

Annette started by sorting our sheets. She put all matching sheet sets together and then stacked them by bed size. Putting the sets together meant that she had a fitted sheet, a flat sheet, and a pillowcase (or two) making up a set. She folded the sheets as best she could and put each set, with a pillowcase inside the remaining pillowcase. In our linen closet, we store the bedding for 3 different bedrooms and each room has a different sized bed: twin, full, and queen.

We so wish we knew about this hack when our kids were younger and living at home. The organization and peace this brings would have made assigning the task of stripping and remaking beds so much easier!

4. How Many Sheet Sets Should I Have?

As Annette went through the sorting and organizing process she decided that we didn’t need all the sets that we had.

We recommend having at least two sheet sets for each bed, that way if someone (or the whole family) comes down sick, you have an extra set to put on the bed without having to do laundry.

Annette decided to keep three sheet sets for each of our beds: two regular sheet sets and 1 flannel sheet set for wintertime—since our Arizona winters are so short.

If you live in a colder climate, or where winters are longer than two months, consider having two flannel sheet sets for your family as well as two regulars.

5. Organize Towel Sets

Next, Annette sorted our towels. We matched sets of 2 standard bath towels, 2 hand towels, and 2 washcloths. Once again, we suggest having at least two complete sets for each bathroom so that when one set is in the laundry, you’ll have another one ready to be used.

Your towel sets can be any combination you want them to be—just consider having two sets for each bathroom.

Put all of your towel sets in piles and evaluate, deciding which to keep and which to donate, consign or give away to someone who could use them.

6. Sharing the Abundance

As Annette was reorganizing she realized that we had an overabundance of some sheet sets and towels. But before donating anything, she contacted each of our grown kids and asked them if they could use any linen closet items. The desired items were put in a separate box for each of the kids to take with them on their next visit. Once that was done, Annette filled a box with unneeded/unnecessary items to be donated to our local Goodwill.

7. Evaluate Miscellaneous Linen Closet Items

Once you have all of the sheet and towel sets matched and stacked, take inventory of what miscellaneous items might be in your linen closet, and either packs them up to be stored or donate them to a local thrift store.

8. Organization of the Linen Closet

Annette organized the four shelves in the linen closet on the guest room side of our house in the following way:

Shelf 1: Towel Sets

Then the next three shelves were stocked with sheet sets for each of our 3 guest rooms (remember all of our kids have flown the nest).

Shelf 2: is reserved for our blue guest room.

This shelf has 3 sheet sets and 2 mattress pads all for a Full-Sized bed.

Shelf 3: is for our tiny middle bedroom that has a twin bed.

It was stocked the same as shelf two with 3 sheet sets and 2 mattress pads.

Shelf 4: the bottom shelf is for our green guest room that has a queen-sized bed.

This shelf also has 3 sets of sheets and 2 mattress pads.

Each shelf is also labeled with the size of the bed so it’s easy to remember what goes on each one.

9. Keep it Smelling fresh

Have you wondered what to do with the perfume sample pages that are inserted into Ulta and Macy’s ad catalogs and other magazines? Yes, they smell really nice. Annette pulls all of the perfume sample pages she finds and then layers them in between sheets and towels in our linen closet and her dresser drawers. Fresh scents for free! You can‘t beat that.

Enjoying the Organization

The closet looks so nice now.

Honestly, we did have a few things that Annette wasn’t ready to part with just yet, so there is a dust ruffle, a few extra sheets, and some towels that are now stored in a medium-sized box on a shelf in our garage.

Despite a few “left-overs”, the sense of accomplishment, fulfillment, and peace is priceless. We highly recommend this as a weekend project for you if you haven’t done it in a while. It will save you so much time in the months and years to come – you’ll absolutely love it.

Video Tutorial

Watch this video as Annette explains the process and a few time-saving hacks she discovered.

For other great time and money-saving ideas, visit our Money-Saving Tips page!

And for even more organization, time-saving, and money-saving ideas, visit our Pinterest page & follow us!

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