DIY Linen Closet Organization

Sarah

6 years ago

Today I’m sharing one of my favorite recent DIY projects: my DIY linen closet organization makeover! This linen closet went from embarrassingly disorganized to neat and tidy with just a few simple steps and a couple of hours of work!

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Before and After

When we moved into our new house, I was delighted with how much closet space there is in this place! All the stress and tiredness due to the move went away the moment I saw the huge closets and storage spaces (or it could be the moving company Gig Harbor we may have hired to pack and transport our belongings). Anyway, its such a nice change from our old house, and even better because we have two linen closets: one in the master bathroom and one in the second-floor hallway by the other bedrooms. Because we are not regularly using these spare bedrooms yet, this linen closet has been oh-so-neglected. It was the space where I just thought, this seems like a linen closet item lets put that there, and yeah. Close the door, forget about it. Sound familiar? I think we all do this! Its a must: youve got to find ways to cope with the disorganization of home life while you prioritize the things that need organizing first!

DIY Linen Closet Organization Tips

So how exactly should you go about performing a total DIY linen closet makeover? Here’s a walkthrough of the steps that I took:

1. Take everything out!

Remove all the items that currently reside in the to-be-made-over closet! Don’t leave a single thing in there. Give all the shelves a nice good cleaning, and vacuum or sweep the floor as well. If the doors need cleaning too, here is the time to get out your magic eraser pads and give them a good scrubbing! (If you don’t own some of them yet, they are a game-changer when it comes to cleaning doors, moldings, cabinets, or anything else that has scuff marks in it!) It is important to keep this area clean as well as any other areas within your home, so you may want to stock up on some cleaning supplies to make sure that you are ready to go.

2. Sort everything into piles of “like” items.

I had a number of piles of different types of items, such as bed linens, towels, hair care products, laundry products, cleaning products, etc. When everything is laid out in front of you, it’s a lot easier to see what belongs in your linen closet and what might be better stored somewhere else.

In our case, while we used to have laundry products stored in the linen closet in our old house, these now make more sense to put in our dedicated mudroom/laundry room space, so those items got moved downstairs. For instance, the cleaning products for cupro fabric were one such item that was perhaps moved downstairs. Yes, we seem to have dedicated cleaning products for different fabrics. To be honest, I also did not know how to clean delicate fabrics previously. I probably used to be like, “What Is Cupro Fabric? How Do You Wash It?” However, I got to learn a lot about different fabrics from researching on the Internet.

Anyway, like laundry , our cleaning products for electronic devices like laptops and cellphones got relegated to the office. It’s best to put things where you are most likely going to need and use them, if possible!

Related: DIY Gardening Station

3. Assess for items that can be sold, donated, or should be thrown away.

Decide what stays and what goes. That old duvet cover that you just can’t part with? Sell it, donate it. Those old sheets that you’ll literally never use again? Donate them (or cut them up for rags!).

4. Decide which items need to be fixed or replaced.

If your iron takes a half an hour to heat up, it might need replacing. If your favorite sheets have a hole in the seam, let’s repair that or get it to a tailor asap. It will feel so great at the end of this project knowing that not only is your linen closet organized, but that nothing else needs to be done with any of the items inside of it except to live with them and use them!

5. Assess for gaps!

Do you have enough towels for the whole family? For guests? Do you have extra sheets for if guests come over? I like to keep two sets of sheets for each bed in our house, so that our housekeeper always has fresh sheets for each bed when she comes.

6. Decide how you want to store items.

This is the beginning of the fun part: what items do you need to collect or purchase to organize and store everything? Cleaning supplies likes bottles and rags can be stored in woven or plastic bins, while sheets and towels can be folded and placed on the shelf or in a wire or woven basket. Larger items can be stored on the floor, and medical supplies or smaller items that risk getting lost can be stored in a drawer unit. If the linen closet is a communal space for kids or guest bedrooms, a hamper for dirty laundry is always a good idea too!

7. Purchase your items!

This seems self-explanatory, but one piece of advice I have is to sketch out a quick layout of the closet. Measure the width and depth of the closet, as well as the height of each shelf, and draw up a quick “mock-up” of what your closet will look like when finished. Include any items you plan to purchase; this is a good time to double check the measurements of any baskets or bins you plan to buy and ensure they fit on your shelves. If you sketch it out, you will be able to “virtually” move items around to ensure you are maximizing space before you purchase anything. It sucks to buy that super cute laundry hamper and realize – it doesn’t fit! 🙂

8. Put everything back!

Finally, finally, put everything back in its new designated space! Step back and admire how neat and clean everything looks before the rest of the family gets their hands on it! 🙂 Optional: I am a big fan of making labels for things (type A, much?), and I used my favorite label maker to label each shelf! This way kids, housekeepers, and husbands (cough cough) know where everything goes!