Budget-Friendly Linen Closet Organization
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Is your linen closet in need of a re-organization on a budget? New items come in and get shoved wherever you can fit them? Old items get forgotten and take up space? Is a mess starting to takeover? My linen closet wasn’t too bad, but I knew there were some things I needed to let go of. I also wanted to reset it for the new year to make it easier to find what I needed for my bed and breakfast business. (And also to determine what I would need to replace.)
Assess your needs...
How many sheets and towels do you need? What size are your beds? Do you ever have guests sleep over? How many extra pillows and blankets do you need? What other non-linen type things do you need to keep here? Bathroom supplies and toilet paper? Cleaning supplies for the bathroom or the entire floor? First aid kit and medication? Any other random items that you can’t store elsewhere?
I keep my Hoover Power Scrub Deluxe Pet Carpet and Upholstery Cleaner here. You can see a similar one here. I also keep the extra cleaning fluid for it here.
Remove everything and wipe down shelves...
It is surprising how dust can even find its’ way into the linen closet. Some new towels I had been “saving” had yellowish marks along the fold lines.
Declutter unwanted items from the linen closet...
Set aside items you no longer want or need. Still have sheets for a size of bed you no longer have? Have your kids outgrown the character sheets they had as toddlers? Is there anything that you never use and probably never will? Any expired items? Excessive extras? Worn out, stained or damaged beyond repair? They can all go. Unless someone has a bedwetting issue, you only need one to two sets of sheets per bed. One set on the bed, and one extra for a change of season, or while the other is in the wash. (If you don’t just put that set back on the bed when clean.)
Move rarely used items to storage
As someone who likes to decorate, I tend to hang on to curtains and cushions even after I have got new ones. (You never know when you might want to switch things up again.) I still liked my old shower curtain, velvet drapes and a few other things, but I am not using them now. To free up space for the things I am using, I decided to move them down to my storage room.
Freshen things up...
If you have any items that have been languishing in the linen closet for a while, rewash them to freshen them up. Try adding bleach, Borax or another whitening agent to white sheets and towels. If you like, add some scent too.
Decide on baskets, bins & containers
Since this was a “budget” reorganization, I didn’t want to spend any money. I got some basket drawers on Facebook Marketplace for free that I thought would be perfect in my linen closet. I didn’t really like the orange colour though, so I spray painted them white, leaving only traces of the original colour. And I kept the baskets and bins I was already using.
Arrange baskets, bins & containers...
Play around with the arrangement of bins and baskets. Try to create visual balance with colour, textures and scale. Before I painted the baskets, I arranged them first to get an idea how they would look and to determine if I needed them all. One of the large grey bins I had before, wasn’t needed anymore.
Organize linen closet in zones or categories...
Put your most used items on the most accessible shelves. Items that are rarely used can be placed on the top shelves – as long as they aren’t too heavy. Sheets can be organized as sets for individual beds, or separately as top and bottom sheets. Towels can be organized by size and/or by person. Bathroom supplies can be organized by purpose – hair care, footcare, etc. Cleaning supplies can be organized by room or function. How detailed you get depends on what will work for you and your family.
Linen closet organization...Label bins as needed
You can also label your bins as needed. I made a first aid kit with a Sterilite Layer Stack & Carry Box.
I also put labels for my pillow cases and facecloths on some InterDesign bins.
You can watch the video below...
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