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Linen Closet |
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I’m so proud of you—committing to organize your home
is the first step in actually doing it! Let’s hit
the Linen Closet!
If you have excess laundry to deal with, you
probably have a linen closet that is less than
user-friendly. Once you have clean towels, rags, and
other linens to put away, you won’t do it if your
destination is less-than-appealing.
So let’s organize it! This is the first place where
you’ll have to be brutally honest with yourself
about what you keep and what you get rid of. When I
say, “get rid of,” I don’t necessarily mean it ends
in the trash—if it’s towels, bedding, etc., that are
in bad condition, your local animal shelter would be
grateful for your donation. They always need things
for the dogs and cats to lay on in their runs and
crates, and your cast-offs in this area will be
eagerly accepted.
Take stock of what you have for shelves. Do you have
wooden or wire shelves? Do you have problems with
things “falling through” if you have wire shelves?
If so, you don’t have to worry and go buy scrap wood
to line the shelves with—a simple piece of
shelf-lining (you know, that bumpy green stuff that
comes in rolls) will lay nicely and prevent small
things from falling through. If necessary, put some
of that down.
Now take a look and see what you’ve got in terms of
extra bedding. How many beds in your home? You
should have a minimum of 1 extra bedding-set for
each bed, a maximum of 2. Think about it before you
start to write me and tell me why you need 6 sets of
bedding for each bed—if you have small children who
have nighttime accidents (or get the stomach flu in
the middle of the night), you might have to change
sheets in the morning (or the middle of the night if
it’s barf!), and you’ll have some clean ones to put
on. You’ll put the dirty ones in the washer and get
the machine started on that task. Then you’ll swap
things to the dryer. You’ll still have clean sheets
on the bed and if you’ve got 2 extra sets, another
clean one in the linen closet. So now with that
argument won, go through your bedding. Do you have
mis-matched pieces? If so, put them in the donation
pile. Do you have twin pieces mixed in with king
pieces? If so, separate them in to piles. Make sure
everything is folded (I’ll give you a pass on the
fitted sheets—those are impossible to fold neatly!).
Now set aside one or two shelves for your bedding.
Make sure that the bedding for the queen bed is not
piled up with the stuff for the crib or twin bed.
You can fold the stuff in squares or fold it in to
long rectangles and then roll it. Either way is
acceptable—it just depends on how much space you’ve
got.
Now we move on to towels and other things in your
linen closet….
3. Take stock of your towels, washcloths, and other
terrycloth things. Do you have towels that are holey
or bleach-stained? Do you have towels that aren’t
very absorbent from using too much fabric softener?
Do you have towels that don’t match your current
bathroom décor? Donate them. Keep only that which
matches your décor (unless you turn it in to a rag),
and only that which wouldn’t embarrass you to put
out for guests when they visit. That should pare
down your towel collection to a more manageable
number. I can’t tell you an exact number that is
appropriate here—that depends on how many members
are in your family. What I can suggest is 2 towels
per person—one that’s currently hanging in the
bathroom and one clean one that can be conscripted
in to service when the current one is in the wash.
Do you have washcloths? One for every-other day of
the week would be appropriate—many people don’t use
them anymore, in this age of scrubbies, poufs, and
other facial cleansing methods.
Do you have a rag-pile (or kitchen-towel pile) in
your linen closet? If so, fold those and put them on
a shelf that’s easy to access. You’ll use those most
frequently, so make them easy to reach and use.
Again, sort through and see what’s in reasonable
condition and put the rest in the pile for the
animal shelter.
What other things are in your linen closet? Do you
have table linens there? If so, do you know what’s
there? Are they neat enough that when you need them
you don’t have to go digging and put the iron on
“fry it silly” to get the wrinkles out? If any of
the above is true, pull them out, wash, sort, keep
only the best, and fold (or press) them quickly and
put them away.
Finally, if you have other miscellaneous things
(doilies, candlesticks, etc.) in your linen closet,
set a shelf aside for those things. If you don’t
have a full shelf to ascribe to them, use a shelf
that’s only half-full of other items. Again, sort
through and keep only what you’re in love
with—anything else can be donated to a
charity-resale shop, given to siblings, or sold on
eBay. Don’t keep things “just in case” great-aunt
Mildred comes by—she won’t, and if she does, she
probably won’t remember what it was. Remember,
you’re organizing your home so that it’s not just a
house of stuff for your family. That’s much more
important than not offending a distant relative!
Congratulations—you’ve won the battle with your
linen closet. Isn’t it such a nice feeling to open
up a closet and not be in danger of the falling
towel zone?
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